I hate that Clint Eastwood is conservative, but I love that he's doing movie on Richard Jewell

[hlthe2b]

I respect Eastwood's talent, even when his wacky support of R's frustrates.

I know many here are too young to remember the story of Richard Jewell and the 1996 Atlanta Centennial Park Olympic bombing (by the same creep who went on to bomb abortion clinics too), but this story is important. Jewell, a "so-called lowly" security guard was blamed for the bombing by the media and demonized, though in reality, he was a hero. One can only wonder how much worse it would have been with today's social media.

I look forward to this movie and I give Clint kudos for making it. Here's a summary:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Jewell_(film)

Richard Jewell is a 2019 American biographical drama film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood and written by Billy Ray, based on the 1997 article "American Nightmare: The Ballad of Richard Jewell" by Marie Brenner, published in Vanity Fair. The film depicts the Centennial Olympic Park bombing during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia and its aftermath, where security guard Richard Jewell found a bomb and alerted authorities to evacuate, only to later be wrongly accused of having placed it himself. It stars Paul Walter Hauser as Jewell, alongside Sam Rockwell, Kathy Bates, Jon Hamm and Olivia Wilde.

The film had its world premiere at AFI Fest on November 20, 2019. The film is scheduled to be theatrically released in Canada and the United States on December 13, 2019, by Warner Bros. Pictures.

[Ilsa]

1. My only concern is that it is

an attempt to discredit today's media and today's FBI.

Other than that, I'm fine with highlighting his heroism.

[hlthe2b]

3. Today's FBI and media? This was 23 years ago. I would hope not.

[Ilsa]

5. I think you give a lot of people too much credit.

They might agree that Hoover's FBI was different. But I have doubts about them seeing policy growth over last 23 years. We'll see how people react.

[TheRealNorth]

7. Combat that narrative with a counter-narrative

Like, I agree that it's horrible that Law enforcement tried to pin the crimes on Richard Jewel and that the media failed to do their job and investigate law enforcement's case against him. The result is that it allowed a right-wing Christian terrorist to escape justice for a few.more years and to conduct additional terror attacks.

[Ilsa]

11. That's the best point to make.

I wonder how many people helped hide or provide cover for that POS?

[USALiberal]

13. Well in this case the media was inaccurate. Nt

[beachbumbob]

2. Jewell was made a victim of law enforcement and media rush to

judgement that we never had witnessed before or since. I don't use politics as filter for what I watch or admire. Clint Eastwood been a force of some great entertainment.

[DAMANgoldberg]

25. Not quite the same...

but in Atlanta, when something heinous happens, someone has to take the fall. And it's not always accurate. From my internal Wayback machine, there were the Atlanta Child Murders (a few years either side of 1980). I was at an engineering conference in Atlanta during my junior year of High School and at the time, Georgia Tech had very little dorm space. They could only guarantee on-campus housing for year 1. Not exactly a way to attract students during that tumultuous time in Atlanta regional history. That one event, of which I'm still not sure Wayne Williams had much to do with it, cemented my decision to attend Auburn University, though the campuses are about the same distance from where I went to High School.

[BlueTsunami2018]

4. Clint always gets a pass from me.

I just watched “For a Few Dollars More” the other night for the fiftieth time. I don’t really care about his politics, I just enjoy his work. Besides, he’s more of a libertarian type, he’s not a far right Limbaugh or Тяцмрer guy.

[krawhitham]

6. Sure conservatives sucks but it takes all kinds to make the world go 'round, BUT

The current GOP is not conservative, they are bat shit crazy Russian assets

Clint Eastwood is not pushing Russian talking points (at least I don't think he is, don't pay too much attention to him), he is just a classic conservative Republican. Sure it sucks but we need a little yin and yang.




Plus Space Cowboys was the bomb

[Johonny]

8. Eastwood is hard to understand

His political career arc is from truly horrible (the forth Dirty Harry movie is terrible), to mild Rockefeller Republican vibe when he was with his last wife.

This film looks sort of cheap on the make. It as an almost TV movie budget type feel to it. Not sure that was intentional or Clint couldn't get backing. Either way I think most on the DU find Jewell a hugely sympathetic figure.

I also have no doubt this is a jab at the fake media (CNN mostly at the time, who I believe was the station that had on a psychoanalyst basically saying that Jewell fit the classic profile for a serial killer and bomber. You know really damning stuff that was total B.S.) Still the movie no doubt will play into the fake media, FBI bad mindset of today's GOP.

[TexasBushwhacker]

23. Regarding looking "cheap"

It may be on purpose. It may be because it's not likely to get a big international audience, so they'll have to make their money here. I read up on it and it actually passed through a lot of hands. Leonardo DiCaprio originally bought the rights and was going to co-produce with Jonah Hill, who was going to play Jewell. They are still credited as producers, but my guess is the only reason it finally got made was because Eastwood showed interest. It's the kind of movie that probably plays as well streaming on your TV, so I don't expect big box office numbers.

[Ohiogal]

9. I tend to give Eastwood's political beliefs a pass when it comes to his movies, too

Gran Torino ..... one of the best movies I've ever seen

[Mike 03]

10. Eastwood's aesthetics are difficult to reconcile with his politics.

Thinking of Unforgiven which is self-critical and derisive of hypocrisy and hagiography and mythmaking of criminals into heroes. Million Dollar Baby totally exposing the myth that if you work hard enough and want something bad enough you can achieve the American Dream. And Mystic River (I need to see it again) seemed very against the mob mentality and scapegoating. There are probably other examples too. I didn't care for J. Edgar but it seemed like there was something there too.

