News of the World (2020)

We were invited to watch this with some friends recently, but were just too exhausted from literally setting up a new house with five bedrooms from scratch. They had been helping us, but just seemed to be more resilient that we are. In any case, they recommended this to us, and I would agree, it is a well worth seeing movie by the consistently good actor, Tom Hanks. The setting is Texas, 1870. So in a southern leaning state in the midst of Reconstruction. Hanks plays Captain Kidd, a veteran of not just the Civil War but two others, and he is battle weary, not to mention getting up in years. He goes from town to town reading the news to people who lack access to news and many of them cannot read. He is a story teller and he seems to like the rootlessness of the job. The scenery, shot in New Mexico, is staggeringly beautiful in a rugged and uninhabited west sort of way, and truly, the open and unapologetic rascism on display doesn't seem that different from what we have seen the last several years. Kidd comes upon an upturned wagon and a very blonde girl dressed in deer skins. She was adopted by Kiowa Indians who killed the rest of her family in front of her, and then she in turn saw her adopted family murdered in much the same way. Twice traumatized and not speaking the language, she is a handful, but he agrees to transport her to her aunt and uncle. The bulk of the movie is that journey, what we find out about Kidd as well as the realities of travel in the west in the late 19th century. The movie is quite predictable on one level, but very enjoyable, largely due to Hanks performance and the gift he himself has with story telling.