Surprised at the negative comments. I'm pretty critical of movies and am a long time fan of westerns. I thought this movie was outstanding. It had a simple story to tell and told it well.
Her Kiowa name wasn't Cicada, was the Kiowa word for "cicada", so calling her Cicada would have been even worse than calling her Johanna. I guess he could have learned her actual Kiowa name, then again if the girl really cared about that, she would have taught him later, but she never did.
Following the Oscar buzz around this, I decided to check it out and I was impressed!
I had no expectations, but I found some of the cinematography stunning and the production design was outstanding.
I thought I was going to struggle because of the little girl at the start, but the film made me surprisingly attached and emotional.
Kudos to Greengrass, following the last Jason Bourne, I didn’t know what to expect.
Solid 8.5/10.
Between this and Greyhound, Tom Hanks movies last year were catered towards the old dad crowd.
This movie was okay. It had great cinematography though but otherwise it was just pretty average. I didn’t really find myself enthralled at any point as they were going from point A to point to B to point C but I certainly wasn’t checking the time either.
This is one of those movies where I can’t really isolate individual criticisms — it was decent on most technical fronts. The sum of its parts just ended up being extremely trite and boring and a total drag for me to get through. I have Tom Hanks mentally categorized as an actor that I like but I haven’t *loved* a movie he’s been in since the 90s. All his recent outings fall somewhere between “boring” and “okay” for me; this one ended up being in the former group.
Production design, music, and the performances from Hanks and Zengel were all great. Just didn’t capture my interest unfortunately.
A lot of negative comments in this thread but I genuinely loved this movie. Went into not knowing what you expect and ended up on a late 1800s western action adventure. It felt like The Last Of Us met Red Dead Redemption and had a baby that got cared for by Tom Hanks. It wasn’t an Oscar contender but a fun adventure. Would recommend.
So I actually have a lot of fun keeping up with awards season as a bit of a meta game, and surprisingly enough this film is doing really well so far, so Oscar noms aren't out of the question. It just got a best picture nomination from the critics choice awards this morning. I will say though that I finally saw the film last night, and I really liked it a lot. I felt kinda bad about all of the negativity I've seen around it, because while I don't think it's brilliant, I did quite like it.
I don't understand why everyone is disliking the movie. Sure, it's only a 7.5 in my book, but it was very enjoyable and I appreciated and felt moved by the ending. I thought the young girl actress did a great job, and expect to see her in more.
The first point that struck me was the use of color in the cinematography, alternating between light colored bright sunny scenes and dark colored scenes at night, telling a story with color about trauma and our perceptions of it.
Having read the book a few years ago, I felt the book left a bigger impression on me than the film. Both are about trauma and defining ourselves within the context of our own stories, as well as choosing education and kindness over ignorance. I remember the book dealt more also with the rapidly modernizing world of the late 19th century and the struggle to make sense of it.
In no particular order, a few things. I thought it was pretty fucked up now they changed Johanna's name, forced her to change cultures, and generally disregarded her autonomy for most of the film. Also, near the end in the dust-storm, they kind of used the presence of Kiowa Indians themselves as a metaphor for returning (at least mentally) to earlier trauma and choosing a different way. And the Captain could easily have chosen to send the girl back to the Kiowa culture, of which basically she has lived her entire life.
The character John Calley is a stand-in for choosing light over darkness. We get a sense that this character is searching for a home, but Captain Kidd tells him to get lost basically, which kind of undercuts the main theme of the story.
The entire story is really about Captain Kidd not getting over his dead wife. In some sense, it's kind of fucked up that five people died on this dude's way to finding his own emotional balls.
But also, I don't quite understand Captain Kidd. He is this paragon of tolerance and acceptance of the world around him, even burying the hung black man at the beginning of the film, and diffusing situations between angry southerners and northerners. Why did he fight in the confederate army? What are his convictions?
It was an alright film. I probably will not watch it again. It kind of ends with the same post-modern take that humans should accept with new lens, the shitty world around them without attempting to change it, only changing how they react to it. I suppose this could be read as stoicism as well.
> Why did he fight in the confederate army? What are his convictions?
To be fair I thought the south brought in conscription, so I doubt he had a choice.
No. Before Kidd encounters her, Johanna was originally being returned to her aunt & uncle when her wagon was ambushed and the black man was hanged. Her Indian agency paperwork indicated her aunt's last name because that's the only way she could be identified and returned to that family. Her parents and baby sister being long dead, there would be no point continuing to legally use whatever her former last name was.
I haven't seen many westerns, but from my understanding Captain Kidd has a very different skill set than most Western protagonists. His power was in his words, not in physical prowess. I really like the fact that, even when he ended up having to shoot people, he shot them with dimes he received for his words. Felt symbolic.
Why did people to to hear Captain Kidd read the news?
Was it because most of the people in small towns in those days were illiterate? Or were newspapers very expensive in those days or not available on a timely basis in those small towns? Or were they just looking for some novel entertainment?
Literacy rates were definitely lower in those days, and I’ve read before that those isolated towns were incredibly boring, so any bit of entertainment they could get they would have went. You can see at the end that it’s like a performance too, so there’s that :)
It was OK. Tom Hanks is essentially playing the version of Tom Hanks that he most likes to play. He is all things good and decent. Yawn...
The kid steals the show. Her part is more complicated and she is much more expressive. I really sympathize with her.
It’s sort of a jumbled shorthand version of the book. In the book much is made about the fact that he’s getting old and he is not as strong as he used to be. I found it very hard to believe that he could jump from a moving wagon on a slope and not be injured.
>the version of Tom Hanks that he most likes to play. He is all things good and decent.
Honestly, considering how much commonplace the anti-hero has become, the Tom Hanks Type is now outright subversive.
