Dir. Justin Kurzel. 124 minutes.
3.5/5
For Australians, Ned Kelly is a sort of redneck Robin Hood — someone whose face decorates beer koozies and biceps around the less manicured areas of the Great Southern Land. Kelly made history not just by battling with police while dressed in a homemade suit of armor, but also through his eloquent criticisms of British domination of Australia and Australians. “True History of the Kelly Gang,” a new rendition of the Kelly tale, is blustering, untidy, self-mythologizing, difficult to take seriously but impossible to ignore — in other words, quintessentially Aussie.
“The Kelly Gang” isn’t shot as a sepia-toned melodrama, but as a kind of punk Western, scored with rock music performed by its own cast members. Much of the film’s narration is drawn directly from Kelly’s energetically crass prison letters, recording his struggle against the “big ugly fat-necked wombat headed, big bellied, magpie legged, narrow hipped, splaw-footed sons of Irish bailiffs,” i.e., law enforcement.
George MacKay plays Kelly with wild-eyed bravado, and without Kelly’s large beard, a visual feature almost as iconic as his suit of armor. A brief but powerfully charismatic performance is delivered by a big fat disheveled Russell Crowe as big fat bushranger Harry Power, who served as Kelly’s mentor in crime.
Loud and brash, “True History of the Kelly Gang” will turn off fans of Oscar-bait period pieces, but is recommended viewing for anyone with an interest in Australia — or, at least, Australia’s image of itself.
