Movie Review: News of the World

Director Paul Greengrass, probably best known for his more action-oriented films, such as those of the “Bourne” franchise or the recent 22 July (2018) reunites in News of the World with Tom Hanks, the star of the director’s 2013 film Captain Phillips to make a Western adventure film that once again showcases why Tom Hanks is one of the most dependable actors working today.

As a veteran of three wars, Captain Jefferson Kidd (Hanks) has seen his share of death. Now, three years after the Civil War, he travels across America serving as a newsman of sorts, sharing the news from across the world by reading newspaper stories to townsfolk who will have him. Then, while traveling through Texas, he comes across the orphaned Johanna (Helena Zengel) who had been raised by the Kiowa people after her family were all killed and was being returned to her aunt and uncle before the party taken her home was too ambushed and slaughtered. Kidd then takes on the task of returning the girl to the home the law claims she should be in.

Director Paul Greengrass tells this story in such a way that the film feels like a sort-of “what if” sequel to the John Ford masterpiece The Searchers (1956). That is, News of the World plays like how that John Wayne and Natalie Wood might have spent the rest of their days with each other following the events of that film. The comparison is a lofty one, and one well-earned as News of the World feels like one of the more important films to come around in quite some time. Not only does it champion the importance of family and community, but it also fosters a belief in the equality of other races and an understanding that everyone is actively trying to survive in their own particular way.

Tom Hanks and Helena Zengel in “News of the World.”

Along those lines, there is something profoundly universal about the turmoil that Kidd endures and overcomes, all to ensure that family continues, and love endures. It is something that no actor seems more capable of than Hanks. However, he has help in the form of the remarkable Zengel who spends most of the film speaking Kiowa and re-learning English. This process is one that allows the viewer to see the horrors the young girl had endured and exactly why she has become what she has in order to simply survive.

Director Greengrass, who also cowrote the film with Luke Davies, allows the characters to develop organically and the film is all the better for it. There is a subtle honesty about the nature of love and simply being a good person that is at the heart of this film and though it may often prove gut wrenching, it is well worth the experience.

Simply put, News of the World is one of the best films of the year and deserves to be lauded as one of the more important Westerns ever made as well.

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com

An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

@miketyrkus

Mike Tyrkus

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