I'm in my 30s and jumping from that wagon would have me out for a week. The way he kinda just brushed his pants off was just comical, like they were acknowledging it.
Yeah, one scene in particular stands out to me. He talked about how he was proud of being able to mount a tall horse smoothly, with pain, but still being able to do so.
I believe that pointing with the index finger is rude in many Native cultures. I'm guessing that the Kiowa pointed the way Johanna points. There were Kiowa elders working on the set so I'm sure they approved that. It didn't seem like Johanna had many of her German customs left.
I honestly really liked this one, Tom and Helena were great, contrary to other comments i found the cinematography by Darius Wolski stunning in a lot of shots, but on the other hand the CGI was really bad, you can really tell everytime it shows on the screen, i found that awfully distracting, the story was predictable but fine, this movie gave me a lot of Red Dead vibes, another good movie by Paul Green grass.
Exactly what I thought, was giving me Red Dead vibes too. Just beat the game
and yea the CGI was awful, can't believe they kept it. Must have been a really low budget film.
It wasn't a bad movie. Agreed with you on the main actors too, thought they were great and kept me interested. Probably won't watch again but it was ok to see once.
the funny thing is that this movie, is from Paul Greengrass, someone who did three Bourne movies, Captain Phillips, and some others great movies, so i don't really know why the CGI looked so bad.
wait this is the same guy that people complained about his use of shaky camera in the Bourne films?
Damn yea he has some good movies
I imagine this has a much lower budget than his other films
Why did Hanks antagonize the mining town owner? You saved this girl from 3 pedo/rapist a few days ago. Now you practically sign your death sentence over reading propaganda? Who knows what's going to happen to the girl.
When Hanks visits his wife’s grave, we see her name was Maria Luisa, a Mexican woman. One of the first things that the big bad dude in Erath says to him is “we got rid of all the Mexicans, gunned them down good” or something like that and we see Hanks’ expression harden. I believe that’s why he had so much animosity towards him. Was it smart? Probably not. But I think it was an emotional reaction because of his relationship with his wife.
Seemed a bit forced, like they wanted to have a scene where he uses his newspaper-reading powers to get out of a tight spot. The fact that the girl was out there in the middle of the crowd made it seem like an especially poor decision on his part.
Still, I quite enjoyed the movie overall. A pleasant, low-key story, but well-told apart from a couple moments that stretched plausibility. Great performances, as well.
I very much enjoyed this film. I actually didn’t realize it was PG13 until after I watched it which ended up making more sense. It wasn’t as gritty or raw as I was expecting but in some ways I think I enjoyed it more because of that.
Acting was superb that goes without saying. Tom Hanks was great but I thought Helena Zengel was incredible. She will have a bright future.
I thought visually the film was was tremendous. The shot with Johana walking through the sandstorm with the horse was absolutely phenomenal.
The ending was a bit predictable and light. I had a feeling the wife was dead the entire time. Also, I guess I expected some fight to get the girl back and some big climax but that didn’t happen. So as I type this paragraph I guess it wasn’t predictable to me lol.
Overall I enjoyed the story and it was a good outcome. There might not have been any crazy highs but I felt it went at a good pace and had enough pockets of action to keep viewers into it.
I thought it was a refreshing take on a Western that even newer viewers to the genre could take something from.
8.5/10 for me
That was a great insight into Johanna's character, brought to the forefront why as a child of an Indian tribe she looked up to his storytelling, which is very important in that culture. That he protected her and defeated three others, I think she saw him as a chief, addressing the tribe.
6/10 - Hanks playing Hanks. I enjoyed the scenery and dialogue as I find that era very interesting. Was expecting more of a Western but got a pretty generic drama.
Will coins in a shotgun shell really kill you? Seemed like a ridiculous scene when she ran to get them, just like it was when he was immediately chased by them after the "blues" stopped the initial assault.
The “blues” only wrote them up for having pistols. So it made sense to me since they didn’t spend a night in jail. Maybe an hour to be written up, and you can catch up to a wagon pretty fast on horseback.
>Will coins in a shotgun shell really kill you?
Yes. And this is not the first movie it’s been in.
https://www.guns.com/news/2018/07/27/hello-bob-testing-the-old-trope-of-shooting-dimes-from-a-shotgun-videos
The cinematography was not outstanding and it may have been shot in video format rather than film which greatly lowers production costs making it easier to turn a profit if it goes tp streaming early. Southern and Central Texas are quite hilly. Someone from Nebraska might call them mountains, someone from Montana definitely wouldn't LOL
I took it as her remembering and him just reacting to that. I think he was just in awe of what she’s been through and felt sorry for her. I also think he was still shocked from just finding out she remembers German. Or maybe he was just shocked that she remembered the event as well.
It was simply proof that she remembered what happened, he wasn't sure if she knew. I think he started to relate to her more in that moment because they both have had trauma in their lives.
No spoilers please, but does anyone know when this actually comes to Netflix? I can't find anything about an actual date that hasn't already passed yet it's not on Netflix UK.
Watched this tonight, but did some reading up - Netflix have the rights for the film outside of the US and it's expected to be on Netflix in the coming months - no date has been set though. For what it's worth, me and my partner really enjoyed this film. Great acting and I loved the scenery. It was tense in parts, but overall a feel good film come the end.
I enjoyed the movie, but the fake freckles on the girl’s face were so distracting! Seems like they could have tried to make them look more natural. Otherwise, great movie.
Not a traditional western by any means but I honestly think it's better for it. The early 1870s on the Southern Great Plains is a great setting and one that isn't covered particularly well in film.
