Throughout a long career playing everyday hero roles—from Forrest Gump to the children’s show host Mr. Rogers in ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’—Hanks, coupled with an equally warm and likable persona off-screen, has established himself as a revered and recognizable film star. In nine out of ten cases, Hanks guarantees solid quality, skillful acting, and uplifting entertainment with a humanistic message. You can always count on him to deliver, and automatic sympathy is felt for his character from the moment he steps onto the screen.
You know what you’re getting. And that holds true for ‘News of the World,’ a classic epic Western where Hanks appears in his familiar, solidly paternal mode as the traveling news reader, Captain Jefferson Kidd. The film is set in 1870, five years after the conclusion of the American Civil War, in a conflict-ridden and violent Texas, where many residents are deeply dissatisfied with the war’s outcome.
In the opening scene, Kidd comes across a lynched black man. Next, he encounters the 10-year-old girl (German actress Helena Zengel from ‘System Crasher’), Johanna, whom the man had been a driver for. When she was four, her German parents were killed, and she was kidnapped by an Indian tribe. Now, her new family has also been killed, and she was about to be taken to her uncle and aunt on the other side of the state. Kidd takes her to the authorities, who are not particularly helpful in arranging new transportation for her. She is scared, confused, and angry, doesn’t speak a word of English, and runs away from the friends Kidd tries to leave her with while waiting for the authorities. So, he decides to follow her himself.
The rest of the film follows the unlikely pair’s perilous journey, threatened by, among other things, a group of criminals who want to sell Johanna into prostitution, their dilapidated wagon, and a violent sandstorm. The plot is never surprising, but it is still skillfully crafted and engaging. One holds their breath as Kidd, alone and with too few bullets, must defend Johanna against three armed villains in a long and subdued duel.”
