Member Review Tom Hanks' "News Of The World"

Using inaccurate geography is not something limited to movies. A fair number of novels make no effort to accurately depict the city in which they take place beyond a few prominent landmarks. Fiction is often not simply fictionalized, but outright fictitious.

One of the more perplexing choices I encountered was a novel set in Florida. It included a real historical figure and the river he lived on is mentioned by name, and a real murder is an important part of the plot. However, all other characters are fictional and most of the setting was completely fictionalized generic 1950s Florida town. It was one of the most head-spinning blends of fact and fiction I ever tried to read.

The bottom line is entertainment is concerned with entertaining, not accuracy.

I stayed through the credits to see where this was in fact filmed: NEW MEXICO, which as we all should know looks little like North Texas, especially the mountains

Why not adjust the movie plot accordingly by having them travel from Wichita Falls to New Mexico instead of San Antonio?

Speaking of the remake of True Grit, I found it funny that its set in Oklahoma, but they filmed it almost mostly in South Texas! That movie was okay, but it'll never hold a candle to the original John Wayne film! I don't care if they filmed it in Colorado, its still a good one.

John Wayne must be an acquired taste, or at least "of an era." I have never cared for his "acting" (I put in quotations because he was essentially the same character in every film, even when he was supposed to be Genghis Khan).

I really dislike it when Hollywood uses the worst stereotypes to characterize any group

Has anyone read the novel the film is based on? How much of the portrayal of ex-Confederates was added by the filmmakers vs taken directly from the book?
 
... Why not adjust the movie plot accordingly by having them travel from Wichita Falls to New Mexico instead of San Antonio?


... Has anyone read the novel the film is based on? How much of the portrayal of ex-Confederates was added by the filmmakers vs taken directly from the book?
Excellent question but presumably (I haven't read the book) that's how it plays out in the novel. According to the plot in the film the girl was related to settlers near Castroville in Texas' Hill Country where Capt. Kidd takes her. He then travels to San Antonio by himself looking for his own family which he'd left to go to the war but fails to do so and so returns to reclaim the girl who he considers more "family" than anyone else he knows.
 
John Wayne must be an acquired taste, or at least "of an era." I have never cared for his "acting" (I put in quotations because he was essentially the same character in every film, even when he was supposed to be Genghis Khan).

I can't tell you who to like but Wayne portrayed a pretty wide range of characters. The Ringo Kid in Stagecoach and Colonel York in Rio Grande have little in common with the characters he played in drek like McLintock, Chisum and Big Jake. And the Thomas Dunson and Ethan Edwards characters had much in common but little in common with other characters Wayne played.

For those who think Wayne couldn't act I suggest the final scene from The Wings of Eagles, as he sits in the bosun's chair carrying him away from the war. No words were needed as John Ford gave us a lesson from silent pictures. And in the movie Wayne acted sans toupee.

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Back during the late 1980's, my ex-wife & her friends answered the call from production companies for "extras" every time a movie was filming in our area.

I had no idea it was so involved.

Not an audition, but a very detailed interview.
Although, none of the girls were selected ... that was a very interesting day !

Some of my employees... apparently knew what to say during said interview.
I guess their initial interview remained on file back in Hollywood.
:bounce:

They all became extras in such local films as " A Time to Kill " , "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou" ,
" Mississippi Burning" and " My Dog Skip" ... just to name a few.

By the time " The Help" was being filmed, they were not cast.

Too old even for an extra perhaps ?

:D
They could'a been in the grocery store scene. :wink: I recall at least one old lady in there.

The "hospital entrance" in Mississippi Burning was filmed in the old Sisters of Mercy convent in downtown Vicksburg, and of course everyone knows several scenes of Oh Brother were filmed in Vicksburg and Edwards, in particular the auditorium scene.

I haven't yet seen News of the World but will as soon as it's free to me. 😊
 
The book and movie had a terrible impact on many shark species
Absolutely !
I remember that Summer very well.

Everyone was reading Benchley after they had watched the movie.
The public shark "frenzy" was rampant.

It made no sense.

People even having a "day at the beach", were too scared to dip their toes into the water.

We used to see orcas in the wild where we lived - near Puget Sound. They would occasionally come into the inlet near our house.

I would love to see an Orca in the wild.

I've seen em' at the Florida Sea World "aquariums" ... but that's not the same.
I guess our Gulf of Mexico is too warm for those beautiful whales.

But we do have other whales.

:smile:
 
and of course everyone knows several scenes of Oh Brother were filmed in Vicksburg and Edwards, in particular the auditorium scene.
Along with Canton, "The Delta", and even the lil' village of D'lo in Rankin County.

"Oh Brother" was filmed all over the place.
I hope the location staff on that film were recognized with many awards !
They deserve it !

I do recall some very funny shenanigans involving George Clooney, John Goodman and a few others after the day's filming had ended.
But I don't think Holly Hunter was involved.