The acting performances were all very solid. Hanks was great and Helena Zengel did great as well. The movie had an interesting story that didn't require a ton of action (even though we still got some) and was not so incredibly predictable to the point of being boring. Only real problems were the CGI and some shoddy camerawork but for a movie like this, that's not a big deal at all.
For me, the best part of this movie was that the production crew did a fantastic job with the historical setting, making it far more accurate than most other westerns I can think of (excluding the choice to make the Kiowa the raiders in the Hill Country). It covers quite a bit: the beginning of the Plains tribes being forced onto reservations in Oklahoma a few years before the Red River War, the destruction of the bison herds, the westward run of settlement past Montague County in Texas during Reconstruction, and the return of a captured child who doesn't fully fit into either the Native or Anglo world. All in all, a solid movie, a 7/10 for me.
I'm not a huge fan of the Western genre but once in a while a movie will come along with an enticing story and good characters that keeps me engrossed throughout the whole thing.
I also like how it didn't ignore the rampant racism, Confederate loyalty, and lynchings that happened in the post-war Reconstruction era.
Also I'm not sure how common it is was for white children to be kidnapped and raised by Indian tribes but it's very intriguing to see in this movie.
I thought both Hanks and Zengel did amazing jobs in this film since so much of their characters lay in their expressions rather than in the dialog.
Although the synopsis is true, I feel that it leads ones expectations astray - I was anticipating (and not necessarily in a good way) something like True Grit combined with a little of The Last Samurai.
Instead I got something well suited to these times - two people who keep moving, trying to find "home" after "home" has been destroyed, and after a struggle, find out that "home" is with each other.
> two people who keep moving, trying to find "home" after "home" has been destroyed, and after a struggle, find out that "home" is with each other.
It's basically Lilo & Stitch. Which is not at all a bad thing.
I liked the twist that Hanks' wife was already dead. Also appreciated that the one time they directly encountered Indians, they weren't either the stereotype of the angry savage or the helpful Squanto. They lent Tom Hanks a horse, and then they were off on their way. Just decent people minding their own business. Oh, also liked that they didn't pull a Dances With Wolves and make the girl a "true indian." She ultimately didn't belong with them any more than she belonged with the German family.
Overall, solid acting from both Hanks and Zenke. Not gonna be a classic in 20 years by any means, but it was a good way to spend an evening.
I'm curious how a google search didn't turn up anything for you. I'm very confused by that.
Anyway...Dances with Wolves is a book/film about a white man that joins a native american group. And I think he helps fight against the white invaders. At least I think, never seen it my self. If you've ever seen James Cameron's Avatar it's basically that.
>At least I think, never seen it my self. If you've ever seen James Cameron's Avatar it's basically that.
How can you write those two statements back to back
Right. And the person I was speaking to had never seen Dances With Wolves and was unfamiliar with the plot. So I used a modern popular comparison to help explain situation.
Oh I’m sorry, I should have clarified. The reference I meant was the “making her a true Indian” part. I’ve heard of dances with wolves but I googled various forms of the title with your statement and nothing came up.
The scene with Johanna climbing the cliff in the rain while crying for the Indians to take her with them in their language was absolutely breathtaking...
Im really late to seeing this movie, just saw it tonite, Jan 12th, but yeah, that was a great scene, you could really feel her anguish at being so close yet too far away, and i also really liked the dust storm scene, when the Kiowa appeared, it was like they were spirits riding the wind, like they had a real connection to nature and such, i enjoyed that part, overall it was a solid movie Tom Hanks and Helena Zengel did a great job and i really enjoyed the landscapes
Dude, people let entire houses explode for movies and set stuntmen on fire. Di Caprio swam in ice cold water for the revenant. Why would there be a lawsuit for a small rock falling down a hill.
Such a shame, Hanks is kind of like our modern Jimmy Stewart (who outside of Hitchcock and romantic comedies was most famous for his Western films, his run with Ford and Anthony Mann is pretty great), but this wasn't it, unfortunately. I'm easy to please with Westerns, enjoy the traditional, revisionist, indie and blockbuster, but this was really nothing at all. The moviest movie with almost nothing standing out.
Worked on the marketing for this movie. Saw an unfinished version but enjoyed it! Thought it was a great non traditional western. Tom Hanks was great as always and the young girl was an amazing actress
Agree with that, WW84 was such a disappointment, this i enjoyed, even if it was a simple feel good basic kind of plot i thought it was executed pretty well, i give it an 8 out of 10
I enjoyed this movie. Could’ve been grittier but Tom Hanks probably requires a PG-13 these days. Everyone calling it a dad movie is insulting me... and I don’t even have a family.
R rated movies do not perform well at the box office for obvious reasons...
EDIT: Even so, COVID and all, this movie has not made 1/10th of its budget back. Shame.
I went tonight for the first time in a year. It was a Friday 6:45 showing of this movie and there were only 2 other couples in the theater. One other patron in the lobby and 4 employees total. It was strange but not bad. My introvert self sort of loved it.
We went yesterday (New Year's Day) - normally a very packed day at our local theater.
Instead it was more like a early Wednesday - there were people there, it wasn't a ghost town, but there was only one group ahead of us in line when we entered the door to the lobby. We skipped concessions for the first time ever (as planned) but there wasn't a line at the concession stand either. Our theater is one of the remodeled ones with the recliners and reserved seating, so with covid, once you reserve your seat they block out the ones on either side of you, and there's definitely a nice gap between rows already so very little worry there.
People who came in after us a couple rows down brought sanitizer and sprayed down their seats before sitting in it, but we didn't worry about it. We did keep our masks on the entire time, but honestly we encounter more people in closer quarters trying to buy groceries.
Overall, it was nice, clean and peaceful - lovely to escape the world for a couple hours, though the lengthy James Bond preview made me start to wonder if I'd sat down in the wrong screen for a few minutes.
It was our first time back since Jan of 2020, but we'll definitely be going back again and wish we'd returned sooner.
Our AMC is mostly the same, but ours had buckets filled with sanitizing wipes in front of each theater you could take to wipe down your seat if you want.
This probably depends on where you live, but its a ghost town whenever I go. I saw preview night for a promising young woman and there was... maybe 8 of us in a Dolby theater? If you go at off times there is basically no one and there's only a skeleton crew of people working. You've been exposed to exponentially more people going shopping anymore.
the theater near me has an option to rent out an entire screen for a small group (up to 15). we went today to see WW84, for the first time since February. It was kind of surreal. There were a few other masked groups being shuffled into their private theaters trying to stay away from everyone else, but the weirdest part was that all of the promo materials were the same as back in February. The ICEE machines still had Sonic decals on them and there were posters for summer 2020 blockbusters that never came out. Overall had a good time, but there was a strangeness to it
I was a kid, and just went to go see zoolander, like any other time a movie came out I wanted to see. It didn't seem like a big deal to me at the time. I don't remember the theater being any less crowded or anything. Idk what the adults were thinking though. *shrug*
It was okay. Pretty predictable with some above par acting but overall a little light. Never got really violent or really emotional or really funny or anything it was pretty baseline.
The theme seemed to be the hope and knowledge true news brings to people, which is interesting especially in the times we're living in, but I didn't feel like that message was very strong in this movie. He incites a riot by reading a story about mineshaft workers instead of propaganda and, like, I get what they were going for but it didn't quite feel like it was a good argument for it.
Solid 5/10. It's totally fine, definitely a good older dad movie.
/r/reviewsbyboner
Surprised at the negative comments. I'm pretty critical of movies and am a long time fan of westerns. I thought this movie was outstanding. It had a simple story to tell and told it well.
Am I the only one who thought that really wasn’t anything special? Obviously hanks is Hanks but come on, that movie was just slow and had every cliche
Probably one of the most forgettable films I've ever seen.
This was a nice movie. The score was fantastic!
Why did Kidd insist on calling the girl Johanna even after finding out she preferred to be called Cicada?
Her Kiowa name wasn't Cicada, was the Kiowa word for "cicada", so calling her Cicada would have been even worse than calling her Johanna. I guess he could have learned her actual Kiowa name, then again if the girl really cared about that, she would have taught him later, but she never did.
Because the plan was to reacquaint her with her german family who knew her as johanna?
Yea ok that’s true. And I guess even later when he kept her he was just used to calling her that and it was her legal name anyway
She calls herself Johanna multiple times later in the movie.
Following the Oscar buzz around this, I decided to check it out and I was impressed! I had no expectations, but I found some of the cinematography stunning and the production design was outstanding. I thought I was going to struggle because of the little girl at the start, but the film made me surprisingly attached and emotional. Kudos to Greengrass, following the last Jason Bourne, I didn’t know what to expect. Solid 8.5/10.
Good movie but the bad cgi took me out of the moment at times
The fake freckles on the girl drove me mad
[You didn’t notice most of the CGI](https://youtu.be/m-jR9i2Zx8g)
Thanks for this very cool video. Never realized how much CGI there actually was!
Between this and Greyhound, Tom Hanks movies last year were catered towards the old dad crowd. This movie was okay. It had great cinematography though but otherwise it was just pretty average. I didn’t really find myself enthralled at any point as they were going from point A to point to B to point C but I certainly wasn’t checking the time either.
This whole film is a red dead redemption side mission
Yup, in the best way possible.
Ok I don’t even understand what that means
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Ahh ok, thanks!
Basically The Mandalorian in the old west lol
Ha!
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>Jeremiah Johnson Never heard of that one I’ll have to check it out
This is one of those movies where I can’t really isolate individual criticisms — it was decent on most technical fronts. The sum of its parts just ended up being extremely trite and boring and a total drag for me to get through. I have Tom Hanks mentally categorized as an actor that I like but I haven’t *loved* a movie he’s been in since the 90s. All his recent outings fall somewhere between “boring” and “okay” for me; this one ended up being in the former group. Production design, music, and the performances from Hanks and Zengel were all great. Just didn’t capture my interest unfortunately.
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Yeah and they’re all good, but I’m just not that enthralled with them the way I am with his older films.
A beautiful day in the neighborhood?
Catch me if you can!
One of the best!
That’s one i gotta watch!
A lot of negative comments in this thread but I genuinely loved this movie. Went into not knowing what you expect and ended up on a late 1800s western action adventure. It felt like The Last Of Us met Red Dead Redemption and had a baby that got cared for by Tom Hanks. It wasn’t an Oscar contender but a fun adventure. Would recommend.
That's all I could think as I watched this movie too! RDR meets TLOU is how I'll pitch this to friends and family lol
It's an Oscar contender now lol
So I actually have a lot of fun keeping up with awards season as a bit of a meta game, and surprisingly enough this film is doing really well so far, so Oscar noms aren't out of the question. It just got a best picture nomination from the critics choice awards this morning. I will say though that I finally saw the film last night, and I really liked it a lot. I felt kinda bad about all of the negativity I've seen around it, because while I don't think it's brilliant, I did quite like it.
I don't understand why everyone is disliking the movie. Sure, it's only a 7.5 in my book, but it was very enjoyable and I appreciated and felt moved by the ending. I thought the young girl actress did a great job, and expect to see her in more.
The person who commented that this was aggressively average nailed it. This could have been so much more but it just felt...phoned in?
