Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash
By Miles De Rosa, Staff Writer
Spoilers below:
Paul Greengrass’s latest film “News of The World” begins by telling the story of a former confederate general Jefferson Kidd, played by Tom Hanks, as he travels across the South after the Civil War reading the news from town to town. Early in the film he encounters a 10-year-old German girl named Johanna, played by German child star Helena Zengel, who has been raised by a Native American tribe since her family was killed Kidd is told Johanna has family on the other side of Texas. The rest of the film follows their journey across the troubling terrain.
The film makes it clear quickly that it will avoid gnashing any political teeth—the first scene shows local Texans at a news reading pushing back against the presence of northern soldiers and saying that they do not wish to rejoin the Union and are upset about the abolition of slavery. In this moment, the movie bypasses potential arguments for a moral high ground, instead opting for simple platitudes of unity.
The lack of clear moral or structural direction in the beginning of this movie is somewhat troubling. About 10 minutes in, Kidd sees a Black man who has been lynched in the forest. It is a jarring image, and one used to highlight the violence, especially against Black Americans, that surrounded life in the South at this time. But when we encounter this moment in the film, we are unsure how Kidd himself feels about this incident. We know he was a Confederate general, and there is no effort made to address his relationship to the Black people shown in the film who often feel like props. The film seems to equivocate from any moral standing in key moments throughout the first half hour.
When he encounters Johanna, about 10 minutes into the movie, we are presented with another moral quandary. Johanna has been raised by the local Kiowa tribe. She speaks their language, wears their clothes and sings their songs. After Kidd is appointed by a Union soldier to take her across the state to her biological aunt and uncle, she runs away in an attempt to rejoin her tribe. It is clear she wants to be with them yet bringing her back to them is never so much as entertained. Throughout the movie there is an extreme distrust of the Native American tribe without any serious interrogation of this attitude.
Throughout this first half hour, there is also a distinct lack of conflict. They go awkwardly from place to place, preparing for a journey that we as an audience are unsure if they should be making. It isn’t until the first town, about forty minutes into the film, when some conflict and context are truly introduced.
We learn that Kidd has a wife in San Antonio, giving him some personal incentive to get across the state—although, this isn’t made central to the plot in the way one might think it would be. As opposed to being a driving force of Kidd’s arc, it often feels like a forgotten detail until the very end.
On the way out of town, they are approached by a group of three men who offer to buy Johanna from Kidd. He refuses, and the next day, while on the way out of town, they see the three men on their tail. This is the first hint of a real challenge to their goal in the movie and kicks off the next 90minutes in which the pair deal with another band of murderous men, wagon trouble and a devastating dust storm.
This radical switch from the meandering tone and lack of moral clarity of the first leg of the film is a welcome one, as the story quickly begins to fall into place. Kidd and Johanna’s relationship is developed during this conflict, as we see consistently Johanna’s quick thinking, creativity and kindness getting the pair out of tough situations as well as during moments of travel when the two take turns swapping the Kiowa and English words for the scenery encountered on the trail.
Throughout these trials the two develop a very distinct relationship. In the beginning Johanna trusts no one. In the end she trusts no one but Kidd. As their relationship falls into place, so does an answer to one of the moral questions presented in the first leg. Johanna is a child who seemingly belongs to no one. Her parents are gone, the tribe that took her in has abandoned her, and she has never met the family she is being brought to. But she trusts Jefferson Kidd, and he loves her.
When Kidd and Johanna finally reach her aunt and uncle, they are living on a small farm. It is clear they will expect Johanna to help them work. Kidd says an awkward goodbye as Johanna stares out the window and then departs for San Antonio in search of his wife. When he arrives, he is informed that while he was gone, she died from cholera. There is a beautiful and intimate scene with Kidd alone, standing above her grave in the local cemetery. It is after this moment that he returns to Johanna, where he finds her tied to a post in the front yard. After a brief conversation with her aunt and uncle, they agree to let him take her in.
The last 90minutes of this movie is a trim, efficiently told Western about a man who is just trying to do the right thing and a young girl who has no clear place in the rapidly changing world. It is held down by tremendous performances from both lead actors; Tom Hanks delivering his typical calming yet undeniable presence and young star Helena Zengel showing that she could be a force in Hollywood for a long time to come. She delivers one of the best performances given by a young star in recent memory.
The first half hour is a directionless mess that does little to address any of the social or moral problems displayed.
The lack of accountability in the writing and, at times, poor scripting is made up for by the strength in the performances and the on-screen chemistry between Hanks and his young co-star. If you want a feel-good movie with plenty of intrigue and some strong performances, this is a good pick. If you are looking for anything more challenging, you won’t find it here.
