NEWS OF THE WORLD

This is one of the latest Netflix films, it is based on the best-selling book by Paulette Giles.

It is a complex story, a Western with Tom Hanks well cast in the role of Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, an ex-infantry man who makes a living roaming through Texas telling his audiences the news stories of the day. His stories are mostly of the everyday affairs of life, such as an outbreak of meningitis among the new settlers, or to the Pacific Railroad building new train tracks through what was previously considered to be Indian reservation territory.

Kidd comes across the body of a lynched black man hanging from a tree. He then meets a very young girl, Johanna who had been raised by the Kiowa Indian tribe. She is desperately trying to find her biological aunt and uncle on their farm near San Antonio. Reluctantly, Kidd takes her under his wing and through an inn-keeper who speaks Kiowa with her learns something of her background, her German immigrant parents have been killed by the Kiowa’s and her new, adoptive American Indian parents killed by soldiers running amok.

Johanna discovers that they have much to learn from each other. He teaches her some words of English while she teaches him songs, finding a way past his initial reluctance. There are two really great performances in this film, one from Tom Hanks as Kyle Kidd and a really heart-breaking one from newcomer, Helena Zengel as the orphan, Johanna.