Richard Jewell (2019)

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Richard Jewell (2019) Movie Poster

Richard Jewell was a security guard and police officer famous for discovering a backpack containing three pipe bombs, and helping to evacuate the area and save lives at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. But the media (NBC, CNN) did a "trial by media" that crucified him, until he was eventually exonerated, won a lawsuit/settlement, and the real bomber was caught (Eric Rudolph). This is a Clint Eastwood (Director) movie about these events. Good movie, that got lousy reviews and viewership -- but was definitely a story worth telling (and watching).


It was a worthy telling of a story. Not quite a documentary, but a quite watchable Hollywood'ed version of one. The left was outraged that Clint portrayed sloppy and malicious journalist, who died in a drug overdose years later, as someone that would abuse substances and trade sex for confidential information. Which doesn't seem like a big stretch. And to be fair, Clint did take some liberties -- like the FBI agent was really an amalgamation of multiple characters, and some of the timeline was tweaked slightly to tell a better story. There's some irony in a movie that exposed the character assassination of Jewell, that the character assassins are whining that it was done back to one of their own (to a lesser extent than they had done): sanctimonious hypocrites comes to mind. Either way, a worthy portrayal of a significant story, even if not the most entertaining or lighthearted affair. About as well done as you could do, given the facts.

Reviewers

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This got a 74/96 split between viewers/reviewers. The reviewers didn't like it because it made the far left media look bad for railroading the guy, and they are the lapdogs/employees of those outlets. The viewers obviously liked the sincerity of the story.
Reviewer Bias 
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Movie critics often have a leftward slant that makes them droll and predictable. It also means if a movie is at all political, has anything that's politically incorrect, or can be re-imagined that way, then reviewers will likely get out of touch with the audience. Since I lean towards the audience preferences and away from marxism as movie-reviews, this spread (or the inverse of the reviewers opinions) can be a better indicator of how much I'll like a film than their actual reviews. more...

Richard Jewell

Richard Jewell was a security guard and police officer famous for his role in the events surrounding the Centennial Olympic Park bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. While working as a security guard for the Olympics, he discovered a backpack containing three pipe bombs and alerted police and helped evacuate the area before the bomb exploded, saving many people from injury or death. Initially hailed by the media as a hero, Jewell was a victim of FakeNews and "trial by media", before eventually exonerated, and Eric Rudolph was later found to have been the bomber. He died on August 29, 2007, at age 44 from heart failure (a complication of diabetes). more...

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📚 References

Media hated it for telling a story that they all but buried, and it reminds people of a truth they don't want brought up. They also complained of the portrayal of Scruggs (now deceased) as someone who did anything it took to get a story (including sleeping with the FBI agent). And claim there's no evidence of that. But there's no evidence against it either, and the rush to judge her isn't as bad/impactful as AJC's and Scruggs rush to judge Jewell. And there is evidence of Scruggs reporting innuendos and hunches as facts, and got key facts themselves wrong. So at best, she and her editors were sloppy and unprofessional -- it's not hard to imagine someone like that, wouldn't use all tools at their disposal to get a story: