When things get tough, I’ve always turned to the Western for clarity and reassurance. Maybe it’s because most of these films are about finding solace during uncertain times, pursuing peace where none has existed before. Though central themes of sacrifice and redemption are certainty well-trodden in the genre, filmmakers from Budd Boetticher to Kelly Reichardt remind us why they can be infinitely tweaked and subverted to reveal something new within the familiar.
Watching Paul Greengrass’ sturdy new saddle opera News of the World in the late stages of 2020 felt thoroughly cleansing in this regard. Set in post-Civil War Texas, it doesn’t shy from acknowledging the racial violence, ideological bitterness, and economic distress Reconstruction has brought to the region. Tom Hanks plays Capt. Jefferson Kyle Kidd, who in the years since the war has traveled from one Panhandle town to the next reading out-loud the latest news to captured (and sometimes enraptured) audiences.
Watching Paul Greengrass’ sturdy new saddle opera News of the World in the late stages of 2020 felt thoroughly cleansing in this regard. Set in post-Civil War Texas, it doesn’t shy from acknowledging the racial violence, ideological bitterness, and economic distress Reconstruction has brought to the region. Tom Hanks plays Capt. Jefferson Kyle Kidd, who in the years since the war has traveled from one Panhandle town to the next reading out-loud the latest news to captured (and sometimes enraptured) audiences.
- 12/19/2020
- by Glenn Heath Jr.
- The Film Stage
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