In
1906, Ned Kelly was the subject of what is considered the very first feature
length film (Charles Tait’s The Story of the Kelly Gang). He has been
subsequently portrayed by the likes of Mick Jagger and Heath Ledger, so nobody
can say his story is untold. However, some films are more accurate than others.
Director Justin Kurzel and screenwriter Shaun Grant strive for historical and
psychological authenticity with their historically-informed adaptation of Peter
Carey’s biographical novel, True History of the Kelly Gang, which releases
today on VOD and opens old school at the Ocala and Mission Tiki 4 Drive-Ins.
Ned
Kelly’s childhood was awful, as viewers will see and see and see again. His
father was emotionally distant and largely incapable of providing for the
family, whereas his mother was an Australian Lady Macbeth. Eventually, she “apprenticed”
Kelly to the infamous Harry Power and then told him to man-up when he came
running back, appalled by the bushranger’s violence. At last he learned a
trade.
Frankly,
the first act of True History is a grubby endurance test for viewers,
but things pick up when Kelly comes of age and into his own. Initially, the
prodigal Kelly resists the outlaw ways of his family, but his is forced into
crime by circumstances and the villainy of Constable Fitzpatrick, with whom
Kelly was formerly on (warily) friendly terms. The rest is violent history.
Although
Kurzel and Grant generally side with those who see Kelly as a Robin Hood rebel
instead of those (largely English) who disparage him as a cutthroat, they still
drain the heroism out of his story. Instead, we get a naturalistic, proletarian
Kelly. This a gritty, dank, and dirty looking movie, to a fault, but it still
covers the major bases of Kelly’s life. Kurzel also displays a bit of a punk
rock aesthetic that gives the film a slightly more contemporary vibe.
George
MacKay (from 1917 and particularly impressive in For Those in Peril)
is perfectly cast as Kelly. He is not huge of stature, but his wiry physicality
and burning intensity create a palpable sense of dangerous instability
on-screen. Surprisingly, Essie Davis is even fiercer as Mother Ellen Kelly.
However,
the badly miscast Charlie Hunnam looks like he walked out of a L.L. Bean catalogue
as the creepy Sgt. O’Neil, Ellen Kelly’s least favorite John. Nicholas Hoult
snarls professionally as dastardly Constable Fitzpatrick and Russell Crowe (he
sang in Les Mis) chews the scenery like an Aussie meat pie as Power, but
the rest of the Kelly family and gang are largely colorless and free of
distinguishing characteristics.
Kurzel’s
True History has a lot of integrity, but his defiantly Spartan style
sometimes gets in the way of the storytelling. It is the sort of film we can
respect, but you probably won’t love it. Honestly, the Kelly-victimhood-canonization
becomes rather exhausting, but we’re sorry we won’t be able to see how it plays
for drive-in patrons. Recommended mostly for fans of class-conscious historical
drama, True History of the Kelly Gang open today (4/24) at the Ocala and
Mission Tiki and releases day-and-date on VOD.