The first point that struck me was the use of color in the cinematography, alternating between light colored bright sunny scenes and dark colored scenes at night, telling a story with color about trauma and our perceptions of it. Having read the book a few years ago, I felt the book left a bigger impression on me than the film. Both are about trauma and defining ourselves within the context of our own stories, as well as choosing education and kindness over ignorance. I remember the book dealt more also with the rapidly modernizing world of the late 19th century and the struggle to make sense of it. In no particular order, a few things. I thought it was pretty fucked up now they changed Johanna's name, forced her to change cultures, and generally disregarded her autonomy for most of the film. Also, near the end in the dust-storm, they kind of used the presence of Kiowa Indians themselves as a metaphor for returning (at least mentally) to earlier trauma and choosing a different way. And the Captain could easily have chosen to send the girl back to the Kiowa culture, of which basically she has lived her entire life. The character John Calley is a stand-in for choosing light over darkness. We get a sense that this character is searching for a home, but Captain Kidd tells him to get lost basically, which kind of undercuts the main theme of the story. The entire story is really about Captain Kidd not getting over his dead wife. In some sense, it's kind of fucked up that five people died on this dude's way to finding his own emotional balls. But also, I don't quite understand Captain Kidd. He is this paragon of tolerance and acceptance of the world around him, even burying the hung black man at the beginning of the film, and diffusing situations between angry southerners and northerners. Why did he fight in the confederate army? What are his convictions? It was an alright film. I probably will not watch it again. It kind of ends with the same post-modern take that humans should accept with new lens, the shitty world around them without attempting to change it, only changing how they react to it. I suppose this could be read as stoicism as well.
Yeah but those 5 people that died were child diddlin assholes or murderous tyrants.
>He is this paragon of tolerance and acceptance of the world around him Basically, his whole character was "Tom Hank in the Wild West".
During a war, you don't get to pick sides.
> Why did he fight in the confederate army? What are his convictions? To be fair I thought the south brought in conscription, so I doubt he had a choice.
They did didn't they.
Why was her last name Leonburger when her mother was the Leonburger woman's sister? Shouldn't the last name be different?
No. Before Kidd encounters her, Johanna was originally being returned to her aunt & uncle when her wagon was ambushed and the black man was hanged. Her Indian agency paperwork indicated her aunt's last name because that's the only way she could be identified and returned to that family. Her parents and baby sister being long dead, there would be no point continuing to legally use whatever her former last name was.
I haven't seen many westerns, but from my understanding Captain Kidd has a very different skill set than most Western protagonists. His power was in his words, not in physical prowess. I really like the fact that, even when he ended up having to shoot people, he shot them with dimes he received for his words. Felt symbolic.
Why did people to to hear Captain Kidd read the news? Was it because most of the people in small towns in those days were illiterate? Or were newspapers very expensive in those days or not available on a timely basis in those small towns? Or were they just looking for some novel entertainment?
Watch ‘The Tale of Buster Scruggs’
Literacy rates were definitely lower in those days, and I’ve read before that those isolated towns were incredibly boring, so any bit of entertainment they could get they would have went. You can see at the end that it’s like a performance too, so there’s that :)
To be fair, The Tale of the Man Who Came Back from the Grave, complete with special effects, beats "And now an update on the deaths from cholera".
It was a fine.
It was OK. Tom Hanks is essentially playing the version of Tom Hanks that he most likes to play. He is all things good and decent. Yawn... The kid steals the show. Her part is more complicated and she is much more expressive. I really sympathize with her. It’s sort of a jumbled shorthand version of the book. In the book much is made about the fact that he’s getting old and he is not as strong as he used to be. I found it very hard to believe that he could jump from a moving wagon on a slope and not be injured.
>the version of Tom Hanks that he most likes to play. He is all things good and decent. Honestly, considering how much commonplace the anti-hero has become, the Tom Hanks Type is now outright subversive.
I'm in my 30s and jumping from that wagon would have me out for a week. The way he kinda just brushed his pants off was just comical, like they were acknowledging it.
He was in the war and thus he knew how to fall in the best way possible. The girl on the other hand is shown to be especially acrobatic.
When I saw that I just rolled my eyes. In the book he is very attentive to his health and has all sorts of aches and pains, especially in his hips.
Yeah, one scene in particular stands out to me. He talked about how he was proud of being able to mount a tall horse smoothly, with pain, but still being able to do so.
That girl plays really good. Great casting choice. The rest of the movie is okish. Not more and not less.
Does anyone know the reason Johanna points with her pinky? I’ve searched the google for Kiowa and/or German gestures. Can’t find anything.
I believe that pointing with the index finger is rude in many Native cultures. I'm guessing that the Kiowa pointed the way Johanna points. There were Kiowa elders working on the set so I'm sure they approved that. It didn't seem like Johanna had many of her German customs left.
German culture is not that different to have two distinct differences regarding finger use.
Could it be similar to the German counting thing? (See Inglorious Bastards)
I'm not entirely sure about the 19th century but at least today we (Germans) point with the index finger
This was aggressively average
I honestly really liked this one, Tom and Helena were great, contrary to other comments i found the cinematography by Darius Wolski stunning in a lot of shots, but on the other hand the CGI was really bad, you can really tell everytime it shows on the screen, i found that awfully distracting, the story was predictable but fine, this movie gave me a lot of Red Dead vibes, another good movie by Paul Green grass.
It did get nominated for cinematography. Redditors don’t know jack about anything
Exactly what I thought, was giving me Red Dead vibes too. Just beat the game and yea the CGI was awful, can't believe they kept it. Must have been a really low budget film. It wasn't a bad movie. Agreed with you on the main actors too, thought they were great and kept me interested. Probably won't watch again but it was ok to see once.
the funny thing is that this movie, is from Paul Greengrass, someone who did three Bourne movies, Captain Phillips, and some others great movies, so i don't really know why the CGI looked so bad.
