RICHARD JEWELL : Tuesday 25th February 2020.

'RICHARD JEWELL' which I saw earlier this week, is an M Rated American biographical drama film Directed and Produced by Clint Eastwood (who needs no further introduction), written for the screen by Billy Ray, and is based on the 1997 Vanity Fair article 'American Nightmare : The Ballad of Richard Jewell' by Marie Brenner. The project was initially announced in February 2014, when Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill teamed up to Produce and star in the film, Paul Greengrass began negotiations to Direct the film with other Directors considered including David O. Russell, before Clint Eastwood was officially attached in early 2019. DiCaprio and Hill do not star in the film, though they remained as Producers. The film saw its World Premier screening at the American Film Institute Fest in late November last year before going on general release Stateside in mid-December. With a production budget of US$45M the film has so far grossed US$40M turning it into a Box Office bomb! Despite this, 'Richard Jewell' was chosen by the National Board of Review as one of the ten best films of the year, and for her performance, Kathy Bates was recognised as the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress, as well as earning nominations at the Academy Awards and Golden Globes. Eastwood here continues with his real life stories of individuals battling the odds, as seen now with this his sixth biographical drama film in a row with 'J. Edgar', 'Jersey Boys', 'American Sniper', 'Sully' and 'The 15:17 to Paris' coming before, whilst not forgetting both 'Invictus' and 'Bird' previously.

The films opens up in 1986, and a Richard Jewell (Paul Walter Hauser) is working as an office supply clerk in a small public law firm, where he befriends attorney Watson Bryant (Sam Rockwell). Jewell seems super efficient, observant and deeply committed to his role. In time, he leaves the firm to become a security guard at Piedmont College, hoping to make the step up into law enforcement ultimately, but is let go by the Principal after multiple complaints of acting beyond his jurisdiction and coming on too heavy handed with the students. Jewell moves in with his mother Bobi (Kathy Bates) in Atlanta. In the summer of 1996, he lands a job working security at the Atlanta Olympic Games, monitoring Centennial Park - a post games concert venue.

Early in the morning of 27th July 1996, after chasing off a small group of drunk students during an end of day music concert, Jewell notices a suspicious back pack hidden beneath a bench. He reports it to his more senior colleagues who initially are dismissive of his concerns, but then an explosives expert confirms that the suspect package does in fact contain a pipe bomb - the biggest he has seen. The security team, including police officers, FBI agent Tom Shaw (Jon Hamm), and Jewell's friend Dave Dutchess (Nico Nicotera), are desperately trying to move concert attendees out of potential harms way to form a permitter of one hundred yards away from the bomb when it detonates. Shrapnel in the form of nails explodes in all directions injuring dozens of innocents and killing two. Jewell is heralded as a hero.

At the FBI's Atlanta's office, Shaw and his team quickly arrive at the decision that Jewell, as a white, male, wannabe police officer, fits the common profile of those who have committed similar atrocities, comparing him to others who sought recognition and praise by rescuing those from a dangerous situation they themselves created. One night while drinking alone in a bar, Shaw is approached by journalist Kathy Scruggs (Olivia Wilde) of the local Atlanta-Journal Constitution daily newspaper. In exchange for sex, Shaw reveals that Jewell, the hitherto hero, is under FBI suspicion, although he urges Scrugg's not to go public or to reveal her source. The Constitution publishes Scruggs' story on the front page, disclosing the FBI's interest in Jewell as a prime suspect. Scruggs makes particular note of Jewell's physique, the fact he lives with his mother, and work history to reaffirm to herself that he fits the profile. The story quickly hits the headlines worldwide in the press and the broadcast media. 

Jewell is initially ignorant of the changing public views towards him. He is lured to the FBI office by Shaw under the pretext of them needing to film urgently a training video and that they wish to use Jewell's recent experience as a real life example. He initially cooperates but refuses to sign an acknowledgement that he has been read his Miranda rights, and instead phones Watson Bryant for legal advice. Bryant, who has since left the public law firm and is now running his own struggling law business without any clients on the horizon, agrees to represent Jewell and makes him aware he is a prime suspect, and to sign and say nothing.