[edhopper]

14. And in Unforgiven

Last edited Mon Dec 2, 2019, 03:10 PM - Edit history (1)

the scene where Gene Hackman beats Richard Harris was in response to Rodney King.

[Mike 03]

16. Fascinating!

Never knew that. That's actually one of my favorite movies. There are so many ways of looking at it. It works as both a deconstructed western and a western

"We've all got it comin', kid."

[snort]

18. I liked Mystic River

because Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez was there.

[TexasBushwhacker]

24. Million Dollar Baby was based on stories written by a "cut man"

The guy who sits in the corner of the ring and stops the boxer's bleeding.

[roamer65]

12. One of my Eastwood favorites is "In the Line of Fire".

He and Malkovich are really good in that film.

A riveting cat and mouse game between the two.

[USALiberal]

15. I think Tom Cruise is nuts but like his movies. Nt

[Solomon]

17. Clint Eastwood can kiss my ass.

I can't stand him or his political messages. Dirty Harry started the whole cop worship okay if they kill the bad guys without a trial thing.

You can bet the Jewell movie will wind up buttressing some Trump shit.

[Polybius]

19. I can't believe that Stingray from Cobra Kai landed such a huge part

I guess he's not coming back to the series.

[Ron Obvious]

20. A heartbreaking story. The media turned on him because he didn't look the part of a hero...

Last edited Mon Dec 2, 2019, 07:35 PM - Edit history (1)

I remember his defeated look as he sat outside his house while it was being searched by police (or FBI?).

We really failed the poor man (who died young). I remember a former employer tipped off the police that there was something wrong with the guy, probably because he looked like the stereotypical dumb bullying security guard straight from central casting.

I hope it will serve as a reminder to some people not to go by appearances or rush to judgement, but I don't think we're going to put that particular genie back in the bottle in today's social media climate...

[hlthe2b]

21. It doesn't diminish what happened, but I think a lot of attempts were made to acknowledge

his heroism and to formally apologize afterward and of course, he did get some settlements with news agencies. Still, I have no doubt that the stress of all that happened did add to the health problems that later killed him.

From his wiki page:

In October 1996, the investigating US Attorney, Kent Alexander, in an extremely unusual act, sent Jewell a letter formally clearing him, stating "based on the evidence developed to date ... Richard Jewell is not considered a target of the federal criminal investigation into the bombing on July 27, 1996, at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta".[11]

I

n July 1997, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, prompted by a reporter's question at her weekly news conference, expressed regret over the FBI's leak to the news media that led to the widespread presumption of his guilt, and apologized outright, saying, "I'm very sorry it happened. I think we owe him an apology. I regret the leak."[22]

The same year, Jewell made public appearances. He appeared in Michael Moore's 1997 film, The Big One. He had a cameo in the September 27, 1997 episode of Saturday Night Live, in which he jokingly fended off suggestions that he was responsible for the deaths of Mother Teresa and Princess Diana.[23]

In 2001, Jewell was honored as the Grand Marshal of the Carmel, Indiana's Independence Day Parade. Jewell was chosen in keeping with the parade's theme of "Unsung Heroes".[24]

On April 13, 2005, Jewell was exonerated completely when Eric Rudolph pled guilty to carrying out the bombing attack at the Centennial Olympic Park, as well as three other attacks across southern parts of the US. Just over a year later, Georgia governor Sonny Perdue honored Jewell for his rescue efforts during the attack.[25][26]

Jewell had worked in various law enforcement jobs, including as a police officer in Pendergrass, Georgia. He worked as a deputy sheriff in Meriwether County, Georgia until his death. He also gave speeches at colleges.[5]

On each anniversary of the bombing until his illness and eventual death, he would privately place a rose at the Centennial Olympic Park scene where spectator Alice Hawthorne died.[27]

[Coventina]

22. For whatever reason, what I remember best is the label "Uni-Bubba"

that he got saddled with.

This was because the Unibomber had been in the news recently.

Richard Jewell.

[underpants]

26. I'm curious if Eric Rudolph is part of this work.

If he's not it's incomplete

[RockRaven]

27. Jewell got screwed, but to put out a film about how federal law enforcement and the media suck

during this several-year window is an act of intentional pro-Trumpland propagandizing. Fuck that.

And having not seen this film yet, obviously, I should add that this holds even if the facts of the case are presented accurately -- not all propaganda is false.

[radius777]

28. Exactly, also anti-Clinton propaganda.

People need to look at historical context when critiquing things like the Crime Bill, Waco, Jewell etc. Crime and violence from the 70s-90s was out of control, at historical highs, thus the tendency for politicians was to err on the side "being tough" and protecting kids and communities. The Clinton admin also had to deal with the rise of the militia movement, cults and other RW extremism, along with typical crime. They also had to combat the idea that Dems were weak on crime. They did a great job overall, considering the circumstances.

[hlthe2b]

29. "having not seen the movie"... exactly

I will withhold such judgments until I have actually seen it. Leonard DiCaprio is still listed as a producer. Do you think he is a stealth Democratic saboteur as well?

Jewell's story is an important one--especially now that social media is used to out suspects before there is anything but rumor to support--as we have seen with mass shootings and more to the point the admiistration WHISTLEBLOWER. It cuts BOTH ways.