Clint Eastwood's new film, The Lamentations of Richard Jewell, was released domestically. The film recounts the bombings that took place at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
On July 27, 1996, a serious explosion occurred in Olympic Century Park near the Olympic Village in Atlanta, injuring more than 100 people and killing two. Subsequently, the FBI included Richard Jewell, the first on-site security guard to find the bomb package at the time, on the suspect list of main offenders. After the news leaked to the media, Jewell immediately became a sinner from the very beginning of the hero. But in the course of a later investigation, Jewell proved innocent. In 2003, the real culprit in the bombing, Eric Rudolph, was captured. The story of "Richard Jewell's Lament" focuses on Richard Jewell's ups and downs throughout the explosion.
As many domestic media and film critics have said, Richard Jewell's becoming a hero and a demon in public opinion is a product of social mechanisms. After the bombing, the powerful media completed the creation of Richard Jewell overnight, and also dragged him to hell overnight. In the film, the FBI, desperate to solve the case and did not investigate carefully at all, conspired with unscrupulous journalists who were bent on getting headlines to complete the "persecution" of Jewell.
To a certain extent, there is nothing wrong with interpreting "The Lamentations of Richard Jewell" in this way. What's more, the Chinese title of the film has added a "lament" (the film's original name is Richard Jewell) with obvious emotions and positions on the basis of the original title, which seems to set the tone for the general direction of the film in advance. Lamentations are tragedies.
Social mechanisms, especially in the United States, are easily targeted in the story of Richard Jewell, and furthermore, they have become the film's propaganda tool in China. Whether people get the point wrong, deliberately ignore it, or say that everyone is taken to the rhythm, if you look at the interpretation of the film, you will realize that "The Lamentations of Richard Jewell" has been decided.
That's why I want to write this. There is nothing wrong with the mechanism theory, but it cannot be dominated.
Sam Rockwell, who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2018 for "Three Billboards," played Jewell's lawyer Watson Bryant in "Richard Jewell's Lament." As the whole thing was about to fall to the ground, he told Jewell that those people were not the United States, just a bunch of bastards who worked for the United States.
In a very sensational passage in the film, Richard Jewell's mother, Bobby Jewell, holds a press conference with Watson's help to confide in the media about her inner pain and helplessness. I pleaded with the power of the media to speak out and help my son, who was now under investigation (and denigration).
If these arguments are true, then these passages can seem "glaring". What is more obvious is that director Eastwood has no intention of criticizing the workings of American society, what he wants to express is that in the face of external disasters, internal trauma, and difficulties, although they are just ordinary civilians, they still burst out with great strength.
Richard Jewell was the hero of the Atlanta bombings, and because he spotted the bomb early and evacuated the crowd, he did not cause more serious casualties. But at the same time, Richard Jewell is a civilian hero in life.
In recent years, Clint Eastwood has been making civilian-heroic films, including "The American Sniper" in 2014, "Captain Sully" in 2016, and "Departure to Paris at 15:17" in 2018, including "The Lament of Richard Jewell" in 2018.
These films are based on real events in contemporary America, and the protagonists are very ordinary Americans. Under the circumstances of history, they became participants in history and completed heroic deeds. Chesley Sally, as the captain, maneuvered the plane to complete an emergency landing on the Hudson River in New York, saving all the passengers. Three American soldiers spotted the terrorists on a train bound for Paris, fought them heroically, and subdued them, avoiding a potential terrorist attack. Richard Jewell, a big fat man with a police dream but repeated ambitions, found the bomb package during the Olympic Games when everyone was letting their guard down, and acted quickly, reporting to the agent on duty, notifying the bomb expert, evacuating the crowd, and doing everything in his power to reduce the injury.
It can be said that what Eastwood is doing is documenting real superheroes. The hero is the only protagonist of this series of movies, and it is also the most important theme that these movies want to convey. The image of the hero and the story of the hero transcend international disputes, transcend bureaucracy, transcend social mechanisms, and even say, transcend everything. In all the vicissitudes of history, the upheavals, the intrigues and tricks, the cattle, ghosts, snakes, gods, and ultimately only the heroes are eternal.
A long time ago, clint Eastwood was mostly an actor. He starred in the famous Italian director Sergio Leone's "Dart Trilogy": "Red Dead Redemption", "Dusk Double Dart" and "Golden Triad". The two worked together seamlessly, and Eastwood's image of the nameless blonde in the "Dart" movie was also deeply rooted in people's hearts. While preparing for the new film "Once Upon a Time in the West", Leone wanted to exhaust the number of Western movies with "Once Upon a Time in the West". To accomplish the idea, he needed Eastwood's cooperation. He hopes that Eastwood will appear as a blonde at the beginning of Once Upon a Time in the West, and then be blown away by a mysterious harmonica player, as a symbol of the complete end of the Western.
Clint Eastwood didn't even think about it and rejected Leone. Heroes don't need to end, and they don't need to be any other footnotes.
You won't find a second director in the world who is so obsessed with heroes as Eastwood.