Early in the drama surrounding the investigation of Richard Jewell (Paul Walter Hauser) as a suspect in the bombing in Atlanta during the 1996 Olympics, Nadia, an Eastern European law clerk, offers the observation that, in her country, when the government says you are guilty, you are definitely innocent.
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This goes to the heart of the matter in Clint Eastwood's film, Richard Jewell. The bombing is historical fact; Jewell is a real person; this really happened.
Richard Jewell, a timid young man who lives with his mother in Atlanta, fosters a dream to become a law enforcement officer.
He appears deluded in his belief that he has the capacity to become a police officer from his down-to-earth job as a security guard.
All his colleagues and employees snigger behind his back about his belief that he is part of America's protective services.
When it comes to the crunch, he indicates without doubt that he is aware of who he is and the low regard in which other people hold him.
That is more an indication of their narrow-mindedness and lack of empathy rather than Jewell's failings.
Eastwood shows early in the film that Jewell has a high capacity for observation of small details that can lead to solving a police investigation.
It also means he is aware of the threat posed by an unattended backpack in the middle of Centennial Park during a concert celebrating the Atlanta Olympics.
While his police colleagues dismiss his concern as an overreaction, Jewell's persistence reveals the backpack contains pipe bombs.
The bomb explodes. Jewell's diligence minimised the number of deaths. His actions limited the degree of destruction.
Jewell is celebrated as a hero.
Then journalist Kathy Scruggs (Olivia Wilde), in a blatant move to glorify her career, spills the news of the FBI's preliminary investigation into Jewell as a possible suspect.
Before he knows it, Jewell shifts from basking in the gleam of hero status to the ignominy of being called a traitor and a terrorist.
Only his mother (Kathy Bates) and lawyer Watson Bryant (Sam Rockwell) have faith in him.
Richard Jewell is clearly an expression of Eastwood's patriotic fervour. In Jewell's case, Eastwood's sympathies lie with the unexceptional, ordinary American citizen Richard Jewell. Jewell is the embodiment of working-class America, the backbone of American society.
The justice system and the media are shown wanting.
Eastwood makes the case that people like Jewell are the cornerstone of American society, while the government is villainous in its conspiratorial and blinkered determination to absolve itself from its failed actions in protecting the American public.
And the media are complicit in demonising Jewell.
Richard Jewell is a minor film in Eastwood's filmography but an important part of his late career films showing life in grass roots America.