Richard Jewell | Based on a True Story
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- Опубліковано 7 лип 2021
- I don’t know how I feel about the newest Clint Eastwood directed based-on-a-true-story film. The last one he did, I had nothing but praise, but this one I’m far more ambivalent about. It’s salvageable, but has one fatal flaw that I just can’t bring myself to forgive. It’s based on the story of Richard Jewell.
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Wiki: 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.[5][6][7][8][9] 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.
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Hashtags: #history #RichardJewell #OlympicBombing #review #BasedOnATrueStory
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*References*
www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/richard-jewell/
www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/true-story-richard-jewell-how-accurate-are-characters-1262302
slate.com/culture/2019/12/richard-jewell-movie-accuracy-journalist-fact-fiction.html
time.com/5748926/richard-jewell-movie-true-story/
The theme of this movie was "a normal guy just like you had his life torn apart by evil media and government people", and that's much easier for the viewer to stomach.
A more true-to-life story would have been "a normal guy gets his life torn apart by people just like you who are desperate for a juicy story".
Yeah. True. But mankind always needs an enemy. It's just the way we're wired.
I love Armando Iannucci's stuff for that reason. They show political antagonists as vain, ambitious, act before you think careerists instead of cackling super villains.
@@tomgjgj No... that's the way you're conditioned.
@@twig8523 You don't think aggression is an integral part of the human psyche? If you ask me, we're more 'conditioned' to live peacefully by things like laws and social norms, rather than the opposite.
I think that if people don't have something to fight and strive for, we become disillusioned, listless and depressed. It's not our natural state of being.
@@tomgjgj I recognize aggression is part of the dichotomy of man. To build a pattern of behavior succumbing to anger over understanding (or vice versa, sure) involves the reinforcement of conditioning.
I was near the scene of where the bomb went off two days after it did so when my family attended the Summer Olympics. Needless to say, tensions were high at the time, and I will never forget it.
Wow. So close to a major historical event. I walked through the park in 2016 and it still felt strange.
Woah
@@LadyTylerBioRodriguez well, Centennial Olympic Park is actually rather strange as far as parks go, but that's exactly how Atlanta likes it
@@Dong_Harvey Oh I know. My fondest Atlanta memory was walking by a statue of John Oglethorpe near the hotel that had a coke bottle taped to the hand.
I have one better than that. My brother was in that park a few hours before the bomb went off. Apparently he drank too much and went to his motel room to sleep it off and didn't get up until the next morning. That was before everybody had a cellphone so it was a long night for my family....
So in a film about how it is wrong to do character assassination, they do a character assassination. Got it.
Two wrongs don’t make a right
the ajc and the fbi never apologized and took responsibility for their actions.
It don't but there is a thing called karma
Tbh, Clint missed an opportunity to call his film "Jewell of a Man"
Eastwood clearly exploited the legal concept that one can not slander a deceased person, but that only makes his false portrayal of Kathy Scruggs worse -- it doesn't excuse it.
And although I thought the movie was good, overall, the Olivia Wilde/John Hamm fan service "romance" really detracted it from it.
I lived just down the street from him when this was going on. The massive amount of press, complete with helicopters, was way over the top.
It's downright hypocritical that a film involving the press slandering someone as a criminal would slander a real-life person, doubly so when both times were due to negligent research and a lack of respect for the individual in question. To me, it's obvious that the film message is a cautionary tale of not trusting the initial reporting, but the whole Kathy Scruggs depiction negates any validity to the film's message and Clint Eastwood defense is pathetic.
I guess Clint is just that smart, to build his own slanderverse. So he can make a movie about az old director, trying to take revenge on women in general for something (Hillary?), making a movie that have disgusting lies about a woman who isn't even alive to defend herself. Then about a movie about another old director, who framed a director as mysoginist, because they support a different candidate. Then... you know the drill.
The Cynical Historian is fake news!! He said it so himself!!!!!1!11
But for real, thanks for the review! I'm always in for more historical movies and having you explain the shortfalls before I watch it helps me see it with open eyes. Also saves me the trouble of going through Hollywood releases to find something worthwhile :D
His story is the reason why I question the news media and authoritative figures; such as Law Enforcement and the FBI.
It’s a good day when cypher uploads
Part of Eastwoods "Character Amalgamation" is the fact that L. Lin Wood was a part of the legal team. I can kinda understand why he'd leave that out.
4:38 Did not expect to be hit with "It's not news, STUPID". LOL. Keep embracing the meme culture bro. Love ya content.
Clint Eastwood said “Richard jewel is a Hero” and he is right Richard is a hero and should be remembered as one.
Wish Eastwood could have made the movie about that instead of veering into his own BS.
