You know that feeling when you watch a movie and realize it’s secretly about right now, even though everyone is wearing dusty vests and riding horses? That’s basically the deal with the News of the World film.
Released at the tail end of 2020, it didn’t just give us "Tom Hanks in a cowboy hat." It gave us a weirdly relevant story about a divided country, fake news, and a guy just trying to do the right thing when everything else is falling apart. Honestly, if you haven’t seen it since the theater lockdowns or you skipped it because you thought it was just another "slow Western," you’re missing the point.
What is News of the World actually about?
The plot is deceptively simple.
Tom Hanks plays Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd. He’s a veteran of three wars who now travels across Texas in 1870. His job? He reads the newspaper to people. For ten cents a head, he gathers folks in drafty halls and tells them about meningitis outbreaks, distant queens, and political bickering in Washington. It’s like a 19th-century podcast, but with more kerosene lamps.
Then he finds Johanna.
Played by Helena Zengel—who is absolutely incredible, by the way—Johanna is a young girl who was taken by the Kiowa people years earlier after her parents were killed. She doesn't speak English or German. She identifies as Kiowa. Kidd ends up tasked with taking her 400 miles across a lawless, post-Civil War Texas to her biological aunt and uncle.
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It's a "road trip" movie where the road is made of dirt and everyone has a gun.
Why the Captain Kidd character matters
Most Westerns give us the "man of violence" trying to reform. Kidd is different. He’s a man of words.
He’s seen enough blood. He’s carrying his own grief—his wife died of cholera while he was away at war—and he uses stories to bridge the gap between people who hate each other. There’s a scene in Erath County where a local tyrant tries to force Kidd to read "fake news" (essentially propaganda about how great the tyrant is). Kidd refuses. He reads a story about coal miners instead. It’s a moment that feels surprisingly 21st-century.
Is the News of the World film based on a true story?
Sorta. But mostly no.
The movie is based on the 2016 novel by Paulette Jiles. While Captain Kidd himself is a fictional creation, Jiles based him on the real-life ancestor of a friend—a man named Wayne Chisholm’s great-grandfather, who actually did travel around Texas reading the news.
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The "captivity narrative" part—where a white child is raised by an Indigenous tribe—was also a very real historical phenomenon. Cynthia Ann Parker is the most famous example, but there were many others. These children often struggled immensely to "reintegrate" into white society, often feeling more at home with their adoptive tribes. The film handles this with a lot of empathy. Johanna isn't "rescued" in her eyes; she’s being kidnapped again.
The unexpected chemistry of the leads
You expect Tom Hanks to be good. He’s Tom Hanks. He does "decent man with a burden" better than anyone alive.
But the real shocker was Helena Zengel. She was only 12 when the movie came out. She has to do most of her acting through looks and a language the audience doesn't understand. The way she and Hanks go from mutual suspicion to a genuine father-daughter bond is the heartbeat of the whole thing.
It’s not sentimental. It’s earned.
The technical side: Why it looks so good
Director Paul Greengrass is usually the guy behind the Bourne movies. You know, the shaky-cam, high-octane spy stuff.
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In the News of the World film, he slows way down. It’s gorgeous.
- Cinematography: Dariusz Wolski (who did The Martian) captures the Texas landscape in a way that feels massive but lonely.
- The Score: James Newton Howard’s music is haunting. It’s not your typical "heroic Western" brass. It’s string-heavy and mournful.
- Production: The film had a $38 million budget, which is actually kind of small for a period piece of this scale, but they made every cent count.
What most people get wrong about the ending
Without spoiling too much, some people felt the ending was too "clean."
I disagree.
If you look at the historical context of 1870 Texas, there was no safety net. For a man like Kidd to take responsibility for a child like Johanna wasn't just a nice gesture; it was a radical act of choosing family over "the law." The film argues that "home" isn't a place on a map or a blood relation. It’s the person who speaks your language—even if you have to invent that language as you go.
Actionable insights for your next watch
If you're planning to revisit this or watch it for the first time, keep these things in mind to get the most out of it:
- Watch the background: The towns are messy. They’re muddy. Greengrass put a ton of detail into showing how miserable life was just five years after the Civil War.
- Listen to the "News": Pay attention to what Kidd chooses to read. He’s curated a "feed" for his audience. It’s an early version of how media shapes our perception of the world.
- Check out the book: Paulette Jiles’ writing is lyrical and short. It adds a lot of interior depth to Kidd that even a pro like Hanks can't fully show on screen.
- Look for the Kiowa perspective: While the film is told through Kidd's eyes, the brief moments we see the Kiowa people are meant to show a culture that is being pushed out, not "villains" in a desert.
Basically, the News of the World film isn't just a Western. It’s a movie about the power of the truth and the necessity of human connection. In a world that feels increasingly loud and divided, watching a guy read the news by candlelight feels like exactly what the doctor ordered.
To get the full experience, watch it on a large screen with a good sound system. The subtle foley work—the wind, the creak of the wagon, the Kiowa chants in the distance—is half the storytelling. Once you've finished the film, look up the history of the "Readings" in the 1870s; it's a rabbit hole of American history that proves truth is often stranger than fiction.