Ned Kelly (1970)

Mick Jagger plays Ned Kelly, who returns home after spending three years in prison for stealing a horse to find little has changed in the Australian wilderness where he lives.

Rich English landowners are still taking advantage of poor Irish immigrants, including forcing them to pay to get their stock back when the animals wander onto neighboring properties.

And the police motto is to jail potential troublemakers for minor offenses before their can commit a more serious crime.

When Kelly’s mother is sentenced to three years in prison after a policeman is accidentally shot while harassing her family, Ned decides it’s time for a new republic.

So he and his gang go on the offensive, robbing banks, stealing mortgages and defending themselves when the law comes calling.

That makes them heroes to some, but also ensures that there’s a handsome price on Ned’s head and authorities determined to see that he’s brought to justice.

Review:

When you begin the story at the end, squelching any suspense as to how things will play out for your anti-hero, you’d better have a damn good story to tell.

And when you build your film around a single character, you’d better have an actor in that role capable of carrying the movie.

Unfortunately, this film has neither.

That doesn’t mean it’s as bad as critics at the time claimed. Or a “piece of shit,” as Jagger is said to have described it.

It just isn’t very memorable.

Except for the scene in which Ned dons homemade armor, takes on dozen of policemen and somehow emerges without having his exposed limbs blown to bits.

Marieanne Faithful, Jagger’s girlfriend, was supposed to play the role of his sister Maggie, but that part went to Diane Craig again after Faithful was hospitalized for a drug overdose.

The film also features a score filled with playful ballads — most performed by Waylon Jennings — though Jagger takes a turn on “The Wild Colonial Boy.”

Editor’s Note: As you can see, a couple of the actors/actresses are unidentified in the photos included in this blog. Any help identifying them or corrections on those cast members I’ve identified would be greatly appreciated.

Directed by:
Tony Richardson

Cast:
Mick Jagger … Ned Kelly
Clarissa Kaye-Mason … Mrs. Kelly
as Clarissa Kaye
Mark McManus … Joe Byrne
Ken Goodlet … Supt. Nicholson
Frank Thring … Judge Barry
Bruce Barry … George King
Tony Bazell … Mr. Scott
Allen Bickford … Dan Kelly
Robert Bruning … Sgt. Steele
Alexander Cann … McInnes
David Copping … Curnow
Diane Craig … Maggie Kelly
Gerry Duggan … Father O’Hea
Geoff Gilmour … Steve Hart
Anne Harvey … Mrs. Devine
Serge Lazareff … Wild Wright
Alexi Long … Grace Kelly
Susan Lloyd … Kate Kelly
Nigell Lovell … Capt. Standish
John Dease … Whitty

Runtime: 96 min.

Title tune: “Ned Kelly”
performed by Waylon Jennings

Memorable lines:

Ned Kelly: “Bloody Fitzpatrick. Why did I have to go and trust an Irish turncoat bastard with a union jack engraved on is ass?”

Officer: “Your son Dan is about to be released from prison. Your son Jim is still serving a sentence. You son Ned has a price on his head. And you’ve already lost one husband. In all humanity ma’am, I must counsel you to leave this district. It can only mean disaster to remain here.”
Mrs. Kelly: “A Kelly never runs away.”

Ned Kelly: “The newspapers have called me a murderer. But my conscious is as clear as the snow in Peru.”

Ned Kelly: “Fearless, fear and bold, that’s how we’ll live.”

Ned Kelly, of the police: “If you kill one, you’re a murderer. If you kill a hundred, you’re a hero.”

Ned Kelly: “If my lips can teach the public that men are made mad by bad treatment, then my life will not be entirely thrown away.”