News of the World: A solid western that left me wanting more

Rob Ryan.

News of the World is a standard but competent western told with a contemporary lens. Westerns are usually known for their timely commentary of American society through the lens of its turbulent past and this film has all the elements in place for something to that effect, especially after a year’s, decades and even centuries of American society being called into question more and more of its countless injustices, yet the movie treads on eggshells too much and play things too safely often undermining its full potential. However, this is still a solid film that had me mostly engaged and at times moved. You can thank the always reliable Tom Hanks to give any film a certain warmth and gravitas that only he can pull off at the appropriate moments.

Hanks is Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, a former member of the confederate army during the Civil War who now makes a more dignified living of travelling across the country reading the news to all the townsfolk. One day when travelling to his next location he comes across a wagon overturned along with a black soldier that has been hanged on a tree.

That’s not all, he then finds a young white girl (Helena Zangel) who’s identification paper identifies her as Johanna, the girl is silent and doesn't speak any English and is at first resistant to the Captain’s help. When he is told to take the girl to Union officials where they will see it that she is returned to her family, he learns that Bureau of Indian Affairs representative will be unavailable for three months, leaving the Captain no choice to not only look after Johanna but return her to her aunt and uncle as her family have been killed during the Civil War. While the Captain has no interest in looking after Johanna and Johanna is mostly closed off from communicating, they soon find a common ground despite the language barrier and learn to work together.

The movie which is adapted from the novel of the same name by Paulette Julis harkens back to the traditional road movie which became a popular genre in the 60s and 70s. Most of these movies would be used to highlight the failures of late-stage capitalism, the American dream and the breakdown of the family unit which became normalised decades prior. A popular tagline from the trailer to Easy Rider personifies the core theme of the traditional road movie. “A man went looking for America and couldn’t find it” News of the World takes this genre to its early beggings during the aftermath of its most terrible days with too often effective and gritty results as the trauma of those day’s is still felt throughout every location visited.

This is helped by the film’s rather lavish production which makes sure that every bit of dust and grit is shown through the look of the film, from the costume design, production design and even the makeup of the character's face. Westerns are known for being very cheap productions but this film’s attention to detail beautifully portrays the constantly changing landscape and the people trying to adapt to it and getting by despite the difficult circumstances. This is in part of the mostly assured direction from Bourne movie Helmer Paul Greengrass who despite some noticeable errors in post-production shows that he isn’t as one note as previously thought.

The movie is very organic in the development of its central relationship and without making the point blunt, their conversations are well observed and sometimes minimal, as their bonding comes from fast actions such as evading ex-Confederate soldiers turned criminals from stealing Johanna and the Captain trying to learn words in her language, conversations about the past don’t last long, one moving scene where Johanna finds her previous home where the murder took place is set to say more what’s shown then what’s said. By the end, we learn that they have something to share. This being the loss of innocence and the strength to turn that grief into something positive

While the movie encapsulates the struggles of that era, highlighting how much we take for granted in our modern age, the movie also sees the community’s sense of unity through the news that the Captain reads, in the movie’s most compelling scene, Jefferson reads the news at a town overtaken by a group of armed militia lead by Merrit Farley (Thomas Francis Murray) asks the captain to read a copy of his own Newspaper which only serves to give himself an ego boost as well as make his Populus ignorant to the changes happening in the country. Much to Farley’s dismay, the Captain reads all the news from his newspaper, including one about miners rebelling against their apathetic employers which causes collective cheers and excitement from the crowd.

This is not only the scene where Hanks shines the most but it’s the scene where we see what Jefferson’s duty brings about in people struggling through hard times, we tend to associate the modern news with nothing but bad news, in 1870 news is shown in the film as a beacon of hope and a communal gathering.

Despite all the impressive elements on display, something was missing from this film. The western has seen a reinterpretation in the past decade from the spaghetti western homage in Quentin Tarantino's films to the modern interpretations from Hell and High Water and Wind River. Those films had a certain edge that News of the World lacks and feel’s often too ordinary by today’s standards. Simplicity is not always a bad thing, but News of the World was almost close to being on the level of those films, but it never quite gets there.

Other problems with the film come from its racial angle as it’s played way too safe and doesn't give a voice to Native Americans who suffered under those conditions as we are mostly told through this story through the white characters, while the movie is very blunt (and rightfully so) on the racial hatred unfiltered and rampant, more exploration of this issue from the perspective of those suffered under it would have been welcomed. It’s the part that the movie feels to scarred to touch upon in more detail which shouldn’t be the case anymore considering the time we are now living in where racial awareness has been amplified to a significant degree.

News of the World will probably be an Oscar darling come very soon but I don’t think it will be entirely deserved if it sweeps all the categories. All the ingredients are in place, Tom Hanks is always good value and newcomer Helena Zangel is one to look out for. I think they would have benefited from a more daring script as opposed to leaving me wanting more. There’s a lot to like about News of the World, which just makes me wish it was better than simply 'good'.

Rating: 3.5/5

News of the World is available to watch on Netflix