Bwahahaha! "Richard Jewell" flips at the box office.

[muntrv]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/richard-jewell-movie-clint-eastwood-film-flops-box-office-following-controversy-olivia-wilde-kathy-scruggs/

[CurtEastPoint]

1. flops?

[maxsolomon]

2. A terrible time to release a downbeat movie with an uncharismatic antihero

And the Studio probably knew what it was doing when it made that choice.

[Takket]

3. Elsa to the left of you, Skywalker to the right... this is a STUPID time to release a film.

[underthematrix]

4. What goes around comes around

Link to tweet

[exboyfil]

12. Over 2,000 theaters

Plenty of chairs available.

[hlthe2b]

5. There is an important story that needs to be told about Richard Jewell. I don't know if this movie

did it justice or not (I've not seen it), but what happened to him was tragic.

Even with Clint Eastwood behind the project, I think it was pretty low budget and as a "docudrama," I doubt many expected it to break any box office records, especially at Christmas time. But, I hope there is enough redeeming about the movie to bring Jewell's story to those who are unaware of what he went through.

[Cartoonist]

8. Did the police shoot him in the back?

I know the story. I'll save my outrage for real injustice

[hlthe2b]

10. Really? How does bringing to light one injustice deny the existence and importance of OTHERS?

Bringing attention to one does not negate the other's importance nor the need to do likewise.

[Cartoonist]

15. Proportion

I said a TV doc should suffice. And yes, when fighting injustice, you go after the tiger, not the kitten.

[hlthe2b]

23. There are many black, brown, white, foreign & overwhelmingly poor people on death row

who would adamantly disagree with your assessment of importance, of "proportion" to the issue of false identification-- propelled and amplified by the media, especially on a national level.

[Cartoonist]

24. I didn't know Jewell was on death row!

Oh that's right, he wasn't. That's just my point. Tell the story of those POC, they're the ones whose lives are being destroyed.

[hlthe2b]

25. You intentionally miss the point. The issue is the media's rush to identify a subject that then

takes on a "life of its own." And the serious consequences that can result.

If you don't get that, if you disregard the very demonstrable fact that this HAS resulted in such serious and sometimes even deadly consequences, I don't know what more to say to you. I do find that attitude inexplicable and depressing.

Some just cannot or refuse to see the bigger picture I guess.

[Cartoonist]

27. Putting kids in cages

I'm sorry if I see that as a bigger picture.
Tomorrow I'm going to the anti Trump rally. Excuse me for skipping the Free Jewell rally.

[hlthe2b]

28. Again pitting one injustice against another. No ONE here argues against the importance of

fighting against Trump's horrific detention policies and child separation.

I do not believe that one can fight one injustice while deeming another not worth your consideration when it can and does have equally deadly outcomes. If you believe otherwise-- that only some people, some groups, some issues are worth your attention, then that is not the progressive values that I believe most here would promote.

I get it. You don't give a damn about Jewell. What you SHOULD give a damn about is the issue which his case demonstrates. The issue of the rush to judgment and false accusal by police and media. You say you care about the issue of police violence toward black men. I should hope you would likewise be concerned about their being falsely accused. The issue is not simply what happened to Jewell.

[USALiberal]

61. This post is not going well for you! nt

[choie]

39. Jesus, have some empathy...

Acknowledging somebody's pain as a result of the injustice at the hands of the government doesn't take away from other examples of injustice. We can care about both.

[D_Master81]

43. Thank you

I don’t get why we can’t be upset about both

[exboyfil]

11. Yes he went through 90 days of hell

I don't know what he ended up from the settlements, but one was for $500K back then.

I would go through what Jewell went through for a $200K I think.

The thing we know is that there would have been no outrage if he had been guilty (or black and not guilty) even with the civil rights violation.

In terms of his apartment being searched. That was to be expected. The fake training video on the other hand and keeping his lawyer away was pure gestapo.

[hlthe2b]

19. You don't know the extent of it. I lived in Atlanta at the time. It was far more than what

you describe AND it continues to happen to others falsely accused after major shootings or terrorist events, now aided by social media. That is the lesson that needs to be brought forward.

People looked at him and didn't give a damn. He was not a compelling nor charming, nor seemingly sympathetic figure because the public is not very tolerant of those who do not meet the perception of a heroic figure. He was a portly, seemingly poorly educated guy that all too many were willing to brand a "loser," His life really was ruined and while it may not have caused his early death from diabetes and heart disease, it surely could not have helped.