This was the last movie I saw before the pandemic and I really liked it a lot though I was kind of disappointed after the fact looking into the case and how Eastwood portrayed the reporter. Not really surprised but still disappointed I guess lots of information gets dramatized in these kinds of films though
I was just looking this up yesterday That’s so weird. Thanks for making a video about it
Damn, I hoped this video would be longer.
Its interesting to learn about a film of this. I really like to see stuff like this Cypher. Keep up the good work like always. Plus I 100% know that history repeats itself in sports history and history entirely.
How they wrote the reporter lady was bad. I mean the real woman did some questionable things to be sure, so there’s plenty that you CAN critique her for.
But going with the tired old “she slept with a source to get info” was just not the right move. Especially since it did not happen IRL.
While I do have a problem with Scruggs portrayal I can’t help but love this movie
Short and to the point. Nice man.
My journalism teacher in my second year of college was Ronald Martz, Kathy Scruggs' co-writer. The fact that Manhunt: Deadly Games and Richard Jewell ignore him in favor of saying "Kathy Scruggs was too mean to the security officer guy" is pretty sad.
Also when you say what he did in Sully was forgivable, I have talked with NTSB investigators and heard from people who were working on that case when they give talks at our Uni, and they most certainly have not forgiven Eastwood for their portrayal in Sully.
Yeah I don't get why that's forgivable...even Sully said the NTSB was nothing but professional.
Yay new amazing video
An Eastwood movie I'd like to see you cover is "The Outlaw Josey Wales". Not as a "Based on a true story", but the history behind the story. The Redlegs, and their Confederate counterparts, the Comancheros, and life in general immediately after the end of the Civil War.
Atun Shei crossover inbound
@@theshenpartei Atun Shei made a whole video about how historical inaccuracies don't matter. Cypher would *despise* the man.
An example of how historical films try to do drama before facts.
Dang I saw all the trailers for this film, but it slipped under my radar when released
Would love for you to review "Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan"
I haven’t seen Jewell yet so thank you for the honest review.
As to the unfair portrayal of the journalist, I would chalk that up to two things. One, moviegoers want a villain that they can well and truly hate. You do this to women by making them morally questionable. Two, Clint Eastwood something of a reputation of misogyny. His breakup with Sandra Locke was acrimonious to the point of him sabotaging her career post breakup.
also are you going to do the mule that’s another Clint Eastwood historical movie
love to see you tackle the Irishmen
What I admire is that a 90 yr old Eastwood directed this film so u have to admire him for that at least👍
He lost an argument to a chair.
This story proves that being an asshole doesn't make you guilty.
This was a good movie, reminded me of the Boston Bombing movie.
Patriot day oh that’s a film cypher should cover
What did the locals think? Did they all unanimously agree with the press? Or?
And what effect did this case...and others...have on the belief in both press and law enforcement?
I am trying to find out which events in modern history have led to the current, and understandable, disbelief in the media...
So is it good ?
I have a request can you do one on 127hours plz
Morning my fellow historians
What about “Lost Battalions?” Movie during world war 1 pretty good movie.
Do one on marighella
Alright
I'll watch the movie now
Thank Cynical
4:37 got em
Uh.. 6th?
Good morning my fellow cynics
Morning to you too
I was expecting this to be about that Manhunt version of this story with the FBI guy who kept talking about “what the bomb says”. I had no idea CE made a movie of this as well.
This movie appears to be much better than that but I might skip it since CE has already convinced me that old white men are unicorns with his other films.
Joking aside, is there a good book about Richard Jewell?
There are a couple of books about his story.
I really like this movie. It’s much better than 15:17 to Paris which was garbage. It’s a perfect Netflix movie
Neat how when you put a time (hours and minutes) in your comment, youtube converts it to a timestamp link (minutes and seconds) and tries to send you to 15:17 in a video that is only 5:48 long.
I don't buy that Scruggs having sex with an FBI agent is morally worse than her actual buddy-buddy relationships with local law enforcement.
So what if she was portrayed as a 'harlot'? Why would that be bad?
Maybe they just could have stayed with the accurate depiction of her poor reporting. No need to make anything more up really.
@@btarczy5067 Actually she won the lawsuit filed against her and the paper because according to the judge, "everything written was accurate at the time of the writing"
Jewel was being investigated as a suspect, so technically, she didn't report poorly.
@@Seek1878 Thanks! And sorry for misjudging the situation myself.
@@Seek1878 By that metric, the control crew and Dyatlov of Chernobyl were technically doing their jobs correctly.
@@mokomothman5713 Not a comparison but lol. If you want to blame someone, blame the FBI.
hit that Like Button.. Anuther Gud Vid
3rd or something...
@@xp8969 you made my day ;)
would be interesting to see this pit against the Netflix series around the same story.
