Post by artraveler on Sept 5, 2021 18:27:46 GMT -8
News of the World
Currently available on HBO
It is 1870 in Texas. Federal troops patrol the roads of Texas and Texans feel the weight of an occupation army. Former Confederate Captain Jefferson Kidd (Tom Hanks) is traveling from town to town reading the news to people who pay ten cents to hear it. Captain Kidd is not only a former officer but a preacher before the war.
He is leaving Wichita traveling around the Indian territory in Oklahoma and comes across a wagon, ambushed on the trail. The owner of the wagon has been killed. The captain discovers the wagon driver was an Indian agent transporting a white girl, (Helena Zengel) who has been captured by Kiowa and speaks no English. Looking through the agent’s paperwork captain Kidd finds proof that identifies the girl as the daughter of German immigrants murdered by Kiowa and that she has family in East Texas hill country.
Captain Kidd decides to take the girl to the nearest federal post and leave the problem with them. The federal officer is not helpful. The captain decides to take the girl to her relatives himself. The rest of the movie involves traveling through Indian Territory and across east Texas through Dallas to the San Antonio area. It questions what family is, and the importance of family. The viewer slowly discovers that the captain has lost his family to cholera and the girl has lost two families, one to Kiowa raiders and the adoptive Kiowa family to the Army, an orphan twice over. The story builds around the bond developed on the road between the two.
This movie doesn’t pull punches. Post war Oklahoma and Texas were not for the squeamish. Hanks plays a Confederate veteran well. I think as an actor he is now at the very top of his craft. The movie will hold your interest and there is the necessary shootout. With a solid believable ending as a father daughter team reading the news of the world.
It is a well-crafted movie without posh sets or other actors of Tom Hanks screen presence. The story line is believable and without sex or unnecessary violence. It is a movie that John Wayne could have made when he was Tom Hanks age. Overall, a good way to spend two hours of your time.
Currently available on HBO
It is 1870 in Texas. Federal troops patrol the roads of Texas and Texans feel the weight of an occupation army. Former Confederate Captain Jefferson Kidd (Tom Hanks) is traveling from town to town reading the news to people who pay ten cents to hear it. Captain Kidd is not only a former officer but a preacher before the war.
He is leaving Wichita traveling around the Indian territory in Oklahoma and comes across a wagon, ambushed on the trail. The owner of the wagon has been killed. The captain discovers the wagon driver was an Indian agent transporting a white girl, (Helena Zengel) who has been captured by Kiowa and speaks no English. Looking through the agent’s paperwork captain Kidd finds proof that identifies the girl as the daughter of German immigrants murdered by Kiowa and that she has family in East Texas hill country.
Captain Kidd decides to take the girl to the nearest federal post and leave the problem with them. The federal officer is not helpful. The captain decides to take the girl to her relatives himself. The rest of the movie involves traveling through Indian Territory and across east Texas through Dallas to the San Antonio area. It questions what family is, and the importance of family. The viewer slowly discovers that the captain has lost his family to cholera and the girl has lost two families, one to Kiowa raiders and the adoptive Kiowa family to the Army, an orphan twice over. The story builds around the bond developed on the road between the two.
This movie doesn’t pull punches. Post war Oklahoma and Texas were not for the squeamish. Hanks plays a Confederate veteran well. I think as an actor he is now at the very top of his craft. The movie will hold your interest and there is the necessary shootout. With a solid believable ending as a father daughter team reading the news of the world.
It is a well-crafted movie without posh sets or other actors of Tom Hanks screen presence. The story line is believable and without sex or unnecessary violence. It is a movie that John Wayne could have made when he was Tom Hanks age. Overall, a good way to spend two hours of your time.
