SWC75
Bored Historian
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I saw Clint Eastwood’s “Richard Jewell” today and liked it from beginning to end. I recall thinking at the time of the Olympic Park bombing investigation that everything they were saying about him: that someone said he was ‘weird’, that he’d lost a job as a deputy for racing with his police car, that he liked to hunt in military fatigues, that he was a law enforcement wannabe and that he wasn’t quite where he said he was at a particular time on the security tape all really amounted to nothing and I remember Tom Brokaw, (who appears in the film in a tape from that time), when asked about this said “I’m sure the FBI has a lot more than just that”. It turns out they didn’t and that someone else had planted the bomb and this is the story of what Jewell, (who died of a heart attack at age 44 in 2007), and his mother went through as a result. The story telling is straight-forward, (save for a brief dream sequence), and economical. The performances are fabulous, led by Paul Walter Hauser, a doppleganger for Jewell in both form and manor, Sam Rockwell as his fiery lawyer, Kathy Bates as his bewildered mother, (the FBI took her panties in as possible evidence), Jon Hamm as a FBI agent who assumes Jewell to be guilty based on a 'profile' of the likely bomber and who patches up his theory as it develops holes instead of questioning it, and Olivia Wilde as a reporter who gains glory by breaking the story but dissolves into tears when she realizes what she’s down to the guy and his mother. These days the government and the media seem to be at war with each other. Back then they were both out to get Richard Jewell. I found myself identifying with Jewell immediately, as I think anyone would. I stayed with the movie the whole way and it stayed with me.
Among the previews before the film was a trailer for another film about a falsely accused person based on a true story: Just Mercy based on the memoir of Bryan Stevenson:
Bryan Stevenson - Wikipedia I might see that one, too. The innocent man is a staple of popular entertainment, from Perry Mason to Hitchcock, so I may wind up seeing that one, too.
But here’s an irony, (from Wikipedia’s article on Richard Jewell):
“The film came under fire for its portrayal of late Atlanta-Journal Constitution reporter Kathy Scruggs, who died in 2001. Criticism was specifically directed at the film for depicting her offering to trade sex with an FBI agent in return for confidential information. The current editor-in-chief of the Atlanta-Journal Constitution wrote that this depicted incident was "entirely false and malicious" in an open letter. Employees of the newspaper demanded the film have a prominent disclaimer that "some events were imagined for dramatic purposes and artistic license". Wilde, who plays Scruggs in the film, defended her role and claimed a sexist double standard that Jon Hamm's portrayal of the FBI agent was not held to the same scrutiny. Commentators noted that Wilde's character was based on a real person, whereas the FBI agent was an amalgamation of multiple characters from the original script.”
It made me wonder what evidence Clint Eastwood has that Kathy Scruggs exchanged sex for information? If he exercised “license” to put that in his story even if it didn’t happen, how is that different from what the FBI did?
Among the previews before the film was a trailer for another film about a falsely accused person based on a true story: Just Mercy based on the memoir of Bryan Stevenson:
Bryan Stevenson - Wikipedia I might see that one, too. The innocent man is a staple of popular entertainment, from Perry Mason to Hitchcock, so I may wind up seeing that one, too.
But here’s an irony, (from Wikipedia’s article on Richard Jewell):
“The film came under fire for its portrayal of late Atlanta-Journal Constitution reporter Kathy Scruggs, who died in 2001. Criticism was specifically directed at the film for depicting her offering to trade sex with an FBI agent in return for confidential information. The current editor-in-chief of the Atlanta-Journal Constitution wrote that this depicted incident was "entirely false and malicious" in an open letter. Employees of the newspaper demanded the film have a prominent disclaimer that "some events were imagined for dramatic purposes and artistic license". Wilde, who plays Scruggs in the film, defended her role and claimed a sexist double standard that Jon Hamm's portrayal of the FBI agent was not held to the same scrutiny. Commentators noted that Wilde's character was based on a real person, whereas the FBI agent was an amalgamation of multiple characters from the original script.”
It made me wonder what evidence Clint Eastwood has that Kathy Scruggs exchanged sex for information? If he exercised “license” to put that in his story even if it didn’t happen, how is that different from what the FBI did?