Like many other Westerns,a principal theme here is the importance of morality in bringing sanity to human life in the absence of stable authority. There is more, though: the possibility of redemption through empathy, though it is a difficult and sometimes painful path.
Examples of empathy, or the lack of it, and the results thereof, abound in the story.. (Story itself is a key motif, as a key to empathy.) An unusual diversity of viewpoints is modeled, from unredeemed racism, to traumatized victims of war and oppression, to the desperate efforts of Native Americans to preserve their traditional ways of life.
I will leave aside Tom Hanks' penchant for starring in roles as a messianic hero cracking wise, except to say he does it well, always a little differently each time..
Special mention for the young girl playing the other leading character in a very challenging role, and for the elaborate sets depicting the wild North Texas country during Reconstruction, a critical, rarely-portrayed period of US history with clear relevance for our era.
Examples of empathy, or the lack of it, and the results thereof, abound in the story.. (Story itself is a key motif, as a key to empathy.) An unusual diversity of viewpoints is modeled, from unredeemed racism, to traumatized victims of war and oppression, to the desperate efforts of Native Americans to preserve their traditional ways of life.
I will leave aside Tom Hanks' penchant for starring in roles as a messianic hero cracking wise, except to say he does it well, always a little differently each time..
Special mention for the young girl playing the other leading character in a very challenging role, and for the elaborate sets depicting the wild North Texas country during Reconstruction, a critical, rarely-portrayed period of US history with clear relevance for our era.