Customer Reviews

Ned Kelly

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Good performance by Mick Jagger as the out law Ned Kelly. Compelling story of the conflict between the poor Australians and the lordly English. The best part though is the music. Irish ballads by Mick Jaggger and ballads by Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristoferson make this worth buying for the music as well as the movie. The sound track is worth buying separately too.

Okay so Mic Jagger was an odd choice to play Ned Kelly but so what? Before this movie came out most of the world didn't know who the Kellys were. Perhaps the movie made people decide to learn more which is why we now have at least two very good books on Ned Kelly's life. But this is supposed to be about the sound track and I'll get to that. Waylon Jennings was brilliant on this album. Every song moves the movie along and actually comments on the action on the screen. Once you hear it you'll never forget Blame it On the Kellys or Daddy Does His Ranching (Dad's a cattle thief) in the Evening.

as a straight forward attempt to tell Kelly's story it succeeds. but Jagger, sadly, is Mick Jagger, not Edward Kelly. Unartistic as a film, it nevertheless tells a great story quite well, and i must confess, whenit first came out (1970) it started me on a Kelly quest that has lasted ever since. So BRAVO for Tony Richardson's attmept....and I like Mick and found SOME of his work here "ok"...but if you watch a movie on Kelly and can only see Mick Jagger, then the casting director should be fired!!

I'm an Australian and have been researching Ned Kelly for 25 years. I watched this film at the movies when it came out. It was terrible then, and is even more terrible to watch now. If you are interested in the Kelly Gang, there are some very good books: recommended "A Short Life" by Ian Jones. See if Amazon has it! It is a very accurate account of the life of Edward Kelly, which is more than I can say for this movie.

I bought this video for the Waylon Jennings soundtrack. The songs are SUPER! But the movie had too much violence for my taste. So I will look for a Waylon soundtrack CD just to hear the music.

Shel Silverstein wrote all lyrics and music to this soundtrack: the first song, Ned Kelly, is my favorite -- catchy tune and lyrics. Almost all are catchy.

Very folky stuff. If you like old Bob Dylan, you'll love this.

It came as a shock to see Mick Jagger's visage staring out from the dvd case of this movie but it also immediately raised my suspicions. For, as big as the Rolling Stones are, if the movie had been any good certainly it would be well-known. I suspect that any play this now gets is by people curious to see Jagger act.
Ned Kelly is an Australian outlaw hero who has taken on mythic proportions. If you spend any time around Australians (males, anyway) it is a sure bet that Ned Kelly's name will come up at some point, often in relation to his use of boiler plate armor to fight off the law. That's about all I know about him but his is a romantic story begging to be put on film.
This attempt falls flat for any number of reasons, yet the look and feel of the movie should be commended and alert viewers to the beauty of many of the movies made in the 1960's and 70's; the look of which aren't or can't be duplicated using today's modern methods. It's not what the director intended, I'm sure, but watching this movie made me nostalgic to go back and watch Peckinpah and Sturges, among others.
The real problem with this movie is that the script is crap, as is much of the acting, including Jagger's; although, he is still fun to watch. The writers fail to supply a narrative that pushes the story forward in a logical manner. Rather than dialogue the actors are given single lines which, because they are mostly mere responses or interjections do nothing to tell the story. This might have worked if the visual narrative stood in for the lack of real dialogue (Anyway, real dialogue would have been difficult to understand beneath the thick Hollywood brogues). Instead the movie is comprised of scenes stitched together in a kind of incoherent moving picture mural.
The soundtrack doesn't help unless you like Country music, that is, and I mean 1970's style Country rather than the Country Pop of today.
The music isn't poorly done, even if not to my liking, but it turns the mood of the movie into a sort of Irish Republican allegory. One suspects this was intentional as the troubles in Northern Ireland had begun to flare up around the time of this movie. I'm not sure if the actors were in on it but it seems pretty difficult to misapprehend today.
This movie is recommended only to people who want to look at Mick Jagger.

There were some good things about this movie: the photography was nice. The action scenes weren't too bad. I somewhat liked the music.

If only there had been a real screenplay to hold it all together. I can't tell whether the acting was any good, because they had so little to work with. As for historical content, it's amazing that so much of it was incorrect, given how little of it there was.

I'd recommend this only if you think Mick Jagger looks good with that beard. Otherwise I'd say buy a book on the Kelly gang if you want to learn more, buy the soundtrack if you want the music, or watch the Heath Ledger version.

I first saw this movie as a small child. Now, 3 decades later, I have been unable to forget it.

An Australian legend, similar to Brittain's Robin Hood, or America's Jessie James, "Ned Kelly" is a shockingly graphic depiction of freedom and justice.

Waylon Jennings and the soundtrack music is unforgettable. While having an aversion to mick jagger, I believe he contributed much to the feel of this film, and this may be his finest performance.

Ok, the only reason I watched this was because I'm a big Stones fan but I didn't really expect it to be too good or even memerable and its not. One thing is that I read somewhere that Ned Kelly was a big guy, about 200 pounds, and so I don't think Mick Jagger was a very good pick for him since Mick is so skinny. Another thing is the beard. It just looks hideous. The accent Mick puts on is also hideous, anyway, he mumbles the whole way through and his acting is VERY flat. The other actors weren't too good or memoralbe either. The script must not have been too hot because the only scenes that I really remember are the wrestling match and the end when he gets captured. If you want to watch a good movie with Mick Jagger in it watch Performance instead.