True History of the Kelly Gang (film)

Last updated
True History of the Kelly Gang
True History of the Kelly Gang Poster.jpeg
United Kingdom release poster
Directed by Justin Kurzel
Screenplay byShaun Grant
Based on True History of the Kelly Gang
by Peter Carey
Produced by
  • Liz Watts
  • Hal Vogel
  • Justin Kurzel
  • Paul Ranford
Starring
Cinematography Ari Wegner
Edited byNick Fenton
Music by Jed Kurzel
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release dates
  • 11 September 2019 (2019-09-11)(TIFF)
  • 9 January 2020 (2020-01-09)(Australia)
  • 28 February 2020 (2020-02-28)(United Kingdom)
Running time
124 minutes [1]
Countries
  • United Kingdom
  • Australia
LanguageEnglish
Box office$446,177

True History of the Kelly Gang is a 2019 bushranger film directed by Justin Kurzel, written by Shaun Grant, and based upon the 2000 novel of the same name by Peter Carey. A fictionalised account of the life of bushranger and outlaw Ned Kelly, the film stars George MacKay, Essie Davis, Nicholas Hoult, Charlie Hunnam and Russell Crowe.

Contents

It had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on 11 September 2019. It was released in Australia on Australia Day 2020, by Transmission Films and Stan, in the United Kingdom on 28 February 2020, by Picturehouse Entertainment, and in the United States on 24 April 2020, by IFC Films.

Plot

Based on Peter Carey's novel of the same name, the film is a highly-fictionalised account of the life of Australian bushranger Ned Kelly and his gang as they flee from authorities during the 1870s.

Although the following facts are not made clear in the film, in reality Ned Kelly's father, John "Red" Kelly (Gentle Ben Corbett), was an Irishman transported to a prison colony in Van Diemen's Land, who eventually settled in the colony of Victoria, Australia. After marrying Ned's mother Ellen (Essie Davis), the Kellys settled in a rural area northeast of Melbourne. Before the film's narrative begins, Red Kelly has had numerous brushes with the colonial police forces. Toward the start of the film he has another confrontation with the constabulary which results in his imprisonment and death when his son Ned (Orlando Schwerdt) is twelve years old. Ned is a courageous and compassionate boy, in one instance jumping into a river to save another boy from drowning. Ned is shocked when he finds evidence that his father has been cross-dressing while carrying out his outlaw raids.

Ned's mother attempts to provide for her children by running a still or shebeen, providing sexual favors to Sergeant O'Neill (Charlie Hunnam), and taking on a series of lovers, eventually including the notorious bushranger Harry Power (Russell Crowe). Power takes on young Ned as an apprentice and provides him with knowledge of the land, hideouts, and strategies for bushranging. Under pressure from Power, Ned shoots Sergeant O'Neil but refuses to kill him, despite Power ordering him to do so. Ned leaves Power and returns to his family's settlement, infuriated since he has learned that his mother essentially "sold" him to Power. Ned is soon arrested and sentenced to three years in prison for shooting O'Neill. After his eventual release, Ned (now played by George MacKay) returns to his mother's house as a young man.

During a visit to a brothel, Ned meets a prostitute who is a young Irish girl named Mary (Thomasin McKenzie), falls in love with her, and begins his first sexual relationship. Ned eventually becomes an outlaw after a visit from a local police officer, Constable Fitzpatrick (Nicholas Hoult), to the Kelly family. The constable attempts to woo Ned's younger sister Kate, to whom he has given a dress. After his mother Ellen attacks him, Fitzpatrick pulls his revolver on the family and Ned shoots him in the hand to defend them. Warrants for the arrest of Ned and his little brother Dan are issued.

Ned and Dan hide out in the hills (which, in reality, were in northeast Victoria), and are joined by their friends Steve Hart (Louis Hewison) and Ned's close mate Joe Byrne (Sean Keenan). They later become known as the Kelly Gang, as Ned more and more assumes the role of leader. The gang has a belief that they were Irish the Sons of Sieve, oppressed all the time by English people. [2] Kelly's mother is arrested along with her baby daughter and imprisoned in Melbourne as enticement for Ned to give himself up. Ned finds and kills Fitzpatrick. Four constables are sent to kill the Gang after efforts to arrest them prove unsuccessful. The Gang ambushes them at Stringybark Creek, where Ned kills three of them during a gun battle.

