OPENS SEPTEMBER 26, CERT 15, 109 MINS

The latest of many biopics about 19th-century Australian outlaw Ned Kelly (the 1970 version of the same name starring Mick Jagger being the best known), director Gregor Jordanโ€™s version has moments both majestic and maladroit. On the plus side, Heath Ledger as the taciturn hero carries the film well, while Orlando Bloom provides attractive if one-note support as Kellyโ€™s partner in crime, and Naomi Watts is the cursory love interest. The script economically focuses on the last years of Kellyโ€™s career, from his final breech with the law after his motherโ€™s arrest up to the fatal showdown in Glenrowan, complete with circus animals (a bizarre but accurate detail).

Advertisement

But itโ€™s let down by its over-reverence (itโ€™s far less anarchic than Jordanโ€™s previous Buffalo Soldiers) and occasionally clunking sentimentality. Western fans will detect echoes of The Wild Bunch and The Long Riders, but at its best Ned Kelly offers a very Australian treatment of the most Australian of legends.