Wednesday, March 9, 2022

Movie Review: News of the World (2020). Xfinity On Demand, others.

Tom Hanks stars as an old Confederate Civil War veteran in Texas, who ekes out a living traveling from small town to town, putting on shows where he reads articles from various distant newspapers, to bring people the "news of the world".  

In one town, the local authorities prevail upon him to take a young white girl who had been captured by Native Americans as a small child back to her family in his horse-drawn wagon. The young girl speaks only the Native American language, and identifies as an Indian, compounding the difficulties of their uneasy relationship and dangerous journey across the hostile, anarchic Texas territories of the post-Civil War era.  

An excellent, compassionate and unusual Western, well executed in movie form, although the book was even more powerful and moving, particularly in portraying the struggles of the young girl to cope with her latest traumas, and the insecurities of separation from the only family and way of life she still remembers.  Recommended.

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