You don't know the half of it.

[cwydro]

40. I can only imagine what would have been said about him here.

I can imagine it quite easily, sadly.

I won’t see the movie. I felt sorry for him then, and it still makes me sad to think about it.

[rampartc]

36. there was more outrage when the actual bomber was caught

serial bomber eric Rudolph is an evangelical hero.

http://armyofgod.com/EricRudolphHomepage.html

[Mariana]

54. Christian terrorist Eric Rudolph.

Yeah, he does have groupies, who wish they had the guts to do what he did.

[cwydro]

17. His life was ruined.

What they did to him no doubt contributed to his death at an early age.

[USALiberal]

60. LOL, yes, because only one outrage exists. Silly! nt

[Solomon]

29. We told you it was going to be some bullshit tripe

trying to make some kind of point in support of Trump. Because it is Eastwood. A true asshole. I haven't seen it yet but I heard he dissed the hell out of a female journalist in support of whatever mission he thinks he's on. Poetic license and all that.

[hlthe2b]

30. And I told YOU, that the issue is exposing the wider and critical importance of false identification

by police and media and the Jewell case is a very clear example of that.

I defended the subject matter. I don't defend the movie because I've not seen it.

[Iris]

57. Yes. Eastwood is determined to go out as a first rate asshole

and misogynist

[rusty fender]

37. I read that it had a $139 million budget,

Last edited Tue Dec 17, 2019, 01:42 AM - Edit history (1)

but that was a big typo. It had a budget of $45 million and it may not even make that much at the box office.

[Beaverhausen]

45. Actually it was around $40 million

He’s known to do his films quickly and cheaply.

[Cartoonist]

6. Why was this film made?

Sure, an injustice was done, but is it worthy of a feature length movie by a noted director? An after school special maybe.

[exboyfil]

9. It would have been a good movie when he was still alive

We know why he made it now. If he wanted to make a movie about the Justice Department screwing up someone's life, then he should have gone with Hatfield (anthrax suspect). Not only did Ashcroft get him fired from the job he had on 9/11, he also got him fired from his Louisiana State position. Of course he got a $5 M judgement from Bush's Justice Department. Of course putting a GOP administration in a bad light might not have agreed with the narrative he was telling.

[hlthe2b]

13. It remains an important story because false identification & smears continue to happen.

We've had decades of mass shootings and terrorist attacks where the initial identifications of those involved were likewise false. While I think the MSM has largely learned their lesson, it does continue to happen, propelled by social media.

[exboyfil]

14. I do agree with your point

and I probably would see the movie without the Scruggs slander. I have no interest of seeing it now. I know the story.

[Marengo]

18. Your zeal to diminish the film is... interesting

[hlthe2b]

26. Indeed. n/t

[obnoxiousdrunk]

35. Yes ...

[cwydro]

41. This.

Very.

[mr_lebowski]

51. Well ... perhaps this article is worth considering ...

https://variety.com/2019/film/columns/richard-jewell-clint-eastwood-kathy-scruggs-controversy-1203435866/

It appears Eastwood spun the truth to make it seem like reporter K. Scruggs fucked an FBI agent to 'get the scoop' ... IOW, 'THE FBI WAS LITERALLY IN BED WITH (some slut in) THE MEDIA TO SMEAR AN INNOCENT MAN!!!'

Feel free to join the folks in the comments on the article, if you like ...

[underpants]

31. A full story would have included Eric Rudolph

Just saying.

[LanternWaste]

59. Sounds like a vapid generalization that could equally apply to any film.

As it's all subjective...

[exboyfil]

7. Eastwood's version of Get Woke, Go Broke

The story is compelling because Jewell's rights were violated in the video taped "training" and the press should not release the name of a suspect without a statement by LEO or a charging document, but Eastwood fumbled the ball.

He just had to put in the libel of the reporter sleeping with her source to get the name. An actual person. The FBI agent of course is a composite and cannot be attributed to any particular FBI agent (also she had two sources as well as confirmation that Jewell's apartment was under surveillance.

Not one of her associates on the story thinks she slept with her source for the tip. Not even Jewell's lawyer knows if she did. The authors of both the Vanity Fair article and The Suspect book don't know either.

Eastwood just had to put out the two-dimensional slutty woman as a villain. Way to go hack.

Personally I would have crucified the columnist that equated Jewell to Wayne Williams. I guess since he is a guy he gets a pass.

[virgogal]

16. I am looking forward to it.... that poor guy was treated horribly.

[Raine]

20. That's too bad

I thought it looked like it would've been an interesting film.

