OSCARS 2020: Richard Jewell (2019)

When the posters and trailers for “Richard Jewell” first came out, my reaction was “Who the hell is Richard Jewell? And why did Clint Eastwood make a movie about him?” Yes, I was alive in 1996 when the Centennial Olympic Park bombing happened, when security guard Richard Jewell was first hailed as a hero for discovering the bomb before emerging as the number one suspect in the investigation. But I was also seven years old at the time and not really paying attention to national news. So you'll have to excuse me for not being familiar with this particular event until the movie version started to attract attention. Apparently I'm not the only one who missed this one, as Clint's latest has under-performed at the box office. That didn't stop the movie from picking up a few nominations, including an Oscar nomination for Kathy Bates' supporting turn.

So, for those nineties kids and millennials who were too busy playing with Pogs back when to notice, let's talk about who Richard Jewell was. Jewell was a former rent-a-cop – who was somewhat overzealous – who was working as a security guard at the Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, Georgia in 1996. During a Jack Mack and the Heart Attacks concert, while suffering from a bad case of indigestion, Jewell discovered an unusual backpack. It's quickly deduced a bomb is inside. As Jewell and the rest of the security team clear the area, the bomb goes off. Two people are killed and a hundred other are injured. Jewell is, at first, considered a hero who saved lives. Soon, however, the FBI begins to suspect Jewell might have planted the bomb himself, in order to play the hero. The media soon runs with this idea and Jewell's entire life is under intense scrutiny.

The advertising campaign for “Richard Jewell” certainly made it look like a very serious drama about very serious things. Which it is and yet the film is also, in a roundabout way, a rather amusing comedy. See, Richard Jewell is an extremely sincere, utterly doofy, quasi-redneck wannabe. He loves cookies, huntin', and his mama. Even though the FBI thinks he is a terrorist, he still treats them with the utmost respect, referring to the officers as “sir” and offering to help. When the investigation suggest Jewell might be in a homosexual relationship with his supposed accomplice, he takes great pains to correct that. I mean, on the fateful day, he had a bad case of the shits. In other words, this guy is a lovable moron of sorts that is in completely over his head. Which is pretty funny. The ridiculousness of the situation is most apparent during a scene where Jewell has to take his dog out to go poo, while reporters crowd his front yard and snap photos.

Though it is most successful as a fact-based comedy, “Richard Jewell” does have effective dramatic moments. The actual scene where the bomb goes off is startling, the suddenness of the blast catching the viewer off-guard. Even more suspenseful is a reprise of this event Richard has during a dream, where he imagines the bomb killed him. Richard's desire to become a cop is obviously based out of a sense of lack of power. It's why he hassles partying college kids during an early scene. Which isn't very sympathetic but a moment where he cries about the lifetime of abuse he's suffered because of his weight and appearance, that is genuinely stirring. So is a similarly emotional sequence where, after realizing the FBI has bugged his apartment, Jewell looses his temper at his mom for watching an explosion-filled movie... Which he then apologizes for, because that's the kind of guy he is.

At it's best, “Richard Jewell” does capture the humor and drama of an extremely average guy caught in a surreal, privacy-violating situation. At its worst, “Richard Jewell” is another screed against the media and the government from Hollywood's favorite grumpy old white guy. The film portraying the news industry as hungry for blood and the government as all too willing to trample over the individual's rights isn't exactly wrong. However, the way Eastwood goes about depicting this reminds you of his especially dated stances on this topics. The real life news reporter that first wrote about Jewell being a suspect, Kathy Scruggs, is depicted as a glory hound obsessed with destroying Jewell's life to make herself more successful. She's also shown as seducing men to get stories, while often wearing sexy outfits that show off her body. The real Scruggs died of a prescription drug addiction, suggesting a more conflicted and complex human being, so this depiction is pretty damn tasteless. And about the treatment of women I'd expect from the guy who personally blacklisted Sondra Locke.

And it doesn't help that Eastwood has Olivia Wilde, a talented actress, play Scruggs as a venom-spewing she-demon. Still, the cast is overall strong. Though the part was originally intended for Jonah Hill, Paul Walter Hauser – who previously played another notorious nineties figure in “I, Tonya” – seems uniquely gifted to play this role. He already resembles the guy, first-off. Secondly, Hauser knows exactly how to capture a totally clueless dude who is guided by his own sense of ethics and adoration, even when it is horribly misplaced. He proves a surprisingly stirring performer, when he finally gives the FBI what-for or when he breaks down crying over some fried chicken. The title role could not be better cast. Sam Rockwell is also frequently hilarious as Watson, Jewell's lawyer and friend who is equally endeared to and annoyed with Jewell. Kathy Bates gets maybe the showiest role as Jewell's mom, who delivers a tearful press conference late in the film... But Kathy Bates is also awesome and can make even the hackiest, most Oscar-bait-y material into total poetry, which is absolutely what she does here.

Most of the negative reception towards “Richard Jewell” has revolved around its gross politics, which is totally fair. Like I said, the movie's treatment of Scruggs is dreadful. While some have read “Richard Jewell” as Eastwood making a secret pro-Trump movie, I don't quite see it. The media was wrong to persecute the real Jewell, making this a rare case where “fake news” was a valid concern. However, Clint has that obnoxious old man hatred of the media, so I can see where people get that criticism from. When it works, “Richard Jewell” is a surprisingly funny and even genuinely stirring movie. Yet it's also extremely clumsy in spots. A less crotchety, more detail-oriented filmmaker probably could've turned this into a slam dunk, as opposed to the semi-decent motion picture it is. [7/10]