Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

Richard Jewell
2019
****
Director: Clint Eastwood
Cast: Paul Walter Hauser, Kathy Bates, Jon Hamm, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell, Nina Arianda, Ian Gomez, Dylan Kussman, Mike Pniewski, Niko Nicotera

Richard Jewell, an affable security guard, saves hundreds of lives when he discovers a bomb during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. For a brief moment, he is rightly hailed as a hero, but his life becomes hell when the FBI and the media falsely brand him as the prime suspect in the bombing. Clint Eastwood is a reliably solid storyteller and this moving drama provides another fine example. This real-life story of one man's character assassination is consistently gripping and it features some excellent performances from Hauser, Bates, and Rockwell. My only wish is that the nasty journalist played by Olivia Wilde was a slightly less one-dimensional character. Billy Ray's screenplay is based on American Nightmare: The Ballad of Richard Jewell by Marie Brenner and The Suspect: An Olympic Bombing, the FBI, the Media, and Richard Jewell, the Man Caught in the Middle by Kent Alexander and Kevin Salwen.