SF Chronicle Review: ‘Richard Jewell’ is Clint Eastwood’s best movie in years

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | Dec 11 2019 | Mick LaSalle

[rintintin]

He just seemed the type. He lived with his mother. He had lots of guns in the house. He dreamed of being a police officer. He wanted to be important. He knew everything about bombs. And so, for 88 days Richard Jewell — who was not only an innocent man, but a hero, who’d saved lives — had his own life torn apart, when he became the prime suspect in the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta. 1996.

“Richard Jewell,” which tells his story, is a suspenseful, beautifully composed film from Clint Eastwood, his finest since “Hereafter” (2010) — and probably the best film ever made by an 89-year-old director. Eastwood has not yet entered the beautiful miniature stage of his career. He is not even Matisse making collages. “Richard Jewell” tells a grand-scale American story of a kind that this filmmaker is known for.

[eddie willers]

Doesn’t matter who the director is if the script is crap.

Did you hear about the actress who was so dumb she slept with the writer?

[eddie willers]

That comment will earn me no friends here, I believe, but there it is.

Laz would forgive you.

[LadyDoc]

it wasn't just this gentleman.

The Anthrax letters caused the FBI to harass one scientist who finally sued them and won a bunch of money.

they then harassed a second scientist,Dr Ivins who ended up committing suicide, so they announced he did it and closed the case.

The problem? He may have committed suicide from shame because he was into kinky pornography and keeping it a secret.

and a lot of us with a smidgen of scientific training know that the FBI based their case on the fact he had access to anthrax.

But since Ivins worked to make vaccine, he had no expertise or equipment to grinding anthrax spores to weapon sized particles found in the letter.

No problem for the FBI but it makes me wonder.

[TBP]

Even the left praises it, hoping we won’t remember the way they destroyed Jewell’s life, and gleefully.

[Political Junkie Too]

Bill due for re-election
Peace & Prosperity is desired narrative

Don't forget that the dawning of TWA 800 was only 10 days earlier.

I posted this on December 4 about a Daily Beast review:

---

This critic doesn't understand the real meaning of the Richard Jewell case and its relevance to Trump and today's politics.

The Centennial Park Olympic bombing occurred on July 27, 1996, just 10 days after the downing of TWA 800. This was an attack on the credibility of Bill Clinton's presidency just 3 months before the election.

Clinton's CIA had already pushed aside the FBI's investigation of the TWA 800 crash, substitution their "zoom climb" video in place of the FBI's missile streak eye-witness reports.

Ten days later, Clinton's FBI needed to find a suspect or else doubts would arise over Clinton's ability to keep the Olympics safe, as well as the country. It was also a threat to supporting the claim that Democrats are soft on defense and weak on policing. They needed a perp, fast, and Jewell was it, or Clinton's reelection chances were in doubt.

We know that Clinton was reelected, that Jewell was eventually cleared, that four years later Clinton's weakness would emerge in the 9/11 bombing that was planned during his last year in office, that the FBI would cover for Hillary in Benghazi, would cover for her illegal email server, cover for her election loss, and would cover for the Obama era abuses of power.

If there were to be a flash-point for when the FBI turned to the dark side, it was the case of Richard Jewell.

---

-PJ

[21twelve]

On Netflix I watched a show called “An Innocent Man” or something like that. A documentary of events in Ada, Oklahoma where two women were killed.

The guys in the movie (and Jewell no doubt) obviously didn’t have youtube back then - but they should have watched that video about “Don’t talk to the police”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE

[KittyKares]

So the FBI was doing surveillance but didn’t tell the police? Did they help chase after the robbers, too, or just observe? I sometimes watch “Live PD” and have seen some scary apprehensions. I feel badly for the officer you mentioned. It sounds like he almost died and recovered physically but not psychologically.

[MayflowerMadam]

Too frickin’ much power, and too lazy to do the work to solve a case. Just find a target and lie to take down the already decided suspect.

