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NED KELLY Send This Review to a Friend
A film that springs from Australian folklore and history, "Ned Kelly" is a western-style tale from down under based on a true-life late 19th century outlaw ultimately hanged after inspiring a following. With Heath Ledger in the title role and directed by Gregor Jordan, "Ned Kelly" will remind you of Hollywood flicks about the James brothers and other American outlaws. This one involves Ned and his pals as the western genre is tweaked with a broad Australian angle added. Kelly becomes a symbol of resistance against British domination, as well as the hero of the downtrodden Irish against the Crown and poor against the rich.
The saga, as the story goes, develops from what initially is hostility toward Ned for being Irish, and from a copper's lust after Ned's sister Kate (Kerry Condon), who angrily rejects him. Ned is the victim of a false accusation, and his mother is also falsely charged and imprisoned. From there Ned goes into real crime with a high reward on his head. The honcho assigned to capture him, Superintendent Francis Hare, solemnly played by Geoffrey Rush, leads an army against the Kelly gang, who find support in the local communities. Naomi Watts has a role as Julia, an English landowner's wife, secretly attracted to Ned.
So much for plot in John Michael McDonagh's screenplay based on the novel "Our Sunshine" by Robert Drewe. The film, although not uninteresting, fails to rise above that of an ordinary western. It seems like many others of that breed, decently performed and action-filled, but lacking in inspiration. A Focus Features release.
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