News of the World (2020)
Country: US/CHI
Technical: col/2.39:1 118m
Director: Paul Greengrass
Cast: Tom Hanks, Helena Zengel
Synopsis:
A former Confederate captain is so traumatised by the war that rather than go home he has chosen to travel from town to town in the Texas territory, providing readings from the local, national and world news. Then one day he happens upon a stray white girl, raised by the Kiowa.
Review:
Like The Homesman this has a grizzled old-timer reluctantly undertaking a trek with a charge he is at a loss what to do with, before realizing where his new loyalties must lie. Greengrass (and Hanks) let us gradually infer what has happened to their Captain Kidd, who seems oddly inept at defending himself on the open road for an army captain; ironically it is the girl's past woes that are clearer from the off. Inner torment and growing attachment are delineated by shared objects and the landscape, which are impeccably sourced, and old Dallas and San Antonio, amongst others, look just as they should. In one scene, the swollen Red River thunders past, threatening to break its banks and engulf the town, no doubt a CGI fest but impressive nonetheless. We are really here for the acting, however, and it is a two-hander in which neither party disappoints, Hanks gaining in gravitas with each passing film, and the young Zengel looking every bit part-German, part-Kiowa. Further evidence that the western is perhaps not finished, maybe because it is not so much a genre piece as a human story that takes place in the old west.
Country: US/CHI
Technical: col/2.39:1 118m
Director: Paul Greengrass
Cast: Tom Hanks, Helena Zengel
Synopsis:
A former Confederate captain is so traumatised by the war that rather than go home he has chosen to travel from town to town in the Texas territory, providing readings from the local, national and world news. Then one day he happens upon a stray white girl, raised by the Kiowa.
Review:
Like The Homesman this has a grizzled old-timer reluctantly undertaking a trek with a charge he is at a loss what to do with, before realizing where his new loyalties must lie. Greengrass (and Hanks) let us gradually infer what has happened to their Captain Kidd, who seems oddly inept at defending himself on the open road for an army captain; ironically it is the girl's past woes that are clearer from the off. Inner torment and growing attachment are delineated by shared objects and the landscape, which are impeccably sourced, and old Dallas and San Antonio, amongst others, look just as they should. In one scene, the swollen Red River thunders past, threatening to break its banks and engulf the town, no doubt a CGI fest but impressive nonetheless. We are really here for the acting, however, and it is a two-hander in which neither party disappoints, Hanks gaining in gravitas with each passing film, and the young Zengel looking every bit part-German, part-Kiowa. Further evidence that the western is perhaps not finished, maybe because it is not so much a genre piece as a human story that takes place in the old west.
Country: US/CHI
Technical: col/2.39:1 118m
Director: Paul Greengrass
Cast: Tom Hanks, Helena Zengel
Synopsis:
A former Confederate captain is so traumatised by the war that rather than go home he has chosen to travel from town to town in the Texas territory, providing readings from the local, national and world news. Then one day he happens upon a stray white girl, raised by the Kiowa.
Review:
Like The Homesman this has a grizzled old-timer reluctantly undertaking a trek with a charge he is at a loss what to do with, before realizing where his new loyalties must lie. Greengrass (and Hanks) let us gradually infer what has happened to their Captain Kidd, who seems oddly inept at defending himself on the open road for an army captain; ironically it is the girl's past woes that are clearer from the off. Inner torment and growing attachment are delineated by shared objects and the landscape, which are impeccably sourced, and old Dallas and San Antonio, amongst others, look just as they should. In one scene, the swollen Red River thunders past, threatening to break its banks and engulf the town, no doubt a CGI fest but impressive nonetheless. We are really here for the acting, however, and it is a two-hander in which neither party disappoints, Hanks gaining in gravitas with each passing film, and the young Zengel looking every bit part-German, part-Kiowa. Further evidence that the western is perhaps not finished, maybe because it is not so much a genre piece as a human story that takes place in the old west.