

As he bids farewell to Maria, Kidd realizes that Johanna has become family to him, and rides back to her and apologizes for leaving her behind. He then continues to San Antonio to visit the grave of his wife Maria, who had died of cholera 5 years before while he was away serving in the Confederate Army. After speaking with Johanna's aunt and uncle, Kidd reluctantly leaves her with them. Saved by that gift, Kidd and Johanna eventually reach the Leonberger farmstead. After enduring the heat and a blinding sandstorm, they encounter a traveling group of Kiowa who give Johanna a horse. Just as Farley is about to shoot Kidd, Johanna wounds Farley with Kidd's shotgun, and John Calley, one of Farley's henchmen who was inspired by Kidd's words, deals with the other henchman and kills Farley.Īs the pair continue their journey, their wagon is wrecked and their horses fatally injured when Kidd loses control on a steep road. Kidd and Johanna make a run for it in the ensuing melee, but are caught by Farley and his henchman. Farley coerces Kidd into reading propaganda that glorifies him to his workers, but Kidd instead reads a story about a disaster in a Pennsylvania coal mine that whips Farley's workers into a rebellious fury. On the border of Erath County, Kidd and Johanna are detained by militiamen led by Farley, a racist cattle baron who took over the county and had all non-white residents violently expelled. Despite being outgunned, Kidd is able to kill the men after Johanna points out that the dimes Kidd earned from his work could be used as makeshift ammunition for his shotgun. Kidd refuses and flees with the girl, but the men pursue him into the wilderness. After reading the news the next night, Kidd and Johanna are accosted by three ex-Confederate soldiers who want to purchase Johanna from him. In Dallas, Kidd stops at a local inn run by Ella Gannett, an intimate old acquaintance, whom he discovers speaks Kiowa and learns that Johanna's adoptive Native American family was also killed, making her "an orphan twice-over." He also finds out through translation that her Kiowa name is Cicada. Kidd initially plans to leave Johanna in the care of friends Simon and Doris Boudlin but accepts responsibility for returning the girl to her family in Castroville, some 400 miles away, after she recklessly tries to run away with a band of traveling Native Americans during a storm. Kidd has little choice but to acquiesce.Īt the town, Kidd is informed that the outpost's Bureau of Indian Affairs representative will be unavailable for three months.
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A passing Union Army patrol instructs Kidd to take the girl to Union officials at an outpost in a town up the road. Union Army troops discovered Johanna while dispersing a Kiowa camp and she was being taken to her living aunt and uncle by the freedman. Kidd learns from the girl's paperwork that she is Johanna Leonberger, who had been kidnapped and adopted by Kiowa six years earlier. He also finds a young white girl who only speaks Kiowa. After departing Wichita Falls, Kidd comes across an overturned wagon on the road and finds the driver, a black freedman, had been lynched. In 1870, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, a former Confederate officer who served in the 3rd Texas Infantry, makes a meager living traveling from town to town in Texas and reading newspaper stories to local residents for an admission fee of ten cents. Zengel received nominations for Best Supporting Actress at the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards. At the 93rd Academy Awards, the film received nominations for Best Original Score, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, and Best Sound. It received positive reviews from critics who praised Hanks and Zengel's performances as well as the cinematography, musical score, and Greengrass's direction. Internationally, the film was released by Netflix in other territories on February 10, 2021. News of the World was released theatrically by Universal Pictures in the United States on December 25, 2020, and grossed $12 million.

She has lost both her birth and Kiowa families. The film follows an aging Civil War veteran who must return a young girl who was taken in by the Kiowa, and raised as one of them, to her last remaining family. News of the World is a 2020 American Western film co-written and directed by Paul Greengrass, based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Paulette Jiles, and starring Tom Hanks and Helena Zengel.