The Netflix series is downright ridiculous. It starts out okay and portrays Jewell okay, but then it launches into utter BS territory.
Fake News!!!! I’m just kidding, please don’t ban me I like this channel.
Sean Hannity was a Jewel supporter from day one.
Too bad he's batshit about everything else.
Fun fact, one of Richard Jewell's lawyers is now a lawyer for the Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse. Not the cool one of course.
And didn't he join the capitol insurrection too?
I really don’t have any problem with the movie portraying her negatively
I hate how often movies/shows treat cooperating with the police is always right. Lots of times, the police do not have a suspect's best interests at heart and just want a quick confession.
The thing is, Kathy Shruggs is a mob instigator. She put her career over someone who was only a suspect and of that because of chicken wire evidence. I have no sympathies for her.
The difference here she will forever be tarnished for what she did while Jewell after a long, stressful fight would maintain his innocence and come out as a hero which is the least he deserved. Not always does David wins against Goliath. But at least this highlights how pivotal media is and the guilt they should carry.
TRUTH TRUE. SHE DID NOT CARE ABOUT THE TRUTH. SHE ONLY WANTED A SCOOP.
Kathy Sruggs is a mob instigator - she was not a journalist. she wrote and said that Jewell was guilty even though there was no evidence.
Wouldn't the FBI be the instigator?
@@Seek1878 YES
I think the manhunt series did a better Jewl’s story than this whole film.
I liked Jewell for the most part - but you're right that Man Hunt was far superior. Then again, a TV series like that can go into much more detail.
It portrayed Jewell okay, but that series overall was laughable. So much of it was blatantly false stuff I stopped watching it midway through - like claiming Rudolph teamed up actively with local militias and the militias captured an FBI and ATF agent? Yeah right! At most the FBI had a suspicion Rudolph was getting help from them. It makes the bizarre claim that the abortion clinics bombings had "nothing to do with abortion." And it makes up even more stuff about Scruggs.
@@SaintSteven67 No, Manhunt was an embarrassment. It made up even more BS about Scruggs and bizarrely tries to appeal to conservative audiences by downplaying Eric Rudolph's involvement with Army of God and how he was considered a hero by pro-life activists.
Geee.....it's almost as if Clint went through a rough breakup that made the tabloids and he never got over it.
6 minutes isn't long enough. I need to waste my time more >:(
Pretty much agree with everything here. The movie was just OK. Gotta give a shout out to Paul Walter Hauser though, who absolutely killed it in the title role.
The only fake news I''ve seen on this channel is the dubious reporting that Clint Eastwood is a great filmmaker.
The Netflix series Manhunt: Deadly Games did the subject matter more justice.
Are you joking? That show was so ridiculous and full of blatantly fake stuff I stopped watching it midway through. And it makes up even more stuff about Scruggs.
it tried to downplay a lot of Eric Rudolph's involvement with Army of God (in Deadly Games, Rudolph is painted as a nihilist who just sides with extremists because he can get free supplies from them) in order to better appeal to a conservative audience. Having the very biting and damning observation of "Rudolph was actually considered a hero, albeit a very extreme one, by pro-life activists in 1996-97" would've made a lot of people turn away - for the pro-lifers be confronted with evidence that their side was always trying to find the easy way out (extremism is always the easy way out) and thus more willing to embrace terroristic tactics would kill Manhunt: Deadly Games' ratings before it would have a chance to find its footing.
I would love to see the Cynical Historian cover Unplanned though. Yes, it's VERY MUCH propaganda through and through and it engages in some of the silliest histrionics this side of a high school debate club (one character mentions that George Soros and Bill Gates donate money to Planned Parenthood - given the film's rather conservative bias, this line of dialogue is designed to make you buy into a liberal conspiracy to increase abortions), but there's a very infuriating scene that tries to repaint the anxieties of being an abortion provider in 2008-11 (the murder of George Tiller is covered) as "oh, pro-lifers aren't actually bad for the most part, we just attract some really mean people but we still weed them out really well."
They don't. The reason they attract so many extremists is because of propaganda that paints this issue as very crucial - as "if we don't solve this now, the world will end and the Holocaust 2: Electric Boogaloo will happen." People are going to take matters into their own hands at this point. Having to scour local news for cases like Kermit Gosnell's malpractices, plus releasing factually errant short films like The Silent Scream and having every billboard in Florida talk about how a baby has the heart of Usain Bolt 15 days after conception, leads to cases like CENTBOM and the murder of George Tiller. Abby Johnson more than likely got really afraid for her life when Dr. Tiller was murdered and quit Planned Parenthood for a better-paying (and secure) gig with a pro-life organization. That's tragic. Unplanned paints this as a victory.
also I'd love to see the Cynical Historian cover more anti-abortion propaganda and how that gets all the facts wrong.
