Director: Gregor Jordan
Starring: Heath Ledger, Orlando Bloom, Naomi Watts, Geoffrey Rush
Release date: 26 September 2003
Certificate: 12A
Running time: 109 minutes
What's it about?
Ned Kelly was an illiterate horse thief and cop killer who has become one
of Australia's national icons. The son of an Irish pig thief who was
transported to the Australian penal colony in 1883, Ned and his best
friend Joe Byrne (Orlando Bloom) formed the infamous Kelly Gang - a group
of bandits that travelled on horseback across south-eastern Australia for
over two years, wanted by the Victorian police for several acts of
banditry, including the hold-up of an entire town, and the murder of a
police constable. This version of Kelly's life is adapted from Robert
Drewe's novel "Our Sunshine", and tells the Ned Kelly story from his
initial teenage stint in jail up to his capture after a spectacular
shoot-out with the police in the small Australian town of Glenrowan.
Is it any good?
It's a shame, but Ned Kelly really doesn't live up to expectations.
Kelly's colourful character and hilarious escapades are a gift for any
potential film maker - when Kelly effectively captured the town of
Jerilderie, he locked the police in the local jail, while treating the
citizenry to drinks in a nearby tavern. But the film-makers have chosen
to play down these anecdotes in favour of a competently told, if relatively
flat, account of the Kelly story with a fictional love interest (Naomi
Watts) thrown in for good measure.
However, the cast can't be faulted for their performances, despite a very average script. Heath Ledger is brilliant as the brusque yet lovable rogue, Orlando Bloom proves that he's not just a pretty face as Ned's cheeky best friend Joe and Geoffrey Rush subtly portrays his begrudging respect for his long-time adversary as the chief of police in the Kelly hunt.
Best bit
The speech lifted verbatim from Kelly's scandalous Jerilderie letter in which he describes the Victorian Police as "a parcel of big ugly fat-necked wombat-headed big-bellied magpie-legged narrow-hipped splaw-footed sons of Irish bailiffs or English landlords".
Marks out of 10: 6