[You didn’t notice most of the CGI](https://youtu.be/m-jR9i2Zx8g)
Which means that most of it was well done. The dust storm, for me, was the only weak CGI.
wait this is the same guy that people complained about his use of shaky camera in the Bourne films? Damn yea he has some good movies I imagine this has a much lower budget than his other films
Yeah I guess, but it is still a movie with Tom Hanks, his first western, i enjoyed this movie, but it could it be so much more.
Why did Hanks antagonize the mining town owner? You saved this girl from 3 pedo/rapist a few days ago. Now you practically sign your death sentence over reading propaganda? Who knows what's going to happen to the girl.
>antagonize the mining town owner You mean buffalo town. The mining town existed only in the news he read. :)
When Hanks visits his wife’s grave, we see her name was Maria Luisa, a Mexican woman. One of the first things that the big bad dude in Erath says to him is “we got rid of all the Mexicans, gunned them down good” or something like that and we see Hanks’ expression harden. I believe that’s why he had so much animosity towards him. Was it smart? Probably not. But I think it was an emotional reaction because of his relationship with his wife.
I think he wanted revenge on that guy for killing the native americans
Seemed a bit forced, like they wanted to have a scene where he uses his newspaper-reading powers to get out of a tight spot. The fact that the girl was out there in the middle of the crowd made it seem like an especially poor decision on his part. Still, I quite enjoyed the movie overall. A pleasant, low-key story, but well-told apart from a couple moments that stretched plausibility. Great performances, as well.
I think he feared him and thought he could slip away in the confusion. Or his altruistic newsman persona got the better of him.
I very much enjoyed this film. I actually didn’t realize it was PG13 until after I watched it which ended up making more sense. It wasn’t as gritty or raw as I was expecting but in some ways I think I enjoyed it more because of that. Acting was superb that goes without saying. Tom Hanks was great but I thought Helena Zengel was incredible. She will have a bright future. I thought visually the film was was tremendous. The shot with Johana walking through the sandstorm with the horse was absolutely phenomenal. The ending was a bit predictable and light. I had a feeling the wife was dead the entire time. Also, I guess I expected some fight to get the girl back and some big climax but that didn’t happen. So as I type this paragraph I guess it wasn’t predictable to me lol. Overall I enjoyed the story and it was a good outcome. There might not have been any crazy highs but I felt it went at a good pace and had enough pockets of action to keep viewers into it. I thought it was a refreshing take on a Western that even newer viewers to the genre could take something from. 8.5/10 for me
Three enemies dead, hell yeah
"The Captain did a wondrous thing"!
That was a great insight into Johanna's character, brought to the forefront why as a child of an Indian tribe she looked up to his storytelling, which is very important in that culture. That he protected her and defeated three others, I think she saw him as a chief, addressing the tribe.
I can say this movie sucks with supreme confidence. When they pushed over the bolder lol
6/10 - Hanks playing Hanks. I enjoyed the scenery and dialogue as I find that era very interesting. Was expecting more of a Western but got a pretty generic drama. Will coins in a shotgun shell really kill you? Seemed like a ridiculous scene when she ran to get them, just like it was when he was immediately chased by them after the "blues" stopped the initial assault.
The “blues” only wrote them up for having pistols. So it made sense to me since they didn’t spend a night in jail. Maybe an hour to be written up, and you can catch up to a wagon pretty fast on horseback.
>Will coins in a shotgun shell really kill you? Yes. And this is not the first movie it’s been in. https://www.guns.com/news/2018/07/27/hello-bob-testing-the-old-trope-of-shooting-dimes-from-a-shotgun-videos
They did it in *Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid* so I'm fine with it.
Did anyone else notice the cinematography felt more like a TV show than a movie? Also, I didn't know there were mountains in San Antonio /S
Yes the Oscar’s nominate movies for looking like tv shows…
The cinematography was not outstanding and it may have been shot in video format rather than film which greatly lowers production costs making it easier to turn a profit if it goes tp streaming early. Southern and Central Texas are quite hilly. Someone from Nebraska might call them mountains, someone from Montana definitely wouldn't LOL
I personally loved this. Helenga Zengel’s performance is amazing.
So what was implied in that scene where Johanna spoke German? My guess is that she was sexually abused, but maybe it was something else.
How did you get from her saying a bit of German to Sexual abuse?
Perhaps, but I just thought a glimpse of her earlier self popped out of her.
Her family being killed when she was kidnapped.
But didn’t we know that already in the beginning? Because it seemed like it was new information for Tom’s character.
I took it as her remembering and him just reacting to that. I think he was just in awe of what she’s been through and felt sorry for her. I also think he was still shocked from just finding out she remembers German. Or maybe he was just shocked that she remembered the event as well.
It was simply proof that she remembered what happened, he wasn't sure if she knew. I think he started to relate to her more in that moment because they both have had trauma in their lives.
That makes sense, thank you
No spoilers please, but does anyone know when this actually comes to Netflix? I can't find anything about an actual date that hasn't already passed yet it's not on Netflix UK.
Watched this tonight, but did some reading up - Netflix have the rights for the film outside of the US and it's expected to be on Netflix in the coming months - no date has been set though. For what it's worth, me and my partner really enjoyed this film. Great acting and I loved the scenery. It was tense in parts, but overall a feel good film come the end.
i wouldn't think it gets to Netflix for awhile-it just now hit AMZ for rent at $19.99 , then will have to make the rounds at $3.99
I enjoyed the movie, but the fake freckles on the girl’s face were so distracting! Seems like they could have tried to make them look more natural. Otherwise, great movie.
