Ned Kelly | | Cast : | Heath Ledger, Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush, Naomi Watts | | Director : | Gregor Jordan | | Studio : | Universal Studios Ho | | Format : | Color, Widescreen | | Released Date : | March 26, 2004 | | DVD Released Date : | February 08, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed), English (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 03, 2005 | | Summary | moving drama | Content
 | This is a wonderful example of a real-life story put to film. All the actors do a very good job with their roles. Luckily the writers, director, etc. avoided the pitfall of attempting to modernize the people or story to make it more 'relateable'. I highly recomend it. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 06, 2005 | | Summary | A Sad Attempt To "Rewrite Australian History" | Content
| In this sorry excuse for a movie Heath Ledger plays the Australian Outlaw Ned Kelly. Americans make heroes out of their old Lawmen but for some unknown reason Australians romanticize and glorify the "bad boys' of their past. This movie is in NO WAY An accurate Historical depiction of the life of Ned Kelly. In this movie Ned has the obligatory sexual encounter with a woman although most Historians wil agree that sadly Ned most probably died a virgin.Poor guy. The movie also fails to depict the true event where Ned shot a Trooper (Law Officer) in the groin.Ned has become a Hero from Australian Working Class. I guess this is to be expected when your country was founded by convicts and women of loose moral character. This movie was shot in the one horse country town of Clunes which I hope I never get to visit. I give this movie 5 stars because once again the filmakers have tried to turn Fantasy into a Reality onscreen. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 04, 2005 | | Summary | A Moving Account | Content
| For most people Down Under, the name Ned Kelly elicits feelings ranging from near religious devotion and hero-worship to the most bitter, deep-seated hatred. Like many figures who have come to be regarded as popular heroes, there has been the accretion of a lot of legend to the name of Ned Kelly, which can make getting to the real man a tall order.
The movie, Ned Kelly, is based in the southern state of Victoria, (it was filmed just outside Melbourne), and follows the Kelly Gang through the unjust imprisonment of Ned Kelly (Heath Ledger) and then his mother after false accusations from a Victorian Police officer. Other injustices are committed against the Kelly's and their friends, which only increases Kelly's resolve to hit back. The film climaxes in the last stand made at Glenrowan, and the tragedy that it was.
The movie is excellently shot and uses the scenery of Victoria well to give an atmosphere and aura of colonial roughness contrasted with the well-to-do nature of the British middle and upper classes at the time. The film simply looks nice, as well as uses real historical sites. For example, the scene where Ned Kelly leaves prison is the gate to the Old Melbourne jail, (that part is now a building devoted to tertiary education). It is worth a visit, if you are ever in Melbourne, as the wing where Kelly was kept is still intact and open to the public.
The principle actors are all excellent in their roles and they bring off the Irish character of the Kellys and their friends well. Orlando Bloom is excellent as Kelly's friend, Joe Byrne. Accurately shown to be fluent in Cantonese, Bloom brings Byrne to life. Heath Ledger does an admirable job of portraying Ned Kelly in the details, bringing to light what motivated and drove Kelly, as well as the emotional struggles that Kelly might have gone through. Laurence Kinlan and Phil Barantini deserve mention as well for their parts as Dan Kelly and Steve Hart respectively, and the protrayal of their tragically short lifes and their courage at the end.
The movie is a great story, and brings a man and his friends to life. It is an excellent overview of a complex figure and it attempts to show what the real man was, and in most respects succeeds in doing so. The movie does presents one "interpretation" of the Ned Kelly story, and presents him in a very positive light. The director, Gregor Jordan, is very open and honest about this, saying that he hoped people would be encouraged to find out more and form their own opinions. The movie also takes some liberties with the facts, but these do not overly affect the plot or its value as a Kelly movie.
If you have never seen or read about Ned Kelly, then I would suggest that one read a book called "Ned Kelly: A Short Life" by Ian Jones, (available from Amazon). Read it before you see the movie and it will help you understand where the movie is coming from and where the movie is drawing its material from. Secondly, the book will fill in information that is either not given in the movie, or could be easily missed. This information would provide a greater understanding of why Kelly does things in the movie.
For example, the reason for the siege at Glenrowan is not terribly clear in the movie, though it is indirectly alluded to in a couple of scenes. One scene is when Kelly and Byrne are writing the Jerrilderee Letter, and Kelly warns people not to "attempt to reside" in Victoria. The second scene is when Francis Hare, (Rush), is addressing his officers and warns that the Kelly Gang have been elevated as leaders of a "movement" that threatens the very structure of the colony of Victoria. What the book reveals is that Kelly and the Gang were trying to start an uprising, and cut the rail at Gelnrowan to aid them in this. It was not just an attempt to kill as many officers as they could for no real reason. They also had supporters ready to rise in the area around the town, and there were worries after the seige ended that they would still cause trouble.
Also, the book presents a more balanced context to the movie. It is not revealed in the movie that Kelly had run with an older bushranger, (bandit), when he was in his teens and learned a lot from the older man, (such as bush craft and bushranging). It was from this older man that Kelly learned the value of a wide support base among the general population. This was helped a lot when the Kelly Gang burned a bank's mortgages, (the farmers got their loans cancelled and their farms free).
Overall, the movie is excellent, and I enjoyed it immensely. It is a touching story, and one may need to watch it in the dark to hide the tears, ;-). The story is one worth telling, and the cast and crew of this movie have told the story well. I would only recommend reading the book as well for the reasons above. Love him or hate him, it is undoubted that Ned Kelly makes a great movie and will remain in the popular imagination for generations to come. |
| Rating | | | Date | February 27, 2005 | | Summary | Entertaining | Content
| This movie was very entertaining to say the least. They did a great job building up the characters at the beginning. I have not seen Mic Jagger's version but it will have to be hard to compare with the acting in this. And on top of that, Heath Ledger is definetly not close to being my favorite actor. But he did a great job in this flick. |
| Rating | | | Date | February 15, 2005 | | Summary | No second chances for Ned in this down under Western... | Content
| No first, really.
Story in a nutshell: Ned Kelly is falsely accused of taking a horse and sent to prison. When he gets out, the cops won't leave him or his family alone.
This show's pretty brutal about 18th century justice in the Outback. Overall, very good action flick. I could have done without the romance and I question the historical accuracy. Still, taken at face value, the film is great entertainment. Ledger and Bloom are great eye candy.
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