The man who gave style to the Bourne saga by directing the best films of that saga and who in 2006 impressed with his film Flight 93, about the 9/11 attacks, centered on the flight that "supposedly" the passengers themselves bravely decided to fight the terrorists by crashing before reaching the criminals' target, Paul Greengrass, makes a change of film genre and brings us a western.
It stars Tom Hanks, which is also the first time in his career that he makes a film of this genre. It was about time. Hanks has made great productions, in different genres, comedy, drama, thriller, prison drama, suspense, science fiction, etc. But he was missing a western.
This is the second film he has made under the orders of Greengrass. The first film with the director was Captain Phillips in 2013. Based on true events, it was an intense thriller on the water that chronicled the hijacking of a freighter by Somali pirates. The film received accolades and numerous major award nominations, including Golden Globe and Oscar, in the categories of Best Picture, Director and Screenplay.
News of the World is an adaptation of Paulette Jiles' novel, published in 2016, which was a finalist for that year's National Book Award for Fiction. The writer has published other novels and poetry collections with considerable success in the United States. Among her other notable works is Enemy Women, a romance novel set in the Civil War era.
To make the adaptation, filmmaker Greengrass himself writes the screenplay together with Luke Davis, screenwriter who was nominated for an Oscar for the adaptation of the screenplay of the film Lion in 2016. In addition to other screenplays for film and television, Davis is the author of Candy: A Novel of Love and Addiction, a novel of which a film adaptation was already made in 2006, titled Candy and starring Heath Ledger, Abbie Cornish and Geoffrey Rush.
What is the plot?
Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd makes his living traveling from town to town, reading the news in the newspapers, telling the news of the world to people who spend their days looking for ways to survive. The Captain fought in the Civil War five years ago, on the Confederate side, the side of the losers. Those five years he has been working reading the news is the time he has not returned to the town where he lived with his wife before the war. But one day, on a Texas highway, he finds a ten-year-old girl, who according to the documentation says her name is Johanna and that she was kidnapped by the Kiowa tribe at a very young age, so the girl believes she is an Indian of the tribe, and she does not speak any English. As the captain is a good person, he agrees to take the girl to the village where the girl's aunt is, near the village where he used to live. Kidd and Johanna will have to learn to live together, communicate and take care of each other on a journey through this inhospitable and wild land, full of natural and earthly dangers. Great dangers and obstacles will present themselves on their journey, will they reach their destination and find their longed-for home?
It is a travel movie. The characters must move from point A to point B. But it is all the adventures and dangers they will have to face that will make this western, which at times seems to follow the classic style of the great works of the genre, exciting.
But let's remember that this is a film by Greengrass, who knows how to combine slow pacing with more action. The action scenes, with confrontations against villains, shootouts and fights, the director hooks us, as he has done in his previous works.
The journey undertaken by these two strangers, who have difficulty communicating, because the captain does not speak Kiowa and the girl does not speak English, will also be a journey into the interior of each of them. They are two souls who have lost everything, they have nothing left, they don't even have a home.
The captain is a sad man, carrying on his back the weight of everything he saw and did during the war. A war he didn't want, but was forced to fight on one side. There are constant scenes of racism in the area, even though they lost the war, many still refuse to accept the orders of the federal government. The captain can only remain silent in the face of the massacre of the Indians.
has grown up thinking she is a member of the tribe, but in reality she is a descendant of a German colony in the region. She has lived as an Indian and has lost her home and parents twice. The first time was when the tribesmen kidnapped her and killed her parents, the second when the white man began the slaughter against the tribe. She has lost everything, fortunately she met the good Captain, who is willing to take on the burden and bring her to the girl's relatives.
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The obstacles will be great, they will have to survive on roads too dangerous. Sandstorms, adverse weather conditions, but the worst will be the human dangers. That will be bigger and bigger. Former soldiers who want the girl for lewd purposes, war losers who have taken control of the town and subjugate the black slaves, Indians and Mexicans. It is the time after the civil war, in which the law of the strongest prevails.
The paternal filial relationship between the captain and Johanna will bring them together and change them forever. He is willing to protect her at any cost, even at the risk of his own life. His mission is to deliver her to the girl's relatives who are still alive and to take advantage of the fact that she will be close to her village, to go to the old house, to the one that was her home, but where she has not been for five years.
I love the western genre and I was totally satisfied with what Greengrass does, combining the drama of the two characters with the scenes and adventures typical of westerns. There are scenes that give an epic touch to the whole story, very evil villains and a good-hearted hero.
Tom Hanks needs no introduction. It is a character made to his measure, it is not a dark western, the character of Captain Kidd is very transparent. That's why it stands out that he participated in a war he didn't agree with. For me it was a pleasure to see Hanks as a gunslinger, we had even seen him as a mobster in other films, but how could he not have done a western. Hanks is one of the best actors of my generation and an idol for those of us who have been watching his films for several decades.
He is accompanied in this adventure by the girl Helena Zengel in the role of Johanna. She is a German actress who is currently 12 years old and for this character has been nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the upcoming Golden Globes. She has also been nominated in the same category by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), the Chicago Critics Association and the Satellite Awards. The girl does an excellent acting job, she has many scenes in which she only has to convey what she thinks and feels with gestures and looks, since the character does not speak English. The young girl has jumped to international fame, we still don't know if she can be nominated for an Oscar. But what is certain is that she must be receiving proposals for future films in the mecca of cinema.
Among the rest of the supporting actors, we find Elizabeth Marvel playing Ella Gannett, the bar manager of a hotel in one of the towns, a friend of the Captain. Bill Camp plays Corey Farley, the Captain's father-in-law. Mare Winningham plays Jane, another friend of the notecard reader who will try to take care of the girl for a while, but she won't stay still. Thomas Francis Murphy plays a nasty man named Merritt Farley. Fred Hechinger is John Calley, a gunslinger who will help the Captain at a decisive moment.
Uiversal Pictures' plans were to release it theatrically, but for Covid reasons, there was a select theatrical release and Netflix acquired the international distribution rights, so almost everyone has seen the film, thanks to the streaming platform. It is a film by an excellent director and with Tom Hanks, it had to be a premiere in style, but the times we live in have transformed the industry. The film had a budget of 38 million dollars, it is not known how much Netflix paid for the distribution.
Lovers of the western genre will be delighted. It is directed by Greengrass, who has a great talent for making good movies. It stars Tom Hanks and a new star has emerged with the little actress who plays Johana. Shootouts, adventure, villains and excitement, everything we asked for to have a good time.
Enjoy it when you can and let me know what you thought.
My Ranking: 3.8/5
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