That statistic right there is a rather frustrating one to me because this is a movie that deserves to be seen. I actually saw it on a Wednesday night, the night before "The Rise of Skywalker," and I was literally the only one in that screening. When the credits rolled, I started pouting while saying, "Why did no one see this movie?!?!" Granted, I saw the movie on a Wednesday night when no one goes to the theaters. But still, that combined with the movie's box office totals was upsetting. Obviously no one heard my vocal cries during those credits, but given that I have a platform here, I decided that I am going to use that platform to convince at least one person to go see this because the message of this movie is far more important than laser sword fights, video game trappings, freaky humanoid cats or anything else you'll see in the theaters this Christmas. This tells the true story of one Richard Jewell, a security guard who saved multiple lives back in 1996 in Atlanta, Georgia, when he discovered a pipe bomb and got as many people out of the area before it exploded. Two people ended up dying and 111 were injured. But both of those numbers would've been a lot higher if it weren't for the heroics of Richard Jewell. Yet due to some terrible reporting, the man was villainized.
In going into this movie, I went in with two different hats, my movie critic hat and my journalism hat. Journalism is what I studied in school and got my degree in, so I obviously have a soft spot there and I did hear about all the controversies surrounding the movie when it came to media portrayal from Mr. Eastwood. So I wasn't ready to simply give this one a pass based on the quality of the film alone. I wanted this to be fair to all angles of this story, not just from Richard Jewell's side. And I had at least one fellow journalism friend who wasn't happy based on things she had heard about this film, so I did my research on the real life situation that is portrayed in this film before going in so I would be ready to analyze everything that happened. Then I did a more in depth dive afterwards. Now I could've gone without doing all of this and simply focused on the film alone, which is the path that many critics most likely took. But I didn't want to take that route. This is a movie that at least needed to get certain things right with this story or else it will become just another one of these Hollywood productions that unfairly blasts the evil media for not doing their job. And we have way too much of that going around these days, especially with the common outcries of "Fake news!"
This setup is what makes this movie all the more tragic. Richard Jewell is not someone who deserved to be villainized in the way that he was. Initially when he finds the bomb and saves all those people, it’s a celebratory moment. Up to this point in his life, despite his shortcomings, all he’s really wanted from life is to help protect people. He’s had a large amount of respect for authority figures and he wants nothing more than to be a successful police officer, security guard, or some other type of government official who keeps people safe. And in this moment of time, all of his work and effort has paid off in a moment where he’s become a hero. And he gets to bask in that glory for a brief moment until suddenly the rug is pulled right out from under him as he becomes the subject of an intense investigation from the FBI, which gets leaked to the press, resulting in nationwide scrutiny. Now in principle, the idea of the FBI investigating him is certainly not a bad thing. It was good of them to look into all angles. And if the media got word that he was being investigated as a possible suspect, it’s also not a bad thing for them to report on what they’re hearing. That’s their job. But it’s to the extent to which both go to, without thinking about consequences, that's damaging.
Now let’s step outside the realm of this movie and talk about this for a second. Both when it comes to the FBI and to the media, there’s a responsibility to seek out truth. I don’t know all the real life details about what happened in this situation. I don’t know if the real life people were as despicable as Jon Hamm and Olivia Wilde were in the movie. But I have seen many situations where officers or agents were so narrowed in on one subject that they became blinded to the possibility that they might be wrong. If evidence does come out that someone else might the real suspect, instead of accepting that evidence and doing their job properly, their pride gets in the way and they’re more focused on their reputation than the actual truth. With journalism, I have seen countless times where a journalist is more focused on getting the inside scoop and the flashy headline than reporting truth. In both of these situations, the government official and the journalist aren’t stopping to think about the consequences of their actions. They just have the selfish desire of making themselves look good without realizing that they might be ruining lives if what they end up doing ends up being incorrect, which is exactly what happened here with Richard Jewell and its heartbreaking.
The sad part of all of this is how quickly this spiraled out of control and it is obvious to me that a lot of the people reporting on this story cared more about their story than they did about the facts. Even if you argue that the initial report of the FBI investigating Richard Jewell was warranted, a lot of the latter reports and stories simply were not true. And this is a situation where the journalists hid behind the wall of “My sources have said that...” in order to defer the guilt of them simply not reporting the truth. Because of this, Richard Jewell later went and sued a lot of these news stations and, while he technically didn’t “win,” most of them chose to settle rather than go through a court battle. Thus with all this, I think this whole situation provides a great lesson into how journalists need to remember that they have a lot of power and influence into how people choose to think. And as Spider-Man would tell you, that power comes with a great responsibility that they need to make sure they are reporting truth because carelessness can lead to ruined lives. And this is one of those situations where we can watch the movie or read about the actual events and apply these principles into our everyday lives, especially in the day of social media where information runs rampant.
What brought this all together were the acting performances in the movie, specifically with Paul Walter Hauser as Richard Jewel, Sam Rockwell as his lawyer and Kathy Bates as his mother. All three of them gave Oscar-worthy performances that sold the emotion of this story. Whether or not they get those nominations is a different story, given how poorly this movie performed at the box office. But the three of them combine to elevate this story into something that left me with a rather emotional ride home, combining both the difficulties of what they went through with the triumphs at the end. John Hamm is also sufficiently despicable as the lead FBI agent to provide some excellent contrast. And I do have to give some credit to Olivia Wilde even though her character was written in an overly exaggerated way. She did the best with what they gave her. It wasn’t her fault that her character wasn’t written in a believable way. All in all, I would label this movie is one that is a must see at some point. Obviously it’s not one to take the whole family to during the holiday season. But I think the message of this movie is one that is extremely applicable to our day and can thus go a long way to help us improving society. My hats off to Mr. Eastwood. My grade is a 9/10.
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