The FBI searches Bobi's home and confiscates property including police investigative books and a stash of firearms belonging to Jewell, which he says he uses for hunting purposes - this is Georgia after all! Bryant asks Jewell if he has any others secrets he wishes to disclose and he admits that he has not paid his taxes for the past two years and was once arrested for stepping over the limits of his authority. Bryant berates Jewell for being too overly friendly and accommodating with the police officers who have him under suspicion and want to 'fry' him. Jewell admits his ingrained respect for law enforcement makes it hard for him not to show respect, even when the authorities are trying to nail him to the wall. When Bryant is outside being questioned by the gathered throng of media, Shaw and his partner Dan Bennet (Ian Gomez) persuade Jewell to record his voice into a taped telephone call several times repeating the words the bomber called in to the authorities giving a thirty minute warning. When Bryant returns seeing how they coerced Jewell into making the recording he looses it, but the FBI already have the recording, so they don't care about his rantings and ravings. 

Jewell and Bryant confront Scruggs in the full view of the office at the Atlanta-Journal Constitution newspaper, demanding a retraction and an apology, but she stands by the integrity of her reporting, and her right to publish what is in the best interests of the public and the community. Bryant and his long-suffering secretary Nadya (Nina Arianda) time the distance it takes to walk from the bomb site to the the phone booth where the call was made alerting the authorities. They quickly draw the conclusion that it was not possible for someone to phone in the bomb threat and discover the bomb at the time it was found. Scruggs subsequently takes the same steps and comes to the same determination - her story now in tatters! She approaches Shaw with this revelation and he too has already made the same conclusion.

The FBI changes their picture of the bombing to include an accomplice. As their case begins to falter, the FBI link Dutchess to Jewell as a possible homosexual accomplice. Bryant arranges an independent polygraph examination which Jewell passes unequivocally, removing any doubt in Bryant's mind about his innocence. 

Bobi holds an emotional press conference with Bryant, in which she pleas for the investigation to cease so that she and her son can get on with their lives, and some normalcy can be restored after four weeks of evasive media scrutiny and intense FBI investigations have turned their lives upside down. 

Jewell and Bryant meet with Shaw and Bennet at the FBI office. Bryant urges Jewell to say nothing in response to their line of questioning and to let him do the talking. However, after a number of irrelevant questions, including those that have been covered previously, Jewell realises they have not a single shred of evidence against him. When he asks directly if they are ready to charge him, Shaw and Bennet look blankly at each other and their silence convinces him to leave. Jewell states that he used to look up to the FBI as the pinnacle in law enforcement and an organisation he would aspire to, but now he has lost his sense of respect and admiration for law enforcement officers. 

Eighty-eight days after being named 'a person of interest', Jewell is informed by formal letter hand delivered by Agent Shaw to a diner where Jewell and Bryant are eating, that he is no longer under investigation. Bryant first takes receipt of the letter before handing it to Jewell. Shaw makes the closing remark that despite the contents of that letter, he still believes that Jewell is 'as guilty as all hell'. Bryant comforts Jewell as he breaks down out of relief. Some six years later, Jewell is now a police officer in Luthersville, Georgia. One day out of the blue, he is visited by Bryant who tells him that an Eric Rudolph has confessed to the Centennial Olympic Park bombing. They got him! An epilogue states that on 29th August 2007, Jewell passed away at the age of 44 of complications from diabetes and heart failure, and that Bryant married his assistant Nadya and they have two children which Bobi babysits for every Saturday night. 

I went in to see 'Richard Jewell' with mixed expectations - wondering where the disconnect lays between the poor Box Office receipts and the mostly highly critically acclaimed Reviews were. But I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by once again Clint Eastwood's efficiency with his story telling and his deft touch behind the camera; the strong performances of Hauser, Rockwell and Bates especially; and the message with which governments and media control the thought processes of the masses as much today as they did almost 25 years ago, all the while chewing up, spitting out and forgetting a fallen hero. As the movie poster says 'The World Will Know his Name and the Truth' and in that respect Eastwood sets the record straight, and ensures that Jewell's name endures as the hero he deserved to be in film that combines Jewell's moments of raw emotion, comedy, bewilderment, anxiety, respect and reckoning that is Hauser's stand out performance.

'Richard Jewell' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, from a potential five claps.  

-Steve, at Odeon Online-