It’s a movie about the failures of the press, and it’s not about Fox News, so of course, it’s getting pushback.
Clint Eastwood’s upcoming film Richard Jewell tells the true story of its eponymous lead, who was falsely accused of perpetrating the Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Georgia and smeared for months by the media until his name was finally cleared.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is admittedly upset about the film, considering it was the newspaper that originally named Jewell as a suspect and launched the media storm that wrecked his life. But they have a specific problem with the film: its portrayal of reporter Kathy Scruggs.
Scruggs, played by Olivia Wilde, helped break the story that Jewell was under suspicion by the FBI in 1996. The film depicts her as an aggressive newshound who will do whatever it takes to get a story, even if that means sleeping with an FBI agent.
“She was incredibly successful as a cop reporter,” Wilde said. “She had a very close relationship with the cops and the FBI helping to tell their story, and yes, by all accounts she had relationships with different people in that field.”
But since Scruggs died in 2001, that characterization is an unfair liberty, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which demanded Warner Bros. include a disclaimer about “artistic license” in the film and hired a lawyer for a potential lawsuit.
Warner Bros. responded, “It is unfortunate and the ultimate irony that the Atlanta Journal Constitution, having been a part of the rush to judgment of Richard Jewell, is now trying to malign our filmmakers and cast.”
It may seem a little ironic for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to complain about being defamed, but other media personalities piled on against Warner Bros., urging a boycott of the film for the “sexist” depiction of a female reporter.
If you ask Wilde, though, it’s not the film that’s sexist. It’s the critics.
“But what I resented was this character being boiled down to one inferred scene and I don’t hear anyone complaining about Jon Hamm’s character [the FBI agent] as being inferred that he also had a relationship with a reporter,” she said. “It feels unfair that Kathy has been minimized in this way.”
Hamm’s FBI agent, however, is not based on a singular person. Yet, Wilde says critics are denouncing Scruggs simply because she’s imperfect.
“I think that we are still struggling with allowing for female characters who aren’t entirely quote-unquote likable,” she said. “If there’s anything slightly questionable about a female character, we often use that in relation to condemn that character or to condemn the project for allowing for a woman to be impure in a way. It’s a misunderstanding of feminism to assume that all women have to be sexless. I resent the character being minimized to that point.”
With all these differing opinions, it’s hard to know who the real sexist is. Is it Clint Eastwood, for turning a real female reporter into an unethical opportunist? Is it those who criticize this version of Scruggs, for suggesting that a woman is defined by a single bad decision?
Whatever the answer, it’s not worth boycotting Richard Jewell, a timely and important story about the power and potential abuses of the press. Instead of complaining, the editors at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution might want to watch it.
