DVD Review: News of the World

News of the World

based on the novel by Paulette Giles (DVD News)

 

My wife is a huge fan of the Paulette Giles novel, News of the World, upon which this film is based, and was looking forward to seeing the movie, despite it being released in 2020, during which movie theaters were closed. And, in spite of the fact that she thought Tom Hanks was miscast in the central role. So, I was pleased to see the libraries finally get the DVD, so that we could see the film. We ended up watching it the week after the 2021 Oscars ceremony, in which it was a multiple-nominee (though it didn’t take home any statues).

 

A grizzled Hanks stars as Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, a former publisher who lost his business when he was called into service for the South in the Civil War. Since the war, he has made his living traveling from town to town, throughout the south, sharing dramatic readings of news stories from the many small town, big city and foreign newspapers he is able to acquire. On his travels, he comes across an abandoned pre-teen girl amidst the wreckage of another traveler’s wagon and camp. Paperwork he locates there indicates she was kidnapped as a little child, when her parents were killed, and has been raised by the Kiowa tribe — she appears not to know English, and is hostile to the concept of being returned to her surviving caucasian family members, which is her fate. Circumstances force Captain Kidd to take on the responsibility of transporting her into South Texas to reunite her with an aunt and uncle. The odd couple bond as they face multiple challenges, including bad weather, post-war prejudices, violent rogues and the loss of almost all of their traveling supplies. But they also learn that sometimes “family is more than just blood ties”.

 

I thought the performances in News of the World were superb, including both Hanks and young German actress Helena Zengel as Johanna. Having just started to read the novel, I can see that the writer/director, Paul Greengrass, took several liberties with the original plot — condensing or excising some elements of the story to make it more cinematic. I would agree that Captain Kidd should have been played by an older less-well-known actor, perhaps someone better recognized as a “character actor,” rather than the “leading man” Tom Hanks. None-the-less, I thought this was a marvelous film, very atmospheric, and an excellent addition to the classic Western genre of film-making.

[Also available in traditional print format.]

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official News of the World film web site ]

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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