Seems she just went back to her suite ... or was close enough to hop a 45 minute flight over to Georgia and hang with her family.





 
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I liked the movie. At the initial viewing my main gripe was that the feel-good ending seemed a trite return to the old Hollywood tradition of always having a happy, happy ending.

But I noticed too that the Confederate vets were all depicted as thieves and killers. So much so that I wondered momentarily whether Capt. Kidd was a Confederate officer at all, or whether there woud be a plot twist coming to reveal him as a Union officer (or deserter, or some such). When I realized that Kidd was supposed to be a genuine Confederate vet, it seemed natural that his tormentors would also be Confederates, since it is ultimately made clear that it was the Confederate War that had ruined his life.

There may be a legit complaint that the movie is infected with a bad PC virus, but I don't think the depiction of Confederate vets is good evidence that it is.
 
Yes , the idea of a vengeful shark was pure fantasy . The book and movie had a terrible impact on many shark species . I think people are more educated now , but a lot of marine life is still suffering . On top of that Orcas ( ironically the name of the boat) are killing great whites to eat their livers.
My daughter is a "shark nerd." She'll read anything and everything about sharks that she can get her hands on. Her hero is Dr. Greg Skomal, marine biologist & shark expert with the Mass. Dept. of Marine Fisheries. Her idea of a great vacation? Go to Cape Cod to look for Great White Sharks.

I nearly died of embarrassment, when at the age of 12, she gave a couple of kids at an aquarium a lesson in differentiating male/female sharks using correct anatomical terminology in referring to reproductive anatomy. The kids asked their parents how to tell the difference and she launched into her lecture. The aquarium staff though was quite impressed. LOL

We used to see orcas in the wild where we lived - near Puget Sound. they would occasionally come into the inlet near our house.
Absolutely !
I remember that Summer very well.

Everyone was reading Benchley after they had watched the movie.
The public shark "frenzy" was rampant.

It made no sense.

People even having a "day at the beach", were too scared to dip their toes into the water.



I would love to see an Orca in the wild.

I've seen em' at the Florida Sea World "aquariums" ... but that's not the same.
I guess our Gulf of Mexico is too warm for those beautiful whales.

But we do have other whales.

:smile:
Texas A & M Marine Biology says there may be as many as 500 Orcas in the Gulf of Mexico. That's a relatively small population plus you need to be pretty far off shore and spend a lot of time out in the Gulf to catch a glimpse of them.

Gulf orca sightings rare, but more common far offshore
 
Watched the movie last night finally. Since it was a western it automatically gets two stars in my book right out of the blocks. I was not put off by the happy ending, in fact in my opinion, probably the best thing about the movie. Aside from that additional star, the rest of the film seemed OK. The scenery was great even though not accurate. The dialog was OK, the action was fine. A solid 3 star movie or in my opinion a typical western. While Zeke (my bullmastiff) and I were eating our Carolina mildly spiced cracklings, I found myself telling him (I always talk to the dogs like they are people) that even though Bone Tomahawk was totally ridiculous, the first 3/4 of the movie seemed to flow like cold honey, which to me seemed like what NoW was shooting for but never really achieved.

I can take Tom Hanks or leave him. In this movie, he did not strike me as the genuine artical. I would have cast Jeffery Dean Morgan, who is about the right age and who did well in Texas Rising for the role of Capt. Kidd over Hanks. For actors who are close to Hanks age, I would have gone with Stephen Lang or maybe even Toby Keith.
 
John Wayne must be an acquired taste, or at least "of an era." I have never cared for his "acting" (I put in quotations because he was essentially the same character in every film, even when he was supposed to be Genghis Khan).
John Wayne always played John Wayne, no matter what "character" he was portraying. And nobody could play him better!

"Aw-right you MonGOLS, we're gonna show those little yeller CHInamen whut-faw!" quoth (approximately) the big, hulking Irishman with 'squinty' eye makeup. Worst casting decision in Hollywood history.
 
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John Wayne always played John Wayne, no matter what "character" he was portraying. And nobody could play him better!

"Aw-right you MonGOLS, we're gonna show those little yeller CHInamen whut-for!" quoth (approximately) the big, hulking Irishman with 'squinty' eye makeup. Worst casting decision in Hollywood history.
Heretic...I loved John Wayne as Temujin.
 
John Wayne is western movie legend, but I much prefer Clint Eastwood in westerns... hard to beat these three:

Outlaw Josey Wales
Pale Rider
Unforgiven
 
John Wayne is western movie legend, but I much prefer Clint Eastwood in westerns... hard to beat these three:

Outlaw Josey Wales
Pale Rider
Unforgiven

The Unforgiven by John Huston blows the doors off Unforgiven. And such a cast--Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn, Audie Murphy in his best role, Charles Bickford, Joseph Wiseman, John Saxon and...ta-da...Lilian Gish. A very bitter movie, kind of like The Searchers turned inside out.

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