Because
of: language, brief nudity, implied adultery
Rated:
It
seemed like a good idea at the time. Team up two
foreign heartthrobs and the girls will flock to the
theatre in droves.
Too
bad it didn't work out that way.
A
movie with a lot of potential that fails to live up to
it, Ned Kelly is a romanticized look at one of
Australia's most infamous outlaws. Born to an Irish
family long under the scrutiny of the law, Ned Kelly
(Heath Ledger) is accused of stealing a postman's
horse and thrown into jail for three years, despite
having not committed the crime. While imprisoned his
family are persecuted by local corrupt authorities.
When Ned finally gets out of prison, he hooks up with
his best friend Joe Byrne (Orlando Bloom) and other
youthful Irish rapscallions. Determined to turn around
the black mark on the family name, he takes a
respectable position on a local horse ranch as a hand,
and gains the interest of the owner's beautiful young
English wife Julia (Naomi Watts).
One
evening shortly before he's to be laid off, a
wisecracking local lawman comes to the house to take
advantage of Ned's younger sister. They turn him out
on his ear while Ned is up at the stables getting acquainted
with Julia. Infuriated with his refusal, the lawman
informs his friends in town that Ned Kelly tried to
kill him. To avoid arrest, Ned, Joe, and their future
gang take to the hills, only to learn that Ned's
mother has been imprisoned for the crime. Furious with
the rampant prejudice against Irish families, the
notorious bad boys start taking revenge one step at a
time, starting with bank robbing and as their names
become infamous throughout the territories, the stakes
get higher until Queen Victoria puts her foot down.
She sends lawman Frances Hare (Geoffrey Rush) to clean
up the mess, but what he doesn't realize is that these
boys aren't loathed by those in the community ... most
of the landowners would do anything to protect them!
Where
the film fails is pacing. It delivers enough in
emotional backlash by the conclusion, in which the
viewer finds themselves weeping tears over the fallen
"heroes" of this story -- in truth
rebellious bank thieves who "had no choice"
in the matter. It's not a very flattering portrayal of
Australian officials during the 1800's and implies
that all lawmen are scum. Given that we're siding with
villains this is understandable but as a result all of
the opposing individuals are completely one-sided.
They're scoundrels but we don't know why. In addition
the screenplay is very poorly written in many
respects. If you still don't know who is who, or
whether or not Julia is the man's wife or his sister,
niece, cousin, etc., within the first half hour, it's
difficult to sort out names and faces afterward. A
more carefully constructed plot would have benefited
it a great deal, but when the movie does succeed it's
very impacting and dramatic. No doubt fans of the cast
will appreciate it just for the reason of seeing a
crop of very talented actors play off one another.
One
of the most disturbing things about this film is its
morbid fascination with death. It's not enough to see
men gunned down in cold blood just because they're
lawmen and happened to camp in the wrong part of the
woods, we also have to see animals killed. A
horse is slain so that the starving outlaws might
drink its blood (in a grotesque dark sequence). A hawk
picks at the entrails of a rabbit. Wild boars are
shown roasted and steaming after a forest fire. Blood
drips from a cage where the still form of a lion lies.
A monkey is picked off by a bullet in a crossfire.
Numerous people are shot and killed, sometimes in the
head with gory results. Men brawl in a boxing match
and come to a fistfight. Kelly shoots a lawman that he
knows, the man is badly wounded and choking on his own
blood. Rather than let him suffer, Kelly kills him.
Two of the gang members commit suicide rather than be
burned alive. Joe is forced to murder his best friend
for betrayal.
There's
no outright sexual content but a lot of implied liaisons.
Joe is a ladies' man. He comes on to married banker's
wife after being told to keep an eye on her while she
changes into more suitable attire. They passionately
kiss. He asks a Chinese girl to help sponge off his
back during a bath. Julia and Ned kiss in the barn and
then start tearing at each other's clothes. She's seen
buttoning up her bodice after their adulterous tryst.
(She later has a chance to clear his name by giving
him an alibi and refuses.) One of Joe's friends likes
to bed women. He hints at having a thirteen year old
girl in his cabin. Later the police arrest him,
tearing the sheets off the bed and revealing his nude
girlfriend. (There's also brief side nudity on him.) I
also found the language extremely offensive. While
profanities are minor, these ardent Catholic boys
abuse Jesus' name at least nine times. It seems rather
contrite when, after blaspheming, Ned then says the
blessing over supper. The first time Ned meets Julia,
she's helping a stallion out of his bladder problem.
Ned has to hold the horse's "thing" while
she jams an iron rod up it.
Ned
Kelly could have been very touching but instead it
sold out cheap for foul language, implied adultery,
and gruesome shots of animal brutality. This film is
better left on the shelf.
NED
KELLY
Where
the film fails is pacing. It delivers enough in
emotional backlash by the conclusion, in which the
viewer finds themselves weeping tears over the fallen
"heroes" of this story -- in truth
rebellious bank thieves who "had no choice"
in the matter. It's not a very flattering portrayal of
Australian officials during the 1800's and implies
that all lawmen are scum. Given that we're siding with
villains this is understandable but as a result all of
the opposing individuals are completely one-sided.
They're scoundrels but we don't know why. In addition
the screenplay is very poorly written in many
respects. If you still don't know who is who, or
whether or not Julia is the man's wife or his sister,
niece, cousin, etc., within the first half hour, it's
difficult to sort out names and faces afterward. A
more carefully constructed plot would have benefited
it a great deal, but when the movie does succeed it's
very impacting and dramatic. No doubt fans of the cast
will appreciate it just for the reason of seeing a
crop of very talented actors play off one another.
There's
no outright sexual content but a lot of implied liaisons.
Joe is a ladies' man. He comes on to married banker's
wife after being told to keep an eye on her while she
changes into more suitable attire. They passionately
kiss. He asks a Chinese girl to help sponge off his
back during a bath. Julia and Ned kiss in the barn and
then start tearing at each other's clothes. She's seen
buttoning up her bodice after their adulterous tryst.
(She later has a chance to clear his name by giving
him an alibi and refuses.) One of Joe's friends likes
to bed women. He hints at having a thirteen year old
girl in his cabin. Later the police arrest him,
tearing the sheets off the bed and revealing his nude
girlfriend. (There's also brief side nudity on him.) I
also found the language extremely offensive. While
profanities are minor, these ardent Catholic boys
abuse Jesus' name at least nine times. It seems rather
contrite when, after blaspheming, Ned then says the
blessing over supper. The first time Ned meets Julia,
she's helping a stallion out of his bladder problem.
Ned has to hold the horse's "thing" while
she jams an iron rod up it.
