Ned Kelly

Victoria, Australia 1878 and the Irish immigrants were the brunt of victimisation and prejudice by the local police. Chief among these persecuted folk was Ned Kelly (Ledger) and his family but when one of the local constables didn't take too kindly to a rejection by Ned's sister, he accused Kelly of shooting him. A bounty was then put on his, his friends and his family's head payable alive or dead. Ned decided to take this injustice and become a modern day Robin Hood, robbing banks to fund his gang and give money to his fellow Irish people.

Australia's most famous outlaw Ned Kelly makes his third big screen outing and still ends up with a metal bucket on his head.

Adapted from the novel "Our Sunshine" by Robert Drewe, this is a more honest and gritty telling of the Aussie outlaw who became a national hero and an embarrassment to the Victoria police. Oz director Gregor Jordan (Buffalo Soldiers) injects real passion into the look and feel of the picture by building characters and the situations as the film heads towards the famous Glenrowan shootout. We learn about the reasons behind the Kelly Gang's actions and the lengths the police force went to, to capture them, all played out in the arid, barren Australian Outback.

Heath Ledger is well cast as Kelly. He was only 23 when all of this was happening but Ledger's performance gives him the demeanour and presence that you'd expect from a gang and community leader. Orlando Bloom continues to excel in his career and despite a dodgy final scene, gives another fine performance as Kelly's best friend and right hand man Joe Byrne. There are also good performances from the remaining gang members played by Joel Edgerton, Laurence Kinlan and Phil Barantini.

The beautiful and extremely talented Naomi Watts plays Kelly's love interest Julia Cook with a certain demure and Geoffrey Rush is his usual commanding self as the man charged with bringing the gang to justice, Superintendent Hare. What the movie lacks is any real explanation to why the local police and later the authorities has such problems with Ned Kelly.

What starts off as a racial dislike and unrequited lust towards Kelly's sister, far too quickly turns into an extremely excessive and violent blood hunt by police and the Australian government, all on the word of one, extremely resentful and dishonest man. The movie could have done to be longer and more revealing of the actions that bring the gang to confrontation at Glenrowan.

Ned Kelly is an interesting look into the famous Aussie outlaw but it could have been so much more with a slightly bigger budget and more detail. Even so I don't think tin buckets will ever become fashionable.

'Ned Kelly In Popular Culture' featurette
Storyboard to final feature comparison
'The Real Ned Kelly' featurette
Poster concepts
Trailers
Interactive menu & Scene access

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2003