“Richard Jewell” A Nightmare, A Great Film

Release Date：Dec/13/2019
Genre：Biography/Crime/Drama
Director：Clint Eastwood
Cast：Sam Rockwell、Olivia Wilde、Kathy Bates、 Nina Arianda、Paul Walter Hauser

Viola's Rating：7.6







As the Wuhan Coronavirus situation’s getting worse and worse, whistleblowers are seen ubiquitous in China in order to protect most people’s health, but what if you’re accused of a criminal even if you’re the person to report the suspicious activities or objects? Being released on Dec 13, 2019, 12 years after the protagonist’s death, “Richard Jewell” reminds the audience of a real story happened in 1996.

Based on the 1997 Vanity Fair article “American Nightmare: The Ballad of Richard Jewell”, written by Marie Brenner, and the book “The Suspect: An Olympic Bombing, the FBI, the Media, and Richard Jewell, the Man Caught in the Middle” (2019) by Kent Alexander and Kevin Salwen, local attorneys at the time, depicting the real Centennial Olympic Park bombing and its aftermath, this biographical crime drama tells how American security guard Richard Jewell saves thousands of lives from an exploding bomb at the 1996 Olympics, but is vilified by journalists and the press who falsely reported that he was a terrorist.

Directed by Oscar winning director Clint Eastwood, “Richard Jewell” also features Oscar winning actor and actress Sam Rockwell and Kathy Bates. Along with them is Paul Walter Hauser, who also starred in the Oscar winning film “I, Tonya” and other hits. According to Bobi Jewell, Richard Jewell’s mom, Hauser did an amazing job on mimicking her son’s accent and body movements. Besides Direct Eastwood’s brilliant storytelling, moviegoers can enjoy the flick by watching Bates, Hauser and Rockwell’s excellent acting skills.

In the original incident, Jewell only experienced three days of being called a hero, and then fell to the 88-day hell of “trial of media”. Media at the time described him as a “typical loner bomber” as that’s what the FBI leak said. Hero or not, being related to a bombing incident, Jewell’s gonna be famous no matter he wants it or not, and that fits what the FBI suspects him of being a loner. In “Richard Jewell”, we can see how hard it is to prove oneself innocent than to prove someone else guilty, and while Jewell is facing the media, both as the hero and as the murderer, he receives a bunch of attention, and this might be the reason why when New Zealand had the Christchurch terrorist attack, their prime minister decided not to reveal the shooter’s identity at all.

What happened to Richard Jewell and his mom is definitely a nightmare in the US history, but by showing the process of them fighting for themselves in a great motion picture, “Richard Jewell”, the world has a chance to take a look at this unbelievable story and be courageous enough to stand up as a hero again.

Picture Credit: IMDb