Trial by Presumption

89-year old actor and director Clint Eastwood’s latest film based on real life events is ‘Richard Jewell,’ named after the chubby security guard who, after being initially hailed a hero for discovering a backpack full of pipe bombs at Centennial Park during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, became the FBI’s prime suspect for the domestic terrorist act in what had to be his worst nightmare come to life.

You probably know the gist of the story.  After being slapped on the back for preventing the bombing from inflicting more casualties than it actually did, Jewell became a convenient suspect of the FBI agents investigating the incident because he fits their profile to a T based on a combination of precedence and his own somewhat checkered background as a cop and security guard.  And also probably because they had no other likely suspects.  So when SAIC Tom Shaw (Jon Hamm) leaked the identity of their chief suspect to overzealous Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Kathy Scruggs (Olivia Wilde) because she needed her “scoop of the century” and may have provided Shaw with a quid pro quo "favor" (which caused quite a controversy for the movie with the AJ-C for slandering their late ace reporter), Jewell’s life became a living hell from the resulting media circus and “court of public opinion” fall-out even as he was never formally charged.

 

RJ is a tale told with humanity and compassion about how a grave injustice was done to an innocent man, but it’s also an interesting primer on how to fight back when, in the words of his lawyer Watson Bryant (Sam Rockwell), two of the most powerful forces in the world (the government and the press) are arrayed against you.  This movie should also serve to remind us (not just the FBI and the media) not to be too quick in jumping to conclusions.  I know I was among those who believed he was the perp when the news broke.  Sorry Richard, RIP.

Grade: B+

 

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