In time, the Gang is discovered to be in the town of Glenrowan where they take numerous hostages and construct several suits of plate-steel armour for protection in gun battles. One of the hostages is the crippled local schoolmaster (Jacob Collins-Levy), who encourages Ned to relate the story of his life after seeing samples of Ned's writing. Ned and the gang plan to ambush a train full of constables sent to capture them by sabotaging the tracks so that the train will wreck. But the schoolmaster betrays the Gang by warning the incoming constables. The policemen surround the inn where the Gang is hiding and in a series of striking, hallucinogenic scenes, engage in a furious shootout, seriously wounding the armour-clad Ned and killing the other three members of the Gang. The twenty-five year old Ned is convicted of murdering one of the constables at Stringybark Creek, and is hanged at Old Melbourne Gaol after his mother sees him a final time and urges him to "die like a Kelly."

Cast

Production

Director Justin Kurzel mentioned he was developing the film in December 2016 while doing press for Assassin's Creed . [3]

In November 2017, the project was officially announced, with George MacKay cast as Ned Kelly, and Russell Crowe, Nicholas Hoult and Essie Davis making up the supporting cast. Filming was announced as beginning in March 2018 in Victoria, Australia. [4] [5] By April, the film's production start was shifted to July. [6] Production started on 22 July. [7] [8] It was revealed in September that Charlie Hunnam was cast in the film. [9]

Release

The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 11 September 2019, and was released in Australian cinemas in 2020 by Transmission Films. [10] Australian streaming rights were acquired by Stan, which released the film on their service as a Stan original. [11] The film was given a limited release in Australian cinemas 9 January 2020 [12] with planned wide release on Stan on Australia Day, 26 January 2020. [13]

Picturehouse Entertainment scheduled release of the film theatrically in the UK and Ireland starting 28 February 2020. [14] [15]

In September 2019, IFC Films acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film. [16] It was released on 24 April 2020. [17] and was number 1 at the box office. [18]

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, True History of the Kelly Gang holds an approval rating of 80% based on 165 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Its unusual approach won't be for all viewers, but True History of the Kelly Gang takes a distinctively postmodern look at Australia's past." [19] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 75 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [20]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bushranger</span> Australian outlaws active during the 19th century

Bushrangers were originally escaped convicts in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who used the bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities. By the 1820s, the term had evolved to refer to those who took up "robbery under arms" as a way of life, using the bush as their base.

<i>The Story of the Kelly Gang</i> 1906 film

The Story of the Kelly Gang is a 1906 Australian Bushranger film directed by Charles Tait. It traces the exploits of 19th-century bushranger and outlaw Ned Kelly and his gang, with the film being shot in and around Melbourne. The original cut of this silent film ran for more than an hour with a reel length of about 1,200 metres (4,000 ft), making it the longest narrative film yet seen in the world. It premiered at Melbourne's Athenaeum Hall on 26 December 1906 and was first shown in the United Kingdom in January 1908. A commercial and critical success, it is regarded as the origin point of the bushranging drama, a genre that dominated the early years of Australian film production. Since its release, many other films have been made about the Kelly legend.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ned Kelly</span> Australian bushranger (1854–1880)

Edward Kelly was an Australian bushranger, outlaw, gang leader and convicted police-murderer. One of the last bushrangers, he is known for wearing a suit of bulletproof armour during his final shootout with the police.

Esther Davis is an Australian actress and singer, best known for her roles as Phryne Fisher in Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries and its film adaptation, Miss Fisher & the Crypt of Tears, and as Amelia Vanek in The Babadook. Other major works include a recurring role as Lady Crane in season six of the television series Game of Thrones, Sister Iphigenia in Lambs of God, and the role of Ellen Kelly in Justin Kurzel's True History of the Kelly Gang.

<i>True History of the Kelly Gang</i> 2000 novel by Peter Carey

True History of the Kelly Gang is a novel by Australian writer Peter Carey, based loosely on the history of the Kelly Gang. It was first published in Brisbane by the University of Queensland Press in 2000. It won the 2001 Booker Prize and the Commonwealth Writers Prize in the same year. Despite its title, the book is fiction and a variation on the Ned Kelly story.

<i>Ned Kelly</i> (2003 film) 2003 film

Ned Kelly is a 2003 Australian-British bushranger film based on Robert Drewe's 1991 novel Our Sunshine. Directed by Gregor Jordan, the film's adapted screenplay was written by John Michael McDonagh. The film dramatises the life of Ned Kelly, a legendary bushranger and outlaw who was active mostly in the colony of Victoria. In the film, Kelly, his brother Dan, and two other associates—Steve Hart and Joe Byrne—form a gang of bushrangers in response to acts of police brutality. Heath Ledger stars in the title role, with Orlando Bloom, Naomi Watts and Geoffrey Rush. The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $6 million worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glenrowan, Victoria</span> Town in Victoria, Australia

Glenrowan is a town located in the Wangaratta local government area of Victoria, Australia. It is 236 kilometres north-east of Melbourne and 14 kilometres from Wangaratta and near the Warby Ranges and Mount Glenrowan. At the 2021 census, Glenrowan had a population of 1,049.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dan Kelly (bushranger)</span> Australian bushranger (1861–1880)

