News of the World was the sixth studio album, released October 28, 1977 on EMI Records by the band Queen. It is also the 2020 Universal Pictures release, a western starring Tom Hanks, that I watched on Netflix DVD. It is about Hanks’ character, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd who travels Texas, just after the Civil War, reading the news to crowds of towns people who just want to know what’s going on out there in the rest of the country and the world. He rescues a young white girl, Johanna (Helena Zengel), who had been living with Kiowa Indians after her family was killed.
She only speaks the native American Kiowa tongue and Kidd and her start their own wild adventure trying to keep her safe and get her to some relatives. It is based on the 2016 novel, by Paulette Jiles, of the same name.
The movie is directed by Paul Greengrass (Bloody Sunday, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, Jason Bourne, Captain Phillips, United 93, Green Zone, 22 July) and produced by
Gary Goetzman (The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, That Thing You Do!, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 1 and 2, The Polar Express, Evan Almighty, Charlie Wilson’s War, Where the Wild Things Are).
Kidd is Tom Hanks (TV episodes of Bosom Buddies, Saturday Night Live, From Earth to the Moon, Band of Brothers, producer of Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D, The Polar Express,
My Big Fat Greek Wedding, The Ant Bully, Charlie Wilson’s War, Mamma Mia!) and Johanna is Helena Zengel (German actress, her first American film).
Other actors are Fred Hechinger (Vox Lux, Human Capitol, The Woman in the Window, Fear Street), Neil Sandilands (TV Episodes of The Flash, The Americans, The 100), Thomas Francis Murphy (Leatherheads, Terminator Genisys, Brion in the Walking Dead), Ray McKinnon (Driving Miss Daisy, Apollo 13, The Net, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Ford v. Ferrari, TV episodes of Deadwood, Sons of Anarchy, Rectify), Mare Winningham (St. Elmo’s Fire, Turner & Hooch, Geostorm, Dark Waters, TV episodes of Grey’s Anatomy, American Horror Story: Hotel),
Elizabeth Marvel (Burn After Reading, The Bourne Legacy, Lincoln, Dark Waters, TV episodes of The District, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Person of Interest, House of Cards, The President on Homeland), Chukwudi Iwuji (John Wick 2), Bill Camp (Lincoln, Love and Mercy, Dark Waters, and Mr. Shaibel in The Queen’s Gambit). News of the World was filmed in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Kiowa Tribe member Dorothy WhiteHorse coached Zengel in the Kiowa language.
This is a great movie, I felt like I was watching on of the old classics. The extras on the disc are excellent, I’ll give them 5 out of 5. Helena is wonderful, I hope to see her in future films. I’ll give the movie 4.5 out of 5 stars. For more information read Wikipedia, IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes.
