Ned Kelly (1970)

Let's be realistic.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

If you're an Australian then you would have heard the name Ned Kelly. He's an extremely famous historical figure that fought the corrupt law in his day and kind of became the Aussie Robin Hood, I've even visited the jail where he was hanged and looked at the cell where he was kept. With that said I am a little foggy on the details, lets just say I'm probably the least educated an Aussie can get when it comes to this guy (save for actually visiting Melbourne Jail) and this movie is not kind to the uninitiated on this topic. For one thing, the soundtrack is god awful - There's this kind of country/rock singer who starts singing about the Kelly gang and it's just not good. What perplexes me is that they got Mick Jagger to act but not to do something about the soundtrack - I mean if The Rolling Stones released a song, it would be weird but it would also be decent promotional material for the movie considering their popularity at the time. Oh and Mick Jagger never once is convincing in his role, his Irish accent is awful and in terms of emoting it's either the wrong delivery (the last line is threatening a judge, whereas he makes it sound like he's making plans for a party or something) or it's non-existent. The pacing is also pretty choppy, I had to ask for context behind where we are in the story... With that said I'll go onto the good things. The cinematography is actually decent enough and if you sit through this movie enough to get to the final gunfight it is actually... expertly done, it aims for realism and succeeds but the framing, the editing, pretty much everything about that scene is worth at least tracking down a clip of it. While I have seen worse the end result is extremely forgettable, I've heard of a high budget Heath Ledger movie made in 2005 that looks better or if you want to find something more obscure and detailed the 6 hour mini-series The Last Outlaw I've heard is also pretty good. All in all, this is a movie I'll eventually forget I even saw it in a matter of weeks.

This film has been criticised too harshly, because of Mick Jagger's lack of experience as an actor and it's failure to stick to verifiable facts. But treat it as the cinematic equivalent of a folk ballad and you'll have a good time with it. Just as you wouldn't hire an opera singer to sing a folk song, you don't need a professional actor to play the lead in a rough-and-ready entertainment about a rough-and-ready character. By the time one gets to the speeded up segment that accompanies Waylon Jenning's singing of Shel Silverstein's "Blame it on the Kelly's" it becomes clear this is not a film that is intended as a serious examination of history. Like the song "The Wild Colonial Boy" which Jagger sings in one of the more memorable scenes in the movie, this is popular entertainment to be enjoyed with a few beers. Taken as such it is very enjoyable, with catchy songs, evocative cinematography and Jagger being very much the lovable, charismatic rabble-rouser he was in real-life at the time. And what matters in a folk ballad is not the truth, but the legend.

Deadly dull junk, poorly made, with Jagger seemingly on heavy quaaludes during the entire production. Ugly to look at to make matters worse, and the actors all seem to affect Irish accents, rather than Australian as the real Ned Kelly was.If a Heath Ledger/Orlando Bloom remake can only improve things, then you know the original is awful.Postscript: if you loved "21 grams," then you're just the sort of pompous yuppie who goes for this sort of thing. In that case, by all means rent "Ned Kelly". "Six Feet Under" & "The West Wing" are bound to be a re-run once in a while, right?

Sit back and let me tell you about a man named Ned. A poor old boy barely kept his family fed....because he couldn't keep his ass out of the pen. To make ends meet he goes about stealing horses and killing. Other than that he was just a good old boy. This wasn't a bad film, especially the last half, but it was somewhat disjointed, the fight scenes were obviously staged, much of the acting was second rate, and the blood looked more like used motor oil than the genuine article. The writer bought into the Jesse James syndrome which always depicts a real life murderous dirtbag as a loving, caring family man who only wants the best for his fellow man. Right! For all it's flaws, I still enjoyed the picture, and hey, we get to see The Mick.