[MayflowerMadam]

I saved that video a long time ago. It’s true. One thing that didn’t help Jewell was that he wouldn’t STFU. Even when his attorney insisted, he just kept running his mouth.

[tomkat]

I’m tired of hearing about the “Good ones in the rank and file”. Good ones don’t let the bad ones get away with crap.

Amen !

[Roccus]

You left out

Ruby Ridge
TWA 800
Anthrax
Able Danger
AA 587

Some by direct action, others by faulty and/or fraudulent investigation or flat out intentional blindness.

[gaijin]

Dr. Bruce Ivins, senior biodefense guy at Fort Detrick, author of two anthrax patents --basically a genius microbiolgist. He was born in a small town in Ohio, his dad was a pharmacist.

Let's take a gander at juuuust how crazy Ivins was as a youth, shall we..?

Dang, get off that microscope, Buddy Holly, wow.

You know that expression, "The man was a CHOIR BOY"..? Kay, Dr. Ivins WAS an actual choir boy. Based on the above mini-bio that should not surprise you. He married a nursing student and had two kids.

He got interested in macrophages, then anthrax and received the "Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service" — the highest award given to Defense Department civilian employees.

The Feds tried to pin the anthrax mystery on Steven Hatfill, who got pissed and won $6 mil for it, probably something that got some folks in trouble. The head of the FBI ROBERT MULLER, who at that point probably wasn't leaving the blinker on and drooling quite so much at the Bingo Parlor, then tried to ping the whole anthrax mystery onto Buddy Holly, here.

Get out..! ROBERT MULLER did that...?! Yeah, I know, it's sooooo shocking, right?

The Feds figgered it was simply self-interest; the guy had originated the tech to fight anthrax, so an outbreak of it would be something that would put fortunes and the limelight onto him, right? Like a paunchy security guard "finding" a bomb --simple. Same song, different lyrics.

Weird thing is THIS anthrax was tinier than anything in either the Soviet or US inventories, this meant in air it would have great LOFT TIME, it would stay up in the air near breathing mouths, not settle down on the ground where it might be harmless. And the anthrax also featured anti-clumping silica on it --something also very high-tech.

WHOSE was it? They still don't know.

The Feds followed Dr. Ivins around, raided his house twice and the pressure by the Feds was so great they drove him nuts and finally killed himself.

You know what the defense of the Feds was?

"Hey, he was NUTS..."

YA LIKE THAT..?

Time after time the preferred political narrative is "Peace And Prosperity" but the Feds are under pressure to make a case go away, so they just pin it on somebody nearby, and they wad it up, call it solved, and throw it into the garbage:

Case closed.

THAT is your FBI; deeply politicized and unprofessional.

Find a bomb? RUN and keep quiet. And if you have a really sharp head on your shoulders you better reconsider helping the feds with defense:

You could most unfortunately "go nuts and kill yourself".

[gaijin]

I just wrote an anthrax one, maybe right above this post.

[gaijin]

DEVASTATING post..!

Wow, that was a great one.

[Gay State Conservative]

Never saw the Paris film but Gran Torino was great. Another good one,surprisingly good in my mind,is Bridges of Madison County. It's one of only two or three “chick flicks” that I have any time for.

[dsc]

“As I’ve said a few times before; I wouldn’t call the FBI if a column of ISIS technicals was driving up my road.”

You’d probably do better calling a temp agency to get somebody out to recharge your magazines.

[LadyDoc]

my point exactly.

propublica, a left wing site, had a lot more information.

[TigersEye]

LOL

[archy]

You missed another detail: one witness to who planted the backpack with the bomb clearly described someone other than Jewell. An Indiana Prosecutor, he'd have made an outstanding witness...but he wasn't singing the tune the FBI wanted. Accordingly, criminal charges were prepared for him once he returned to the Hoosier State, he was indicted, attempted *suicide* [by pouring gasoline over himself and igniting it, though he had a handgun] and, of course, convicted and disbarred.

Cooperate with the FBI, citizen, or you'll get the same. And don't embarrass the Bureau.