Richard Jewell

Richard Jewell is a 2019 American biographical drama film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood and written by Billy Ray. It is based on the 1997 Vanity Fair article "American Nightmare: The Ballad of Richard Jewell" by Marie Brenner and the 2019 book The Suspect: An Olympic Bombing, the FBI, the Media, and Richard Jewell, the Man Caught in the Middle by Kent Alexander and Kevin Salwen. The film depicts the July 27 Centennial Olympic Park bombing and its aftermath, as security guard Richard Jewell finds a bomb during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, and alerts authorities to evacuate, only to later be wrongly accused of having placed the device himself. The film stars Paul Walter Hauser as Jewell, alongside Sam Rockwell, Kathy Bates, Jon Hamm, and Olivia Wilde. The film had its world premiere on November 20, 2019, at the AFI Fest, and was theatrically released in the United States on December 13, 2019, by Warner Bros. Pictures. It received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for the performances (particularly Bates, Rockwell and Hauser) and Eastwood's direction. However, several journalists criticized the critical portrayal of the reporter that first accused Jewell: Kathy Scruggs (specifically for trading sex for stories, also depicted in Manhunt). It was chosen by the National Board of Review as one of the ten best films of the year. The film grossed $43.7 million against its $45 million budget. For her performance, Bates won the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress and earned nominations at the Academy Awards and Golden Globes. Plot In 1986, Richard Jewell works as an office supply clerk at the Small Business Administration, where he builds a rapport with attorney Watson Bryant. Eventually, Jewell leaves the firm to pursue a law enforcement career. At one point, Jewell is hired as a sheriff's deputy, but ends up discharged. In early 1996, he works as a security guard at Piedmont College, but is fired after multiple complaints of acting beyond his jurisdiction. Jewell later moves in with his mother Bobi in Atlanta. In the summer of 1996, he works as a security guard at the Olympic Games, monitoring Centennial Park. In the early morning of July 27, 1996, after chasing off drunken revelers during a Jack Mack and the Heart Attack concert, Jewell notices a suspicious package beneath a bench, which an explosives expert confirms contains a bomb.