News of the World

“See all those words printed in a line one after the other? Put 'em all together and you have a story.”

Filmology Rating: 3 out of 4

News of the World is another Paul Greengrass/Tom Hanks team-up. However, this time they're making a western. I hear "western" and "Tom Hanks," I'm sold.

A Civil War veteran (Hanks) agrees to deliver a girl, taken by the Kiowa people years ago, to her aunt and uncle against her will. They travel hundreds of miles and face grave dangers as they search for a place that either can call home.

I've always struck similarities between Tom Hanks and Jimmy Stewart. They both went decades constantly re-inventing themselves as actors and they're always a joy to watch on screen while also being gleefully entertaining. Jimmy Stewart was in loads of westerns. So I was curious to see what Hanks brought to this film because I went out of my way to see this in the theater.

Look, I was not expecting Tom Hanks to be flipping guns around like it was a Robert Rodriguez film, but this film really dragged.

With a bit of punching up and trimming, I could see this being a sweet film in a bitter setting, but I just didn't think the ends quite justified the means.

There's a theory that there are seven western plots, but I am going to make an amendment to that and add the "Wagon/Travel" story. There's now eight. You heard it here. When someone steals my idea, I want my check.

"News of the World" is quite revisionist as well because there were many times when I thought the film would fall into the ill-treating of Indians trap that has been around since the dawn of moving pictures. However, this film skillfully maneuvers that avenue by just having Hanks' character be this window into the bleak world that was the American Frontier.

However, I can see many people going to see this and being upset at how slow-moving this was. I think back to when 'Slow West' came out and how infuriated people were at it because it didn't deliver the genre goods. So similar to that, 'News of the World' suffers a bit from genre expectations.

On the other hand, I have a discussion to spark. Why are people afraid to make an unapologetically entertaining western film? I'm pretty sure Quentin Tarantino isn't the only person who can do it.

There's been this curtain of prestige over the genre for so long and I feel that people are afraid that making something similar in tone to spaghetti westerns will be met with disdain as Leone's films were back in the 60s like it's some kind of attack on the genre and American culture. I would just love to see a western again that isn't afraid of delivering genre goods. We only get a handful every decade or so now.

Anways, 'News of the World' centers on this relationship between the Captain (Hanks) and a young girl, Johanna (Helena Zengel). It's essentially 'Road to Perdition,' but with a less depressing ending. Funny enough, Hanks is in both of those films. But it is a bonding film about two lonely people finding each other. You know where it's going the second you see them together.

'News of the World' is a fine film that needs a forewarning that says, "This is not 'True Grit' level good." But good performances drive the film to the end though it could have been trimmed by five or ten minutes.

Rating: See It

-Nolan