True History of the Kelly Gang (2020)

[Puce Moment]

I don't think I have seen a thread for this film, so here we are. Based on Peter Carey's highly fictionalised story of Ned Kelly that I read when it was released some time ago. This is Justin Kurzel's fourth major film after Snowtown (spectacular), Macbeth (wonderful) and Assassin's Creed (eh). For me Kurzel is like Lynne Ramsay or Nuri Bilge Ceylan - I just feel very comfortable and confident when I go into his films. He has a style and tone in his films that really grabs me from the opening frames and this is no exception.

Starring yer lad from 1917 as the eponymous Ned Kelly, it takes an often quite surreal view of him and his gang. The film is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I have to say that I rather liked some of Kurzel's excesses - particularly his use of music and visuals that can be described as anachronistic, but gave the film an expressionistic edge.

Russell Crowe like the bird crow is in it, and does a good turn as the master of young Ned. Nick Cave's son also pops up as Kelly's dress liking brother - a nice touch given Nick Cave's father's obsession with the Ned Kelly myth.

I would be interested to hear others' views on this film as I am sure it has to divide people.

[Bazooka]

I did like Snowtown, I didn't know he directed Assassins Creed (I wouldn't watch it either way) but will try and track this down.

[Puce Moment]

I watched AC purely because he directed it, and I'm definitely not the right audience. As computer game adaptations go, I imagine it is in the top tier, but that's not saying much.

[Gulftastic]

Who plays Matthew and who plays Henry?

[finnquark]

Last film I saw at the pics before the shut down. Thought it was a potentially good subject matter, but too much going on for a film. The coverage of his actual crimes was pretty quickly covered, and left me a little unsure as to why he became such a target. It felt a bit unevenly paced in terms of covering his life in a film, but maybe that's because I was less familiar with him and his myth than other characters that I have watched 'biopics' of.

I rather liked some of Kurzel's excesses - particularly his use of music and visuals that can be described as anachronistic, but gave the film an expressionistic edge.
I would be interested to hear others' views on this film as I am sure it has to divide people.

I found this pretty jarring and a bit 'lol random', but I think I probably went expecting something more straightforwardly historical, both from what I was told by the person I went to see it with, and having seen yer man from 1917 in that (some sort of daft, baseless connection was made whereby I expected him to be playing in another bog standard historical drama/thriller).