'True History Of The Kelly Gang' A Review

True History of the Kelly Gang is a western based on the novel of the same name which is loosely based on the Australian outlaw Ned Kelly. The first half of the movie follows Ned(Orlando Schwerdt) as a boy being raised by his mother Ellen(Essie Davis) with a brief interlude as an apprentice of Harry Power(Russell Crowe). The second half follows Ned(George MacKay) on his circuitous and painfully slow journey to become the outlaw we are perpetually waiting for him to be.

On paper the cast is exceptional and despite the absolutely atrocious hodgepodge of tone and borderline incoherent story Essie Davis still manages to put in an impressive performance seemingly by the incandescence of her talent and will alone. Crowe also puts in a nice turn but his screentime is too brief and his subplot ultimately meaningless. MacKay puts in a valiant effort strutting and mugging almost entirely, and bafflingly, shirtless but there is no real truth, no assurance, no sense to his characterization which is mostly the fault of the script and the direction.

Director Justin Kurzel continues to disappoint after his promising debut, Macbeth, the influences on all aspects of the production are so disparate and there is little effort in bringing them together. There are some expressionistic sequences butted up against pure melodrama, 80's punk aesthetics crossed with straight up contemporary jeans next to classic Western weaponry. It's anachronistic for no clear purpose so it comes across as a muddled mess. This is nothing compared to the story itself which is so protracted and exploitative it's not only gross it's boring. It has nothing to say, no message, at least that's understandable. The plot meanders and the accents are so thick and the score so loud there are long sequences where the dialogue is straight up unintelligible.  There are some attempts at playing with gender but they are mostly toothless and transparent.

Pretentious and posturing. A poor attempt at recapturing the magic of The Proposition which, other than Davis, is mostly pure failure.

Available to rent on most VOD platforms.

Don't See It.