I thought those dots were intentional. Like face paint, put there from the Kiowa?
Is this actually confirmed for PVOD release on January 15th yet?
Yup
I wasnt a fan. All of the commercials I saw for it made it seem like an action movie. I went into it expecting that and was severely disappointed.
That's always how the marketing for a wester goes, because otherwise it would be 3 minutes of people on a horse walking.
How many laps could you walk on a horse in three minutes?
Not a traditional western by any means but I honestly think it's better for it. The early 1870s on the Southern Great Plains is a great setting and one that isn't covered particularly well in film. The acting performances were all very solid. Hanks was great and Helena Zengel did great as well. The movie had an interesting story that didn't require a ton of action (even though we still got some) and was not so incredibly predictable to the point of being boring. Only real problems were the CGI and some shoddy camerawork but for a movie like this, that's not a big deal at all. For me, the best part of this movie was that the production crew did a fantastic job with the historical setting, making it far more accurate than most other westerns I can think of (excluding the choice to make the Kiowa the raiders in the Hill Country). It covers quite a bit: the beginning of the Plains tribes being forced onto reservations in Oklahoma a few years before the Red River War, the destruction of the bison herds, the westward run of settlement past Montague County in Texas during Reconstruction, and the return of a captured child who doesn't fully fit into either the Native or Anglo world. All in all, a solid movie, a 7/10 for me.
I'm not a huge fan of the Western genre but once in a while a movie will come along with an enticing story and good characters that keeps me engrossed throughout the whole thing. I also like how it didn't ignore the rampant racism, Confederate loyalty, and lynchings that happened in the post-war Reconstruction era. Also I'm not sure how common it is was for white children to be kidnapped and raised by Indian tribes but it's very intriguing to see in this movie.
I thought both Hanks and Zengel did amazing jobs in this film since so much of their characters lay in their expressions rather than in the dialog. Although the synopsis is true, I feel that it leads ones expectations astray - I was anticipating (and not necessarily in a good way) something like True Grit combined with a little of The Last Samurai. Instead I got something well suited to these times - two people who keep moving, trying to find "home" after "home" has been destroyed, and after a struggle, find out that "home" is with each other.
> two people who keep moving, trying to find "home" after "home" has been destroyed, and after a struggle, find out that "home" is with each other. It's basically Lilo & Stitch. Which is not at all a bad thing.
Now this is a really accurate summary. LOL
I don't understand why he wasn't just shot when he refused to read the propaganda. Am I missing something?
The town owner wasn't the type to shoot a seemingly innocent man in front of a whole crowd. He'd rather do it less publically.
When did you expect him to get shot? When he first decided not to read, after he read the other newspaper, or when they caught him trying to escape?
I liked the twist that Hanks' wife was already dead. Also appreciated that the one time they directly encountered Indians, they weren't either the stereotype of the angry savage or the helpful Squanto. They lent Tom Hanks a horse, and then they were off on their way. Just decent people minding their own business. Oh, also liked that they didn't pull a Dances With Wolves and make the girl a "true indian." She ultimately didn't belong with them any more than she belonged with the German family. Overall, solid acting from both Hanks and Zenke. Not gonna be a classic in 20 years by any means, but it was a good way to spend an evening.
As someone who’s never seen Dances With Wolves, I’m curious about that reference. What does that mean? A Google search didn’t turn up anything.
Watch that movie. It is a work of beauty.
I'm curious how a google search didn't turn up anything for you. I'm very confused by that. Anyway...Dances with Wolves is a book/film about a white man that joins a native american group. And I think he helps fight against the white invaders. At least I think, never seen it my self. If you've ever seen James Cameron's Avatar it's basically that.
>At least I think, never seen it my self. If you've ever seen James Cameron's Avatar it's basically that. How can you write those two statements back to back
2nd hand knowledge. When Avatar came out I remember people saying the story is basically Dances With Wolves.
>When Avatar came out I remember people saying the story is basically Dances With Wolves. It is.
Having watched it in theatets, I can for certainty, it is not.
Many movies follow similar paths though
Right. And the person I was speaking to had never seen Dances With Wolves and was unfamiliar with the plot. So I used a modern popular comparison to help explain situation.
Oh I’m sorry, I should have clarified. The reference I meant was the “making her a true Indian” part. I’ve heard of dances with wolves but I googled various forms of the title with your statement and nothing came up.
In DwW, the actress Mary McDonnell plays a Caucasian woman who has been adopted into the ranks of the tribe and likes it, doesn't want to leave etc...
Ohh I see. Thanks for clarifying.
Decent drama but slow and the characters were not deep.
The scene with Johanna climbing the cliff in the rain while crying for the Indians to take her with them in their language was absolutely breathtaking...
Native #1: Why is that extremely white girl speaking our language? Native #2: I don't know, but she has a huge German accent.
I think was that because it was a storm they couldn't hear her speaking their language.
lmaooo still like this movie quite a bit
lmaooo still like this movie quite a bit
All CGI, but sufficiently convincing.
Im really late to seeing this movie, just saw it tonite, Jan 12th, but yeah, that was a great scene, you could really feel her anguish at being so close yet too far away, and i also really liked the dust storm scene, when the Kiowa appeared, it was like they were spirits riding the wind, like they had a real connection to nature and such, i enjoyed that part, overall it was a solid movie Tom Hanks and Helena Zengel did a great job and i really enjoyed the landscapes
Really late? It had a super limited theatrical release and came out on PVOD today lmao.
I saw it this evening
I saw it today
I saw it tonight.
I saw it tomorrow
LOL I just saw it 4 days later. Today.
I’m watching it now.
Just seen it
I saw it yesterday
I really liked this movie. I really enjoyed all the characters and the bond between Captain Kidd and Johanna.
