Richard Jewell, a film produced and directed by Clint Eastwood, was one of Clint Eastwood’s best. Paul Walter Hauser did a marvelous job of playing a real human being with a good heart, so good that people thought that he was a little crazed or dumb. But he was neither. He was just a nice guy. I had a cousin like him. He was also heavy, like this guy Richard. It’s a true-life film, based upon the bombing that took place in Atlanta in the Centennial arena, where Richard Jewell worked at the time in security.
At first, Richard was called a hero, because he found the bomb that did go off. But if they would have believed him sooner, it might have not gone off. Then because the FBI couldn’t find the real culprit, they accused Richard, because he was profiled. You know, the simple guy that went from security job to security job. And he was just too good to be true. It’s like the movie Man Facing Southeast. They put this guy in a crazy house because he was too kind.
Kathy Bates, who played his mother, was up for Best Supporting Actress. And he should have been up for Best Actor. I won’t tell you the end of the film, but it’s the end of a true-life event that happens over and over again—a truly nice human being, like my cousin, who isn’t believed, because everybody else thinks he’s too good to be true and overweight. People judge from appearance and not what’s in the heart. Good on ya Clint Eastwood, for picking this story to make a film out of. We need to have more of these kinds of films to give justice to those who received injustice. Olivia Wilde.
~Van of Urantia*MPAA = Motion Picture Association of America
