Ned Kelly by Callum Brown

Ned Kelly is the true story of the Irish family living in Australia during the late 1800’s and the story of injustice done to his family, and how he took the law into his own hands, declaring war of the Victorian Police, some consider Ned Kelly to be a murderous villain whilst others believed he was a folk hero to the likes of William Wallace. This makes his complete backstory somewhat unclear, however the facts mostly display Kelly as the film represents him.

The film stars the late Heath Ledger, Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush and Naomi Watts, the story shows the unlawful treatment of what was soon known as ‘The Kelly Gang’ from many previous brushes with the law, what drove Kelly into hiding was the Fitzpatrick incident. After a brawl in a pub after the officer was acting drunk and disorderly, the officer later went to apprehend Kelly, and when his mother asked for a warrant, which the officer did not have, only a telegram, which would not suffice, and after the officers many advances of Ned’s sister, the officer was asked to leave, after the officer had refused to leave the premises despite Kelly not being present Dan Kelly took the officers gun and forced him to leave, when arriving back at the station, the officer told of how Ned Kelly had shot him. This forced Kelly into hiding and after thinking the Victorian police would never believe his story, after the police arrested his mother in hoping it would force Kelly out of hiding, Kelly declared war of the Victorian police, which ended in the 4 members of The Kelly Gang donning home-made armour in order to fight off more than 100 officers as his hostages had time to flee, Ned Kelly was eventually apprehended and hanged for his crimes. The film is told from Ned Kelly’s words and perspective weather it was what really happened or not.

(Left: The Kelly Gangs armour on 
display in Melbourne Goal, Ned Kelly's armour is on the far right. Right: a police officer dressed in the Kelly armour just after the battle.) Weather the events that takes place are true or not, and weather Kelly’s side of the argument is the true one, Ned Kelly is still one of the most interesting and influential people in human history, and his fight for survival is an amazing achievement. His story is equal to that of Robin Hood except Kelly’s is true, I am surprised not to hear more on Ned Kelly, as his story is one of incredible suffering from the people who are supposed to be here to protect, I am always astonished by the amazing stories that come from the 1800’s but this is one I find truly astonishing and saddening. The fact that they made home-made armour to fight off a small army of corrupt government officials sounds like something from a modern superhero movie like Iron Man, but this man actually did it. The film is an emotional tale of a mans struggle to fight injustice, the score for the film adds another layer of depth, but what makes this piece more harrowing is the untimely death of Heath Ledger and how the internet lit alight with the score from this film, and especially Bernard Fanning’s ‘Shelter for my soul’ soon became Ledgers tribute.