Timing is everything for living legend Clint Eastwood.
The actor/director served up American Sniper after Hollywood stopped firing cinematic shots at the U.S. Military. The results? Sniper earned $350 million at the U.S. box office.
Two years later Eastwood directed Sully, just when movie goers craved a true American hero story. That movie hauled in $125 million domestically.
He may have topped himself with Richard Jewell. The film, out Dec. 13, recalls how the FBI and media unfairly painted the portly security guard as the main suspect in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bombing. The blast killed one and injured 111 people.
The far-left Hollywood Reporter praised Richard Jewell, but it did something else with its glowing review. It confirmed what many suspected from the film’s trailer. The movie savages the mainstream press.
Most Hollywood films about journalism since All the President’s Men 43 years ago have taken the free press’ side, portraying it as a scruffy if noble institution essential to the well-being of democracy. Eastwood and screenwriter Billy Ray (The Hunger Games, Captain Phillips) here take a rather different view of the Fourth Estate, portraying it as reckless, corrupt and immoral [emphasis added]….
The mob of reporters covering the story resembles a plague of locusts, with any little tidbit being transformed into big news as the media tries to finger a culprit.
The far-left IndieWire.com called Richard Jewell “solid as oak.” It, too, says the film takes aim at the media.
With such artistic allowances in mind, Richard Jewell clearly falls on the sympathies of the protagonist and his defenders, with the press and Federal Bureau of Investigation shown as the bad guys not to be trusted.
Variety dubs Richard Jewell a “good story” that can’t be hurt by its attacks on the press.
In this case, at a time when politicians have stoked public distrust of news media, and when news media have punched back by holding politicians to even stricter standards of truthfulness, does anybody want to hear what the “Hollywood elites” have to say about Richard Jewell?
Of course, Eastwood is anything but a typical “Hollywood Elite.” Remember how he compared President Barack Obama to an empty chair?
Still, Variety’s review nails what Eastwood has apparently done with the film.
Still, the result is undeniably compelling, a kind of modern-day “Ace in the Hole” and a populist reflection of the public’s disdain for journalists and government alike, as told by a filmmaker (and let’s not forget: former mayor of Carmel, Calif.) with his finger on the pulse.
Yes, the events in the film took place more than 20 years ago, but once again Eastwood gets the zeitgeist better than his peers. While they stumble over repeated Fox News films and fawning media portraits, he’s showcasing what’s happening in the media today.
Clint is placing today’s “Fake News” habit on a happening from over 20 years ago.
The media had the same voice analysis as the police who charged Jewell.
Maybe the media went overboard like they used to do with their “star-making” profiles during the Olympics (which were mostly humorous in that the “star” got eliminated, showed up too drunk to compete, or simply had a bad day and lost.
I remember thinking we were having a card forced on us in the Jewell case.
But, to its credit, the media backed off once the facts started to exonerate Jewell.
He was demonized and I’m sure he suffered for years because of it.
But, at least the media refrained from the type of continual demonizing they did to “white Hispanic,” George Zimmerman or the poor (not too much longer poor) Christian school student, Nich Sandman who wore a MAGA hat and stood quietly as Nathan Phillips banged a drum in his face.
The media lately doesn’t back off when facts betray their narrative.
The media doubles down.
That’s the new normal.
It wasn’t that was (as much) in Jewell’s day.
In July 1997, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, prompted by a reporter’s question at her weekly news conference, expressed regret over the FBI’s leak to the news media that led to the widespread presumption of his guilt, and apologized outright, saying, “I’m very sorry it happened. I think we owe him an apology. I regret the leak.
Same old players NBC, CNN from , July 27, thru October 1996, they tortured that man.
A Justice Department investigation of the FBI’s conduct found the FBI had tried to manipulate Jewell into waiving his constitutional rights by telling him he was taking part in a training film about bomb detection, although the report concluded “no intentional violation of Mr. Jewell’s civil rights and no criminal misconduct” had taken place.
Ya sure
I would like to see another Dirty Harry movie where he gose up against Antifa and ISIS with his44 MAGNUM REVOLVER you feel lucky punk do you?
Now, THAT’S funny. I don’t care who you are. WHO do they hold to strict standards of truthfulness? Democrats? Uh… NO. Republicans and Republicans only and if they can FIND no examples of UNtruthfulness, they will hack their statements to pieces to CREATE examples.
Sort of related, when my wife and I went to see “Midway” last week, they ran a trailer for a movie (I did not take note of the title) about the Roger Ailes sexual harassment scandal at Fox News. I can only assume this will be the first in a series to be followed by movies about sex scandals at ABC, CBS, NBC, etc.
The media, including Hollywood, carries on with it’s own agenda.
Hollywood and their Anti-Gun stance Hypocricy at its most well known