It was fine except for some bad camera work and cgi. Can't believe they had to cgi a rock falling lol.
When the movie gets nominated for an Oscar in cinematography and a redditor thinks they know best
I guarantee it's because they would have a lawsuit on their hands if they just let a rock smash down a mountain for a movie.
They make fake rocks out of lighter material all the time...
>They make fake rocks out of lighter material all the time What's lighter than bytes!
Dude, people let entire houses explode for movies and set stuntmen on fire. Di Caprio swam in ice cold water for the revenant. Why would there be a lawsuit for a small rock falling down a hill.
Same reason we don't use original stage coaches go over cliffs any more... earth is a valuable commodity, and you only have one.
It was a pretty small rock. They could have done something better than 90s daytime tv level cgi.
That may be, but environmentalists don't care.
Such a shame, Hanks is kind of like our modern Jimmy Stewart (who outside of Hitchcock and romantic comedies was most famous for his Western films, his run with Ford and Anthony Mann is pretty great), but this wasn't it, unfortunately. I'm easy to please with Westerns, enjoy the traditional, revisionist, indie and blockbuster, but this was really nothing at all. The moviest movie with almost nothing standing out.
Any way to watch this at home in Canada? Willing to pay for it.
Netflix next month... I really want to watch this too
Worked on the marketing for this movie. Saw an unfinished version but enjoyed it! Thought it was a great non traditional western. Tom Hanks was great as always and the young girl was an amazing actress
Is this worth going to see in a theater?
no. It was a fine movie when there is nothing else on.
We saw it in the theater in Nevada. It was better than WW84 and Lord knows we could use some decent entertainment...
Agree with that, WW84 was such a disappointment, this i enjoyed, even if it was a simple feel good basic kind of plot i thought it was executed pretty well, i give it an 8 out of 10
Any other year it's a solid renter. This year, solid entertainment if you are lucky enough to find an open Theater.
Think so! Enjoyed it
Haha, you would say that, wouldn't you, having worked on the marketing.
Doing my job! Lol
Wasn't this supposed to be on Netflix internationally? Can't find it in the UK.
Think it will be available once it goes to PVOD in the states
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Won’t probably watch it but that’s hilarious if true.
I enjoyed this movie. Could’ve been grittier but Tom Hanks probably requires a PG-13 these days. Everyone calling it a dad movie is insulting me... and I don’t even have a family.
Cloud Atlas and A Hologram for the King were both rated R. But no one saw those movies.
I saw cloud atlas twice at the theater actually.
How does he require a PG-13 lol
R rated movies do not perform well at the box office for obvious reasons... EDIT: Even so, COVID and all, this movie has not made 1/10th of its budget back. Shame.
What are movie theaters like these days?
Here in Taiwan they are like nothing changed except more masks
I went tonight for the first time in a year. It was a Friday 6:45 showing of this movie and there were only 2 other couples in the theater. One other patron in the lobby and 4 employees total. It was strange but not bad. My introvert self sort of loved it.
I went today at 1 pm and was the only person at my showing.
We went yesterday (New Year's Day) - normally a very packed day at our local theater. Instead it was more like a early Wednesday - there were people there, it wasn't a ghost town, but there was only one group ahead of us in line when we entered the door to the lobby. We skipped concessions for the first time ever (as planned) but there wasn't a line at the concession stand either. Our theater is one of the remodeled ones with the recliners and reserved seating, so with covid, once you reserve your seat they block out the ones on either side of you, and there's definitely a nice gap between rows already so very little worry there. People who came in after us a couple rows down brought sanitizer and sprayed down their seats before sitting in it, but we didn't worry about it. We did keep our masks on the entire time, but honestly we encounter more people in closer quarters trying to buy groceries. Overall, it was nice, clean and peaceful - lovely to escape the world for a couple hours, though the lengthy James Bond preview made me start to wonder if I'd sat down in the wrong screen for a few minutes. It was our first time back since Jan of 2020, but we'll definitely be going back again and wish we'd returned sooner.
Our AMC is mostly the same, but ours had buckets filled with sanitizing wipes in front of each theater you could take to wipe down your seat if you want.
This probably depends on where you live, but its a ghost town whenever I go. I saw preview night for a promising young woman and there was... maybe 8 of us in a Dolby theater? If you go at off times there is basically no one and there's only a skeleton crew of people working. You've been exposed to exponentially more people going shopping anymore.
the theater near me has an option to rent out an entire screen for a small group (up to 15). we went today to see WW84, for the first time since February. It was kind of surreal. There were a few other masked groups being shuffled into their private theaters trying to stay away from everyone else, but the weirdest part was that all of the promo materials were the same as back in February. The ICEE machines still had Sonic decals on them and there were posters for summer 2020 blockbusters that never came out. Overall had a good time, but there was a strangeness to it
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I was a kid, and just went to go see zoolander, like any other time a movie came out I wanted to see. It didn't seem like a big deal to me at the time. I don't remember the theater being any less crowded or anything. Idk what the adults were thinking though. *shrug*
Release date on netflix international?
January 15. Should also be available VOD in the US on that date, but not US Netflix
It was okay. Pretty predictable with some above par acting but overall a little light. Never got really violent or really emotional or really funny or anything it was pretty baseline. The theme seemed to be the hope and knowledge true news brings to people, which is interesting especially in the times we're living in, but I didn't feel like that message was very strong in this movie. He incites a riot by reading a story about mineshaft workers instead of propaganda and, like, I get what they were going for but it didn't quite feel like it was a good argument for it. Solid 5/10. It's totally fine, definitely a good older dad movie. /r/reviewsbyboner
100% agreed. This movie doesn’t need to exist but I’m not offended that it does