Ned Kelly [DVD]

Ned Kelly, an impoverished Irish Catholic, is driven to crime by the persecution of the English Protestant establishment and their agents, a corrupt police force. The powerful figures - judge, police chief, landowner - are presented as virtual caricatures. The film takes a folkloric approach in emphasising the general at the expense of the particular in portraying Ned’s grim existence. There is something of a mixture of styles. The setting is carefully established but the camerawork is lyrical rather than observational. At times (as in the white bull sequence) the film seems to approach abstraction while at others the mood borders on that of musical, even pseudo-Restoration comedy. Mick Jagger is subdued in the role of Ned to the point of subverting the legend. Music by Shel Silverstein. Cast also includes Allen Bickford, Geoff Gilmour, Mark McManus, Serge Lazareff, Peter Sumner, Ken Shorter, Diane Craig.