Ned Kelly (1970)

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.

No question I often make my movie selections based on their novelty appeal. This one has celebrity rocker Mick Jagger in the title role as an Australian outlaw, enough of an inducement for me to tune in on the Encore Western Channel. These things don't always go well, case in point - David Bowie as "The Man Who Fell to Earth". As far as Jagger's performance goes, it was OK, but that's about as much as I'll grant it. If it were an American film, any number of quality character actors could have filled in for Ned - Lee Van Cleef, Neville Brand, or if you want to go for the gusto, Klaus Kinski, even if he was German. I'm re-running the film in my head with any one of these actors and it works out OK. Aside from the dialog of course, it would have to be appropriately Australian/Irish.Story wise, one could make the case for an approximation of the James/Younger Gang of the American Wild West. Ned Kelly's mom (Clariss Kaye) is sentenced to jail for the shooting of a constable and with it, all hell breaks loose. Ned (Jagger) teams with his brothers and other local ranchers to take it to the authorities, but their ingenuity and firepower is never enough to overcome the powers that be. It's a familiar story.Quite apart from another reviewer's comments on this board, I thought Jagger's effectiveness was undermined by his looking like an Amish settler in the picture. He never appeared particularly threatening to me, or more correctly, his celebrity overcame his portrayal in the picture so that every time he appeared on screen I was thinking Rolling Stones instead of Ned Kelly, outlaw. I don't know how you can overcome that, the same was true in "Freejack" but that picture better suited his rocker style.What probably kept my interest more than the story alone was the frequent inclusion of songs throughout, including a solo by Jagger on 'The Wild Colonial Boy'. Waylon Jennings pops up a number of times, and his 'Shadow of the Gallows' was strangely evocative of Johnny Cash's early take on 'The Man Comes Around'. 'Blame it on The Kellys' was probably my favorite, and if I recall correctly, that one went on and on as Ned and his boys wreaked havoc throughout the countryside.Well I'm not sure how expansive this Australian Western genre might be, but if you really want to get down and dirty, you have to get your hands on a 2005 flick called "The Proposition". It too involves a family of brothers, and if you like your action gritty and violent, it's as visceral as they come. For my part, I'm left wondering what a guy like Mick Jagger thinks of his forays into film with the likes of "Ned Kelly".

What most of the comments here are missing is the simple fact that 'Ned Kelly' is boring, and not just a little boring. I mean, sleep-inducing, prop-your-eyelids-open-with-toothpicks-to-stay-awake boring. It's a curiosity, nothing more. "Hey, Mick Jagger starred in a western, wonder what it's like?" And like most curiosities that weren't popular in their initial release, it hasn't improved with age. As wonderful as he is in stage performances, Jagger just doesn't have much screen presence. Certainly not enough to overcome his celebrity; you don't for one moment forget you're watching Mick Jagger. He had the same problem in 'Freejack' as I recall. I haven't seen his last film, 'The Man from Elysian Fields,' but I would imagine he's gotten at least somewhat better with age.

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.