{"id":20376,"date":"2020-04-23T16:20:30","date_gmt":"2020-04-23T23:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=20376"},"modified":"2020-04-23T16:20:30","modified_gmt":"2020-04-23T23:20:30","slug":"true-history-of-the-kelly-gang-is-bleak-and-brutal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=20376","title":{"rendered":"TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG is Bleak and Brutal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This feature from IFC Films debuts \u201con demand\u201d on various\ncable and digital platforms Friday, April 24th.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the beginning of storytelling, outlaws have always\nheld a certain fascination with the public. Even those unfamiliar with the\nhistory of Australia have probably come across the name Ned Kelly at some point\nin their lives. This figure was raised in and roamed across the Australian bush\nduring the 1870s, when the country was still a UK penal colony. His various\ncrimes, including robbery and the murders of several policemen earned him respect\nand support among the nation\u2019s poor (whom historians agree were mistreated by\nauthorities). Kelly\u2019s violent outburst against those who wronged him ultimately\nestablished the man as one of the biggest cultural figures in the country\u2019s\nhistory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Over the years, there have been roughly twenty titles inspired by Ned Kelly\u2026 movie trivia hounds should take note of the fact that the very first feature film ever released was based on the figure, and that Mick Jagger, Heath Ledger and even Yahoo Serious have all played Kelly onscreen. Oddly enough, the newest adaptation named True History of the Kelly Gang<\/em> isn\u2019t exactly as the title advertises. It is based on a popular work of fiction by author Peter Carey and is not an accurate account, but rather a very loose adaptation based on the figure\u2019s life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This tale starts with a young Ned Kelly (Orlando Schwerdt)\nenduring arguably the worst childhood in history. His Irish family, forced to\nmove to Victoria after his dad is convicted in the UK, lives a bleak existence\nin the bush as his father serves time. Ned is devoted to his blunt and often\ncruel mother Ellen (Essie Davis), who provides sexual favors to British officer\nSgt. O\u2019Neil (Charlie Hunnam) in order to keep the family afloat. Mom soon makes\nthe acquaintance of outlaw Harry Power (Russell Crowe) and decides to sell Ned\nto him. The crook teaches the boy how to survive in a cruel and vicious world. Later,\na grown Ned (George MacKay) returns home to find his family now under the\ncontrol of Constable Fitzpatrick (Nicholas Hoult). After the officer begins\nmaking advances to a couple of women in Ned\u2019s life, violence erupts and the protagonist\nbecomes a fugitive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Early on, the story is heavy with narration. It spends approximately\n40 minutes of time focusing on young Ned and the terrible people in his life,\nincluding cruel British officers, awful father figures, and a cold mother. It\ncertainly details how horrific conditions were and it\u2019s clear that great effort\nwas taken to make the period look incredibly grimy, unpleasant and authentic.\nHowever, these early sections begin to feel very repetitive and overwrought.\nEven when the adult Ned (who should really just cut ties with everyone in his\nlife) decides to come back to his family, these characters haven\u2019t changed. The\nnew foes introduced are also more of the same and just as unsavory as their\npredecessors, making one wonder why so much time was spent on the earlier years\nof his life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Perhaps it is part of the feature\u2019s point to back its\nprotagonist into a corner and detail the injustice heaped upon him, but the consistently\noppressive tone doesn\u2019t produce the tension hoped for. Most viewers, myself\nincluded, will be most curious about the lead\u2019s time rebelling as an outlaw, yet\nthe movie doesn\u2019t seem all that motivated to get to Kelly\u2019s life on the run. It\nwould all be a real slog were it not for the fine work of the cast. While\nwhat\u2019s going on is consistently nasty and humorless, at least it\u2019s filled with\nexcellent performers giving it their all and trying to add some sort of\nindividuality and nuance to the damaged characters. The photography is also beautiful,\nwith incredible scenic images of the stark bushlands. And there are impressive\nshots when the movie gets to its climax, featuring the leads decked out in\nmakeshift armor and helmets and shooting at officers as flames rise around\nthem.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are elements of True History of the Kelly Gang<\/em>\nthat are intriguing and the cast are solid, but this still doesn\u2019t seem like a\nperfect adaptation of Ned Kelly\u2019s life. It\u2019s certainly hellbent on displaying\nthe ugliness of Australian life in the 19th<\/sup> century, but certain\nstory elements could have used extra attention and the pacing more zip to keep\none enraptured in this legendary figure\u2019s life. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This feature from IFC Films debuts \u201con demand\u201d on various cable and digital platforms Friday, April 24th. Since the beginning of storytelling, outlaws have always held a certain fascination with the public. Even those unfamiliar with the history of Australia have probably come across the name Ned Kelly at some point in their lives. This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":20377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[198,2057,2787,2789,3295,3702,4138,6251,8197,14642,14792,15581,17453,23316,23317,23318,23319],"class_list":["post-20376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-198","tag-australian","tag-biography","tag-biopic","tag-book-adaptation","tag-bush","tag-charlie-hunnam","tag-drama","tag-george-mackay","tag-ned-kelly","tag-nicholas-hoult","tag-outlaw","tag-russell-crowe","tag-true-history-of-the-kelly-gang","tag-true-history-of-the-kelly-gang-film-review","tag-true-history-of-the-kelly-gang-movie-review","tag-true-history-of-the-kelly-gang-review"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20376\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}