News of the World (2020)

Nominated for 4 Oscars
- 5 wins & 80 nominations total

Trivia
Paul Greengrass said in an interview in the New York Times on 12/30/2020 how this movie "is the first film I made with a child actor at the heart of it" and he thought that it would be very difficult to cast the role of Johanna but when he saw Helena Zengel's audition, he said she "was the only person I really had to look at" and that it "was the easiest decision in the film".

Goofs
John Calley calls the Central Texas area "Kiowa country" when he splits from Kidd and Johanna. However, in 1870 that area was unquestionably Comanche territory ("Comanchería"). The Kiowa roamed further north.

Quotes
Captain Kidd: See all those words printed in a line one after the other? Put 'em all together and you have a story.

Connections
Featured in The Graham Norton Show: Tom Hanks/Jessica Chastain/Emily Blunt/Jamie Dornan/Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall/Nish Kumar/Sophie Ellis-Baxtor (2020)

Soundtracks
Prairie Dog Song
Traditional

A very different sort of film for Hanks.

The plot to "News of the World" is pretty simple and it's a leisurely paced film...somewhat like Clint Eastwood's "Cry Macho". It is set in 1870 in the Reconstruction Era in Texas. Captain Kidd (Tom Hanks) is a Civil War veteran who happens upon a head man and a wild blonde girl in the wilderness. There are papers with the dead man's possessions indicating that the girl, Johanna, was abducted and raised by Kiowa Indians after her parents were killed. She was discovered with the Kiowa and the US Army sent her with an agent to return her to her extended family. But he's dead...and no one seems willing to help...so Kidd finally agrees to take her the 400 miles to Castroville, Texas (near San Antonio).

As you'd suspect, this won't be easy since the child really wants to be with the Kiowa and she doesn't understand English. Her family were German immigrants...so she understands some German...but Kidd only knows a few words of the language himself. The film shows them on their journey across the Plains to her family.

This is a most enjoyable film and a nice change of pace for Tom Hanks. It also talks about a seldom discussed problem which happened on rare occasions...white kids being abducted and raised by various tribes. Interesting and never dull.