Wild ways of the West
Fans of the Western have been living off thin gruel for years so they will wolf down this gloriously old-fashioned yarn from Bourne director Paul Greengrass. The casting and cinematography perfectly capture the soul of the genre’s golden age.
Tom Hanks fits very snugly into Jimmy Stewart’s old boots as an upstanding man of action desperate to do the right thing in an increasingly lawless age. He plays Captain Jefferson Kidd (now that’s a name), a Civil War veteran who fought on the losing side and now ekes out a living travelling around the South reading newspaper cuttings to illiterate varmints.
Greengrass and his writers cleverly use Kidd’s clippings to sketch in the background of
1870s’ America – a time of rampant capitalism, ethnic cleansing of the indigenous population, and racial violence towards the recently freed slaves.
Kidd’s stories come to life when he stumbles across a horrific scene in the wilderness. A frightened 10-year-old girl is hiding in the bushes where a black man, who was transporting her to the federal authorities, has been lynched. Johanna (an excellent Helena Zengel) is an orphan twice over.
Native Americans killed her settler parents when she was four, then soldiers killed her adoptive tribe – and she can’t speak a word of English. So Kidd decides to take the helpless wild child across America to deliver her to her only living relatives.
The horse ride brings shootouts, chases and touching drama as the guilt-ridden veteran bonds with the traumatised child. It’s not quite a classic – the drama stumbles a little in the final furlong – but this soulful throwback offers hope for a long overdue renaissance.
There are shootouts, chases and drama as Kidd bonds with the lost child