@@Malkmusianful You are so right about them trying to appeal to a conservative audience by actively lying about a terrorist. Disgusting!
And oh man Unplanned is such a joke of a movie...especially considering that the main character has been proven to have LIED about the supposed abortion she witnessed that made her quit - no patient records match what she claimed to have seen. She turned for money, no question about it.
I will NEVER consider anything from Hollywood as more then Manipulation through propaganda and that is all. Frankly I do not watch any movies for the last almost 17 years.
Cool story
Oh no a scummy reporter that ruined a persons life was vilified!!!!! Everyone should stop acting as if she was not a villain . She destroyed the life of a hero and then did nothing to right the wrong , writing sensational story after sensational story . If anything she got off easy .
Technically it was the FBI that ruined his life, the news simply reported on it.
@@Seek1878 Technically reporters buries a hero using information that was proven false and doubled down on it , so no i have no pity for that witch , if anything she was not punished enough .
@@dukemorran1 It wasn't "proven false" when published.
And if she was such a witch in reality, they wouldn't need to make stuff up. Simple as that.
@@Seek1878 did the media and she in particular double down on it or not? Did they respect the fact that the fbi had him as a person of intereset and not arrested? Did they make his life a living hell before the fbi made any official announcement about him even as a suspect ? You know the answers to all these and this bit&** was at the forefront slandering a decent man and a HERO so what are you defending ? This was a beyond trashy reporter that got off easy .
@@dukemorran1 Not sure how you expect the press to ignore that the FBI is investigating in those circumstances...not defending anything here but just being realistic. If anything I blame the fbi for their shitty tactics.
You can’t just say “politics aside, Eastwood is a damn fine filmmaker” lmao. His films are political. This movie sucks because of its politics. Jewel absolutely was wronged but Eastwood’s politics prevents him from not taking pointless and tacky pot shots.
you absolutely can, if we can excuse Michael Moore's laughable biographies.
@@REDDAWNproject i had no idea anyone considered any of Moore’s works as non political and judging by your comment your don’t give him a pass anyway lol
@@pape14 i give him a pass in terms of the art of editing and constructing a narrative. The same way everybody who respects the art of film respects eisenstein's pioneering works despite the fact that he literally made soviet propaganda.
Gonna be honest with you cypher… screw her that reporter ruined that man’s life. I don’t care how they portray that monster.
she won the lawsuit filed against her and her paper because according to the judge, "everything written was accurate at the time of the writing"
Jewel was being investigated as a suspect in the bombings, so realistically, she didn't do anything wrong.
She wasn't a "monster" the people who read what she wrote and mistreated Jewel on that basis on the other hand, were monsters.
If she was a monster, why make shit up? Use the stuff we know she did.
I'm all for accuracy, especially of the dead. No more or less. The exaggeration for a more attention grabbing story actually has an effect on all of our psychology. This is the moral lesson of the tale. Us wanting to see a monster crucified IS the problem, and creates the same monster we revel in defeating. Better to understand that most people are only occasional monsters, and a few are that way most of the time.
@@stetsonscott8209 That's the wisest thing I've read on UA-cam comment page for a long time. Perhaps it's time to get round to reading Hannah Arendt now. We are humans with neanderthal brains, living in a time that our brains find it hard to cope with. We evolved to deal with threats in our environment, and as part of that we tend to label others as monsters, but we can all be influenced to be monstrous too. Our media, desperate to capture audiences exploit everyday our tendency to pay attention to threats for profit. Of course, that comes with a price - increasing insecurity, instability, and moral panics, and the need by the powerful to increase surveillance year on year to secure their control over us, and exploit that information also for profit. So, never be too hasty to condemn, without all the facts, or rely on stereotypes to guide your thinking. It's tough not to because it takes time and energy to think things through, and it takes courage not be driven by your fears. It's those emotions that lead us astray, and we are all vulnerable to that.
@@stetsonscott8209 that’s an awesome point and I wish I could believe you. We have the ability to reason and weigh our choices. Anyone who makes a decision with reckless abandon is a monster. You are hung up on that term and by being hung up on that term you’re literally ignoring the fact that she RUINED a man’s life. While I see your point I cannot concede nor offer any person sympathy deceased or living who literally went into a situation to get ahead without thinking about the long term ramifications. She reported an article that lead to this man’s untimely death. The amount of stress she caused took years off his life potentially. So while people are “occasional” monsters at points, those same people at least attempt to show remorse. I found no research that would indicate that she felt remorseful for tearing that man’s life asunder.
Kind of disappointing he repeatedly abuses this "trope" rather than portray the truth. Sure, it's not as "sex sells", but I'm guessing that it's going to have some backlash from people who won't discern reality from fiction cause "based on a true story".
Le sigh.