The Trailer for Clint Eastwood's 'Richard Jewell' Looks Incredible
Give Clint Eastwood credit. He might be approaching 90 and looks like beef jerky and did that weird, awkward thing talking to an empty chair like it was Obama and “The 15:10 to Paris” didn’t really work and “The Mule” was kind of a mixed bag. The man still knows how to direct a motion picture.
Plus he knows how to pick subject matter. And this one looks like one of his best of recent vintage. And his most important.
Even as I type this I have to remind myself how long ago Richard Jewell and the Atlanta Olympics bombing happened. How in order to even have the vaguest recollection of 1996, you’d have to be in your early 30s. And even then, it’d be hard to fully grasp just how big a story it is because it’s not like anyone’s been really anxious to tell it, given how badly Jewell got treated. And how culpable law enforcement and the news and entertainment media were in all this.
Simply put, no private citizen has ever gotten screwed as irresponsibly and flat out viciously in the court of public opinion the way this guy did.
As you can glean from the trailer, Richard Jewell was hired to be a security guard at the Atlanta Games. He came across a suspicious package in Centennial Park and rather than take off as fast as his stubby legs could carry him and save his own low-paid ass could carry him, he did what he was trained to do. He warned people to clear the area at great risk to himself. And there is an untold people walking around healthy and in one piece today who would be dead were it not for him.
But Jewell was guilty of something. That is, being sort of a comic character. A stereotype. A chubby, guileless Southern cracker who dreamed of becoming a real cop. Something that made him a big, slow moving target both for the investigators who didn’t have the first clue who planted the bomb. But also for the news networks, late night talk shows and “Saturday Night Live,” all of whom were merciless to the guy. He was exactly the kind of unsophisticated rural guy that our betters on the coasts and in the big media markets love to lampoon. He reduced to a wanna be. A mall cop. The bumbling deputy who makes the traffic stop and thinks he stopped the crime of the century in every comedy you’ve ever seen. He was a hayseed version of the Unabomber. Unabubba. And it went on for over a year.
Except that he was none of those things. Outward appearances aside, he was a hero. He kept his cool and saved lives at great personal risk to his own. And when the truth finally came out and he was exonerated? Crickets. A quick mention on the newscasts. A few people putting their palms up saying “I guess we were wrong, whattayagonnado?” and everyone moved on. The damage was done to this poor guy who’s only mistake was doing the right thing while not having the right look or the right accent.
They eventually identified the bomber, who later went on to bomb a gay nightclub and some abortion clinics. But no one remembers his name because he wasn’t a chubby, jowly, comic stereotype. And by the time the investigations began into how the whole country could rush to judgment on something we were 180 degrees wrong about, fat lot of good it did Jewell. Who never got the reputation he deserved and died at age 44, still a punchline. And holy shit, was Paul Walter Hauser, who played Shawn Eckhart in “I, Tonya” born to play this role. He is sneaky becoming one of our best character actors.
This Eastwood movie might be a tough watch, but a fascinating one about how powerful people can destroy the lives of the non-powerful. And in a time when the few sane people left are trying to fight back against Cancel Culture, character assassinations and fake news, it’s just as relevant today as it was in the late 90s. I can’t wait to see this.