[live love laugh]

21. A fitting referendum on Clint Asswood's creative direction. nt

[Thomas Hurt]

22. Jewell's story is important...but I doubt Eastwood did it for Jewell...

He did it for Trump. I smell more christofascist propaganda trying to prop up newspeak "Fake News" bee ess and give some credence to the Deep State conspiracy theory.

[Iris]

58. Eastwood couldn't tell it without tarnishing a female reporter

[Quixote1818]

32. I don't know what is so funny about this. The guy saved lives and was vilified and eventually died

It's a very tragic, sad story that needs to be told and I don't find it the least bit funny that it isn't doing well.

[cwydro]

42. I agree, though I don't want to see it. Remember it all too well.

People seem to be happy simply because they hate Eastwood.

But the film is making an important point.

[xmas74]

48. I'll wait for it to come out on streaming.

It's an important story but I'm not sure if I'm happy with the direction Eastwood took it, especially the bit with the female journalist.

This would have done well in the winter, not at Christmas. Maybe if this had been released in mid January I'd have considered it. Right now my kid is ready to see Star Wars and has promised to take me to Little Women for my birthday. She's also talking about us watching Parasite and Honey Boy during her holiday break from college.

[Raine]

47. That's what I thought too

I don't think it's funny. Jewell deserves to have his story told, I was hoping it would be successful.

[rockfordfile]

49. It's sad that they let eastwood near it.

[underpants]

33. Another element that needs to be mentioned

Aside from being a downer dark type movie.....large leads don't typically do well.

[USALiberal]

62. So they should have made him thinner? Nt

[Gothmog]

34. This makes me smile

[TheRealNorth]

38. I don't see it doing better this week with Star Wars Episode 9 coming out

Unfortunately, from reading what others who have saw it have said, it seems the movie just wanted to bash the media for MAGA reasons.

[miyazaki]

44. Originally this was a DiCaprio film. He stayed on as a producer.

Often this place cracks me up.

[greenjar_01]

46. Eastwood MAGAfied a probably OK story and loaded it with his usual misogyny

Too bad for the perhaps merited elements of the story that it got into Eastwood's hands.

I watched his asinine The Mule. He had a full two minutes of ass and crotch shots of women dancing around in bikinis, supposedly at a Mexican cartel boss's party. It had zero plot relevance and was about as gratuitous as I've seen in a film this side of Bachelor Party.

He's a fucking disgrace.

[Polybius]

50. I thought for sure that Jewell was guilty, even years after

I remember he had a Confederate flag on his truck. When he was a suspect, the news camera-person zoomed in on it when he was driving away. Then it came out that someone else did it.

[Mariana]

56. It was the Christian terrorist Eric Rudolph who did it.

While the FBI were publicly insisting that Jewell had to be the bad guy (which is why you were sure he was guilty), Rudolph was left alone to plan and perpetrate several more terrorist attacks.

[TheRealNorth]

63. Yup

So if the MAGAT's are trying to sell that it was some sort of conspiracy that the FBI was maliciously trying to pin the Atlanta Olympics bombing on Jewel, then what they were doing was providing a patsy for the crimes for right-wing Christian terrorist Eric Rudolph (I insist that every Republican must call him a "Christian" terrorist, since it was so important that we call middle-eastern terrorists "Islamic" terrorists).

[mr_lebowski]

52. Owen Gliebermann wrote an interesting take on the lies involved in this presentation of the story

https://variety.com/2019/film/columns/richard-jewell-clint-eastwood-kathy-scruggs-controversy-1203435866/

It appears Eastwood spun the truth to make it seem like reporter K. Scruggs f*cked an FBI agent in order to 'get the scoop' ... IOW, 'THE FBI WAS LITERALLY IN BED WITH (some slut in) THE MEDIA TO SMEAR AN INNOCENT MAN!!!' is a major theme in play here.

Check out the folks in the comments on the article, if you like ... they're a hoot.

[RockRaven]

53. Jewell was mistreated... but "Media-sucks, FBI-sucks, pudgy white guy is being wrongly screwed here"

is a really, really bad feature film premise at the moment given the zeitgeist of this particular point in time which is the exact opposite of those 3 points.

Womp womp to all those involved.

And I don't care if DiCaprio was a producer, he isn't some fucking saint or pope of the left.

[RandySF]

55. It's terrible what happened to Jewell

but Eastwood had no right to drag a dead woman’s name the mud.