Ned Kelly (2003) Movie Information:

Ned Kelly (2003) Directed by: Gregor Jordan Ned Kelly (2003) Written by: John M. McDonagh Ned Kelly (2003) Cast: Heath Ledger, Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush, Naomi Watts, Rachel Griffiths, Laurence Kinlan, Joel Edgerton, Kiri Paramore, Russell Dykstra, Peter Phelps

Ned Kelly (2003) U.S. Distributor: Focus Features Ned Kelly (2003) U.K. Distributor: UIP

Our Rating: User Rating:  Log in to rate this movie

Ned Kelly (2003) Synopsis:

In the latter part of the 19th century, Australia is still largely untamed. The former penal colony's first-generation Irish immigrant population lives in poverty. Having already experienced police brutality and the death of his father, bushranger Ned Kelly is wrongfully imprisoned on the trumped-up charge of stealing a horse. Emerging a few years later, in 1874, Ned is hardened but vows to stay straight. Rejoining his widowed mother and younger siblings, he makes money for his family as a champion bare-knuckle boxer. He also toils as a farmhand on the estate of an English landowner--with whose beautiful wife Ned shares a mutual attraction. But the British colonial system and its Victorian English enforcers remain prejudiced against Australia's working people, and the struggling Kelly family is no exception. When, in 1878, a bullying police officer is rebuffed by Ned's younger sister Kate and targets the family for harassment, Ned and his mother are unjustly charged with attempted murder. Ned is determined to avenge his family's name and strike back against his people's oppressors. While hiding in the bush, he forms a loyal Gang that includes his best friend Joe Byrne. When a chance encounter with the police culminates in three officers killed, the Kelly Gang is forced to go on the run. They blaze a trail through the Outback, robbing banks to fund themselves and giving police the runaround. The Kelly Gang's reputation as invincible outlaws grows, as does nationwide support from their immigrant countrymen. To the masses, Ned is a hero. To lawmen, he is the most wanted man in Australia. When the authorities bring in the formidable Superintendent Francis Hare to capture and/or kill the outlaws, Ned strategizes a risky showdown at the Glenrowan Inn. It is this event which will seal his fate--and his legend.

Ned Kelly (2003) Movie Review:

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.

Our Rating: User Rating:  Log in to rate this movie

Ned Kelly (2003) review written by: Jamie Kelwick