Daniel Kelly was an Australian bushranger and outlaw. The son of an Irish convict, he was the younger brother of the bushranger Ned Kelly. Dan and Ned killed three policemen at Stringybark Creek in northeast Victoria, near the present-day town of Tolmie, Victoria. With two friends, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart, the brothers formed the Kelly Gang. They robbed banks, took over whole towns, and kept the people in Victoria and New South Wales frightened. For two years the Victorian police searched for them, locked up their friends and families, but could not find them. Dan Kelly died during the infamous siege of Glenrowan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry Power</span> Australian bushranger (1819–1891)

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When the Kellys Rode is a 1934 Australian film directed by Harry Southwell about Ned Kelly.

When the Kellys Were Out is a 1923 Australian feature-length film directed by Harry Southwell about Ned Kelly. Only part of the film survives today.

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The bushranger ban was a ban on films about bushrangers that came in effect in Australia in 1911–12. Films about bushrangers had been the most popular genre of local films ever since The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906). Governments were worried about the influence this would have on the population and bans against films depicting bushrangers were introduced in South Australia (1911), New South Wales and Victoria (1912).

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References

  1. ↑ "The True History of the Kelly Gang". Toronto International Film Festival . Retrieved 22 November 2019.
  2. ↑ Sparrow, Jeff (8 January 2020). "True History of the Kelly Gang's cross-dressing punk rock outlaw is not quite as radical as he looks" . Guardian. Retrieved 26 February 2024.
  3. ↑ Leane, Rob (27 December 2016). "Justin Kurzel interview: Assassin's Creed". Denofgeek.com . Retrieved 24 August 2018.
  4. ↑ N'Duka, Amanda (6 November 2017). "Russell Crowe, George MacKay To Star In 'True History Of The Kelly Gang' From Director Justin Kurzel". Deadline Hollywood . Penske Business Media, LLC. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
  5. ↑ McNary, Dave (6 November 2017). "Russell Crowe, Nicholas Hoult, George MacKay Join 'True History of the Kelly Gang'". Variety . Penske Business Media, LLC. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
  6. ↑ Keslassy, Elsa (30 April 2018). "Memento Films International Boards Justin Kurzel's 'True History of the Kelly Gang' With Russell Crowe". Variety . Penske Business Media, LLC. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
  7. ↑ The Fleming Agency [@flemingagent] (22 July 2018). "Shooting starts today on True History of the Kelly Gang, screenplay by award winning writer, TFA's Shaun Grant starring George MacKay, Russell Crowe, Essie Davis & Nicholas Hoult #featurefilm #truehistoryofthekellygang #australiansinfilm #screenplay #writer" (Tweet). Retrieved 24 August 2018– via Twitter.
  8. ↑ World Entertainment News Network (23 July 2018). "Russell Crowe posts bizarre Instagram video, fans ask 'what happened with you?'". Torontosun.com . Postmedia Network Inc. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
  9. ↑ Keslassy, Elsa (6 September 2018). "Charlie Hunnam Joins Cast of Justin Kurzel's 'True History of The Kelly Gang'". Variety . Penske Business Media, LLC. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
  10. ↑ Groves, Don (9 August 2019). "Justin Kurzel to direct TV drama series for Apple". Inside Film. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  11. ↑ Groves, Don (4 October 2019). "Stan boards Justin Kurzel's 'True History of the Kelly Gang'". Inside Film. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  12. ↑ Bradley, D.M. (13 January 2020). "Film Review: True History of the Kelly Gang". Adelaide Review.
  13. ↑ Groves, Don (18 November 2019). "Short theatrical window for 'True History of the Kelly Gang'". Inside Film. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
  14. ↑ Dalton, Ben (21 November 2019). "Picturehouse Entertainment takes 'True History Of The Kelly Gang' for UK & Ireland". Screen Daily. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
  15. ↑ "Justin Kurzel's TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG in cinemas 28 February 2020". Filmoria.co.uk. 26 November 2019. Retrieved 26 November 2019.
  16. ↑ Siegel, Tatiana (5 September 2019). "Toronto: Russell Crowe Drama 'True History of the Kelly Gang' Nabbed by IFC". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
  17. ↑ "True History of the Kelly Gang". IFC Films . Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  18. ↑ "Lowest Grossing No 1. Movies on the Domestic Box Office Chart". The Numbers.
  19. ↑ "True History of the Kelly Gang (2019)". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango . Retrieved 10 October 2021.
  20. ↑ "True History of the Kelly Gang reviews". Metacritic . CBS Interactive . Retrieved 6 October 2019.

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