Tom Hanks goes Western in ‘News of the World’
It seems strange that in his long and varied career Tom Hanks never appeared in a Western. (Supplying the voice of Woody in “Toy Story” doesn’t count.)
That’s OK, though – with “News of the World,” opening in theaters Christmas day, he’s in all of them at once.
Director Paul Greengrass, who directed Hanks in “Captain Phillips,” draws upon the vibe of a lot of Westerns, with “The Searchers,” the classic 1956 John Ford film starring John Wayne, especially prominent. It’s not derivative. It’s just familiar.
But it also boasts two unique elements. The first, of course, is Hanks, a reliably strong presence as Capt. Jefferson Kyle Kidd, a Civil War veteran in 1870 trying to bring a girl kidnapped by the Kiowa tribe home. He faces just about every obstacle a movie can throw at a hero, and then some. He’s Job in a cowboy hat.
The second thing is what Kidd does for a living.
“I read the news from town to town.”
Hanks plays a pre-tv news anchor, basically
Kidd is kind of like a pre-tv news anchor, or maybe a pre-google News aggregator. He tells the crowd in Wichita Falls, where we first see him read, that he knows they work hard and don’t always have time to keep up with the news.
“We do that work for you,” he says, before digging into stories from the local newspapers.
On the way out of town, Kidd comes across a crashed stagecoach, with a Black man hanging from a tree with a sign pinned on him that says, “Texas says no. This is a white man’s country.” He also finds the only living passenger, a girl (Helena Zengel) with a letter that says she was originally taken from her family by the Kiowa. Now the government has taken her from the tribe, with which she’s lived for six years, and is being ferried to her family in Castroville, Texas.
It’s a long journey. As in many movies of this type, Kidd first tries to foist the job of returning the girl, whom he calls Johanna, on other people. Of course that doesn’t take, so he must do the job himself. Thus, the adventure, and the bonding between Kidd and Johanna, begins.
It’s a rugged trip. Along the way, they will face all sorts of banditry and bigotry
and plain old meanness, as well as the forbidding landscape of the American West. Cinematographer Dariusz Wolski captures the grandeur and the danger of the terrain – the film is shot like an oldtime epic. James Newton Howard’s score mines similar territory (if too often telegraphing upcoming action).
Hanks and Greengrass know, and show, the power of words
But for a film like this to work, we have to be invested in the main characters since we spend so much time with them. That’s rarely a problem with Hanks – nothing flashy, just good, solid acting. And reacting. Johanna speaks only Kiowa and is understandably afraid (Zengel’s expressive eyes carry a lot of impact). Watching them together feels comfortable, even when their characters don’t share the feeling.
Greengrass, as he often does, brings a contemporary message to the film, preventing it from playing like a stock story. (The film is based on Paulette Jiles’ 2016 novel.) When Kidd reads the news, the crowd could be a stand-in for a Trump rally. “Now, for some federal news,” Kidd begins in one town, and the crowd boos. Egging them on, Kidd merely says “President Grant” and the crowd goes bonkers. Kidd knows his audience and he plays to it.
That knowledge will come in handy. He knows how to work a crowd, how to read the right story for the right crowd the right way. Words have power, and Kidd – like Greengrass and Hanks – knows how to use them.
Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goody koontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/goodyonfilm. Twitter: @goodyk.