True History of the Kelly Gang (2019)

George MacKay and Orlando Schwerdt portray Ned Kelly, a young man born to a criminal father and a manipulating mother, destined to follow at least some of his father’s footsteps.

As a young boy, Ned (Schwerdt) is forced to grow up fast. He spies his mom providing sexual favors to Sgt. O’Neil, and watches his father being hauled off to jail for rustling a cow, a crime Ned committed.

But he also saves a well-off boy from drowning, an act of courage that could land him in more comfortable settings.

Instead, his father dies in jail and his mother sends him off with her latest lover, Harry Power (Russell Crowe) to bring back a herd of cattle.

Turns out there’s no herd of cattle. Power has purchased the boy to be his helper / apprentice in the art of bushranging and eventually encourages him to get even with Sgt. O’Neil.

That earns Ned a stint in prison. He returns home to find little has changed.

Oh, his siblings have grown older, but his mother is now smitten with a young man who rustles horse and she wants Ned to join him in that enterprise.

Ned wants no parts of it and winds up befriending Constable Fitzpatrick (Nicholaus Hoult), who introduces him to a pretty young whore named Mary (Thomasin McKenzie).

Ned winds up falling for Mary and reaches a deal with Fitzpatrick. He’ll introduce the constable to his younger sister Kate, who has turned Fitzpatrick’s head. In return, Fitzpatrick will convince authorities to drop a warrant on Ned’s younger brother Dan.

The turning point for Ned comes when Fitzpatrick not only fails to hold up his end of the bargain, but reveals that Mary’s child was fathered by Ned’s mother’s new fiancee.

Ned wounds Fitzpatrick in the scuffle that follows, then finds himself forming the Kelly gang, assembling a small army and declaring war on all “cop-pers.”

He plans to derail a train and have his army descend on the lawmen aboard. But little goes right, even though Ned has designed armored suits for he and his fellow gang members to wear.

Review:

Different for sure. True history? Well, most sources call this a highly fictionalized version of the Kelly story.

And while director Justin Kurzel serves up plenty of compelling images and scenes over the course of two hours, the end result isn’t very impressive. In fact, it often comes off as a pretentiously artsy mess.

We have scenes of Ned and his best friend cuddling like lovers. Ned and his mom embracing like lovers. Ned’s brother wearing a dress while committing crimes. Eventually, the whole gang dons dresses and smears mud over their faces.

After all, Dan Kelly says, nothing scares a man like “crazy.”

And it’s difficult to feel sympathy for the Kelly character because so many of the choices he and his family make over the course of the film seem intentionally self-destructive.

Given an opportunity to have her son properly educated after he saves a boy from drowning, Ellen Kelly defiantly rejects it. She won’t have her son taken from her by the “English.”

Instead, she ultimately winds up encouraging him “to die like a Kelly.”

Directed by:
Justin Kurzel

Cast:
George MacKay … Ned Kelly
Orlando Schwerdt … Young Ned Kelly
Essie Davis … Ellen Kelly
Charlie Hunnam … Sgt. O’Neil
Nicholas Hoult … Constable Fitzpatrick
Russell Crowe … Harry Power
Marlon Williams … George King
Thomasin McKenzie … Mary
Earl Cave … Dan Kelly
Sean Keenan … Joe Byrne
Josephine Blazier … Kate Kelly
Ben Corbett … Red Kelly
Claudia Karvan … Mrs. Shelton
Jacob Collins-Levy … Thomas Curnow
Louis Hewison … Steve Hart

Runtime: 124 min.

Memorable lines:

Ellen Kelly to young Ned: “You go out there and be a big man. You go out there and show the world.”

Harry Power to Ned: “Friends will leave you. Women will grow tired of you. Dogs will up and die. Bullet Creek (Harry’s home) will never let you down. Up here, I’m Ali Baba.”

Ned Kelly: “What are you writing?”
Harry Powers: “I’m writing my story. When a man farewells this world, all he’s got left is his story. Don’t let it for the English to tell it. They’ll only fuck it up, then steal the proceeds.”

Dan Kelly: “Nothing scares a man like crazy.”

Ellen Kelly: “There isn’t a thing for a woman in this land but loneliness.”
Ned Kelly: “When have you ever been lonely, ma. Dad’s bed was barely cold before you were screwing men in it.”

George King: “Reminds me of a dog that I once had. It was a mangy old thing. And I am a cruel bastard, so I would whip it every which way. I’d beat on him just for looking at me. So, I figure if you hate on something for long enough, well, he just comes to love you anyway, just for those few moments when you don’t.”
Ned Kelly: “Pretty story.”
George King: “I’m gonna be your daddy, boy.”

Ellen Kelly: “When the time comes, you look straight ahead and think of me.”
Ned Kelly: “Then what happens.”
Ellen: “Then you’re to die, like a Kelly.”

Sean Keenan as Joe Byrne, Ned Kelly’s best friend and fellow bushranger in True History of the Kelly Gang (2019)

Orlando Schwerdt as young Ned Kelly, his face splattered with blood as he learns to be a bushranger in True History of the Kelly Gang (2019)

Russell Crowe as Harry Powers, with his life in young Ned’s hands in True History of the Kelly Gang (2019)

Essie Davis as Ellen Kelly, teaching young Ned a lesson in the harsh realities of life in True History of the Kelly Gang (2019)

George MacKay as Ned Kelly, contemplating his options as a man caught on the wrong side of the law in True History of the Kelly Gang (2019)

Nicholas Hoult as Constable Kirkpatrick, threatening Mary’s baby to get information about Ned in True History of the Kelly Gang (2019)