Movie Review: Ned Kelly

The 2003 movie “Ned Kelly” starting Heath Ledger and Orlando Bloom tells the story of the Australian outlaw and folk hero Ned Kelly (hence the movie name…)

Ned Kelly was a young man born to Irish immigrants – well, actually his father was sent to Australian by the British for various crimes committed in Ireland (which was ruled by Britain at the time – who ends up fighting the entire British army in Australian along with a few friends.

He also was a “Robin Hood” figure who robed banks and gave the funs to the poor Irish workers of the area.

While I am not sure about what happened in real life, the movie version shows a man who broke under the harsh culture injustices of the age. What injustices? Mainly the stark hierarchy between the wealthy British settlers and the Irish workers. [@more@]

In that vain, the movie does do a great job at exploring the mental shift that one takes as they run from the law. For example, at the beginning of the film, Ned Kelly and this “gang” were hesitant to kill anyone. Near the end – after being chased by the army for a while and robbing several banks – one of the members shoots an old friend who informed on the actions of the group.  As the character of Ned Kelly said at one time (my paraphrase), “Let us start acting like the outlaws they call us.”

In ending, I really enjoyed the film. It did a great job at looking at the motivations behind some of the world’s folk heroes and freedom fighters. The injustices are real and need to be looked at even if we don’t agree with the way they choose to fight back.

I guess that is why it is important for Church to stand up against injustices of all kinds….