Well done Stan; your relentless advertising during the Australian Open Tennis Championship convinced me to watch True History of the Kelly Gang. And, since actor George MacKay was so intrinsic to the success of 1917, I’m keen to get my hands on anything with his name on it right now. So, let’s delve into 2020 with some revised Australian history.
True History of the Kelly Gang is a fictional retelling of legendary real-life bushranger Ned Kelly, directed by Justin Kurzel. Ned Kelly (George MacKay) has had it rough ever since he was a young boy, often having to defend his family from impending trouble. His mother, Ellen, (Essie Davis) does her best to navigate suiters, who look to take advantage of her or present sacrificial offers. When Constable Fitzpatrick (Nicolas Hoult) betrays the Kelly clan, it is the last straw, and after some ways into the movie, Ned Kelly bans together his brothers and bushmen to attack Victorian law.
The movie spends a lot of time setting up Ned Kelly in relation to his family and the wider community; Orlando Schwerdt plays a young Kelly for nearly a solid third of the runtime. I love the characters in this movie, especially those around at the time of Ned Kelly as a boy; none of them are kind in the slightest, but it is understood that they are all out to get what they can while the getting is good. One of the biggest influences on young Kelly is bushranger Harry Power, played by Russell Crowe, and he is particularly dastardly. Most the characters within this movie play at each other, resulting in a lot of twists and turns. I only vaguely remember seeing the Ned Kelly movie with Heath Ledger back in the day and I can’t recall such an emphasis put on the relationship between Kelly and his mother, like which I will remember here with True History of the Kelly Gang. Davis is superb as Ellen Kelly, worthy of nominations come years end.
At times, the movie pulls you in with a dream-like quality; it can be lucid, just as the teacher character describes the Kelly story as a whole. The way the landscape is filmed has an other-worldly feel – even as an Australian I found the land harrowing and foreign to me at times. The Kelly’s live by a sea of dead trees that cast ominous shadows over the dry, deserted land and within nearly every scene, our characters inhabit dwellings that are graffitied or dilapidated. It’s a rough time to live, and although historically the Kelly Gang existed in the past, this movie could make you believe that Mad Max is right around the corner. Personally, I don’t put too much weight into the real Ned Kelly as an Australian hero or outlaw one way or the other, but I know there are a lot of people that do – I’d love to know their reactions to seeing Kelly and his boys run around in frocks and verging on homosexuality. There is so much cross-dressing in this movie – it starts out subtly, under an explanation that it is an extension of being rebellious, but then it does get increasingly confronting and distracting as it gets crazier; it’s so bizarre to associate these bushrangers with transvestism. I pictured Emily Howard from Little Britain was among the gang stating, “if there’s a ladies outback shoot-out I’ll join, but only if, we are ladies after all” … if you’re not a fan of Little Britain and don’t get understand that reference, then I’m sorry.
The ending is weird and I’m not sure if I like it. Stan warned me before viewing the movie that there would be a heavy use of strobe lights, but I didn’t count on a row of police dressed like Clan members belonging in the final battle too. I recently visited the Melbourne Gaol, where I wore a replica of the Kelly armour, and it’s always nice to see a familiar landmark in a movie. I did enjoy the small speech given by the school teacher, Thomas Curnow (Jacob Collins-Levy) near the end, remarking on our national fascination with this troubled bushranger – for me, this movie, despite being fiction, assembles Ned Kelly as a kind natured boy lured into cruel acts for the sake of his family and loved ones. He’s not special, nor a bold leader, but a man hoping to enact his sense of good. I would describe this Kelly as noble.
The movie is also really well written, I’m sure borrowing much of its prose from its novel source material. There’s a romanticised olden sophistication about the dialogue, not too dissimilar to the sound of Shakespeare, and I thought it added to the overall quality of production. I found some pacing issues here and there, revolving around Nicholas Hoult’s Constable Fitzpatrick; I’m not sure if Kelly rushes to become an outlaw after a fallout with Fitzpatrick, and then lingers too long on their waring feud thereafter. It’s not enough to derail the movie, as I found True History of the Kelly Gang to be rather entertaining. Charlie Hunnam and Thomasin McKenzie are also great in significant supporting roles.
4.0
Leave a Reply