By 89-year-old Hollywood filmmaking icon Clint Eastwood shows no signs of slowing down with his latest docu-drama taking a look at a man thrust into the middle of a media storm.
Clint Eastwood is quite possibly the most economical filmmaker working in Hollywood today. For decades, he has been a filmmaker who crafts stories through a style that is direct and to the point, seemingly not bothered with trying anything too flashy just in case it should threaten the legitimacy of the story he is telling. That has certainly been the case for the films that have characterised the last decade if his directorial career, ones ranging from character dramas to docu-dramas of real-life heroes and tragedies. His latest very much fits this late-career interest, looking at a figure behind a recent event and examining just how history wants to remember him.
Depicting the events of the Centennial Olympic Park bombing that took place during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, Eastwood’s latest focuses on Richard Jewell (portrayed by Paul Walter Hauser), the security guard who discovered the bomb and managed to help clear away spectators to limit the number of casualties. While initially hailed as a hero, Jewell quickly became a figure of public scrutiny as the media descends upon his home after an article leaks the fact that the FBI are looking into Jewell as a suspect behind the bombing.
Read the full review at THN, originally published January 29th 2020.
Andrew Gaudion 