89-year-old Hollywood filmmaking icon Clint Eastwood shows no signs of slowing down with his latest docu-drama taking a look at a man thrust into the middle of a media storm.
Clint Eastwood is quite possibly the most economical filmmaker working in Hollywood today. For decades, he has been a filmmaker who crafts stories through a style that is direct and to the point, seemingly not bothered with trying anything too flashy just in case it should threaten the legitimacy of the story he is telling. That has certainly been the case for the films that have characterised the last decade if his directorial career, ones ranging from character dramas to docu-dramas of real-life heroes and tragedies. His latest very much fits this late-career interest, looking at a figure behind a recent event and examining just how history wants to remember him.
Depicting the events of the Centennial Olympic Park bombing that took place during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, Eastwood’s latest focuses on Richard Jewell (portrayed by Paul Walter Hauser), the security guard who discovered the bomb and managed to help clear away spectators to limit the number of casualties. While initially hailed as a hero, Jewell quickly became a figure of public scrutiny as the media descends upon his home after an article leaks the fact that the FBI are looking into Jewell as a suspect behind the bombing.
How the film unfolds for you will largely depend on how much you know about Jewell and the events following the bombing. If, like me, you knew pretty much nothing, then the film unfolds as a character study that initially feels unsure of Jewell, as it builds up the kind of profile that led the FBI to suspect him in the first place. A man who is fascinated with law enforcement but has struggled to become a police officer, Jewell ends up playing up to an almost too perfect ‘lone bomber’ profile that leads to him becoming the focus of a media frenzy.
What soon develops though is more of a cautionary tale towards the powers that be in the media and the Government officials called to investigate, about how the sharks are quick to attack when they sense blood in the water. It’s hard not to think about how intense the media siege on Jewell’s home is without wondering how much more extreme it all would have been on the man if this event had taken place today in a world where everyone on Twitter has a theory about everything and are quick to judge based off the news that they digest, even if it’s lacking in evidence (or not founded on any facts at all).
These modern parables emerge from the narrative in a very natural fashion. Eastwood, working from a script by Billy Ray, knows that we don’t need to have such a commentary shoved down our throats. He’s confident in letting the story unfold as it occurred and allows to make the connections ourselves, all the while focusing on the efforts of Richard’s lawyer (played by Sam Rockwell) to clear his clients name and ensure that this whole process is as painless as possible for Richard and his mother, Bobi (Kathy Bates).
As a character study focusing on a man and his mother placed in an extreme situation, it’s very successful and emotionally involving. Part of this is down to a trio of brilliant performances. Rockwell is, as always, dependably engaging, helping guide the too eager to please Jewell through the complicated proceedings, while Bates is heartbreakingly touching in the pivotal role of Richard’s mother, often proving to be the key to the heart of the whole thing. The film, though, belongs to Paul Walter Hauser who is simply brilliant as Jewell. It is an understated performance, but one that feels so richly researched and carefully constructed that it comes across so effortlessly, making Jewell very worthy of our sympathy throughout.
Some other performances don’t quite chime with the more straightforward approach of the story, nor the more heartfelt portrayals from Hauser, Rockwell and Bates Jon Hamm feels a little wasted playing the FBI agent on the case, a character who is in fact an amalgamation of different individuals, leaving his character feeling quite loosely defined. Olivia Wilde meanwhile struggles in her role as Kathy Scruggs, the journalist who initially runs the story revealing the FBI’s interest in Jewell. The film is guilty of perpetuating certain stereotypes of female journalists through the figure of Scruggs, meaning that the character never particularly feels convincing or indeed part of the same world of this story.
While there may be a couple of hiccups along the way, Richard Jewell is largely a well-told and very compelling drama that represents Eastwood’s strengths as a storyteller who likes to get to the heart of things. It captures a moment in time and let’s the implications of it speak for itself, trusting in the story it’s telling and the performers it has to tell it. An understated and captivating story that boasts a fantastic central performance from Paul Walter Hauser.
Richard Jewell is released on 31st January.
