Greengrass: What's that?
Wolski: A tripod.
Greengrass: Wild. Can we use it for our movie?
All joking aside, News of the World isn't just a great movie, it might be Paul Greengrass's best. That's saying a lot because he's seldomly even managed to sink below the "pretty good" mark in his career.
It's odd reflecting upon my initial reaction to the promos for his film, United 93. I took certain umbrage that the first movie about the 9/11 attacks was being directed by a British guy. Greengrass shut me up pretty quickly. One thing has become clear: he understands Americans. His portrait of the American frontier after the Civil War is arresting, moving, detailed, and beautiful. There's a balance between harsh realism and Western mythology.
The world is built meticulously all the way down to how many bullets Kidd (Tom Hanks) has for his six shooter and the movie doesn't break its rule. One of my favorite moments was when characters were loading shotgun shells with coins, which is something that pops up in Western mythology (although, the practice was neither all that effective nor financially practical in real life).
If there's ever been a role tailor made for Tom Hanks at his current age, this is it. Despite how much I love Road to Perdition, I never bought Hanks as a mob enforcer. In this movie, he's a man who would have never taken a life but for the dreadful circumstances thrust upon him. You know that he's haunted and you get glimpses as to why until the end when it all comes together. He's a man trying to atone for something while also trying to make up for what he lost. That's a Hanks role that I have no trouble believing.
Helena Zengel was incredible; and, at the age of twelve (probably eleven during production) showed talent beyond her years. I'm sure some people who actually speak Kiowa would be able to nitpick her; but, she certainty convinced me.
Wolski's cinematography is Oscar worthy. I even heard murmuring about how gorgeous the wide shots were. But, it's also nothing that distracts from the narrative. It's just the culmination of a director and cinematographer who have been working at a high level for decades.
I don't know if I can recommend this movie enough. It's rare that we get a Western nowadays; it's even rarer that we get one that isn't a remake; it's even rarer than that that we get a fantastic movie.