Ned Kelly (2003 film)

Ned Kelly is a 2003 Australian historical drama film about an innocent man who becomes one of the most wanted criminals the world has ever known.

Directed by Gregor Jordan. Written by John Michael McDonagh, based on Robert Drewe's 1991 novel Our Sunshine.

You can kill a man but not a legend.taglines

Ned Kelly edit

I was the hero of Hughes Creek. I can still see the glint in me Da's eye as he looked down at me, his hand on me shoulder. What did he call me that day? Ah, what did Da call me? That's right. He called me Sunshine.

I wore it seriously, me hero's sash of green and gold - proof that I'd saved a life as well.

What I best recall is riding alone with the sun behind me, seeing me own shadow cantering ahead against the roadside weeds and willows, and leaving me stretched far behind galloping to chase it. Like a centaur in the picture books.

I've never shot a man, but if I do, so help me God, you'll be the first!

They said I'd lost what it meant to be human, maybe never had it in the first place, but wasn't this about protecting the ones I loved? The ones who gave me food, and shelter, even the clothes on me back? And therefore wasn't it now a war?

And wasn't this the challenge of your whole life, Superintendent? A feather in your cap? You can't catch me. You don't have a hope of catching me, so you take my friends instead - over a hundred men arrested, stuck in stinking cells without trial while their crops perish in the fields. And guess what? Not one of 'em caves in and tries to claim the reward. Not one of 'em. They loved me the just same and hated you all the more, didn't they? Did you really think I was gonna let 'em all rot?

There's a certain type of black tribesman that bends in the wind. Blends into the background. Mostly he employs the help of the dead to destroy other people. "The Night Dancer", they call him.

They say the trouble with the Irish is that they rely too much on dreams and not enough on gunpowder. Whereas the English were shy on dreams, as usual, but had plenty of the other. Now we had both.

Joe Byrne edit

Ah! The monkey's been shot! Poor little bugger!

I'm sure there's no harm in being friendly.

[in the middle of the Glenrowan shootout, right before his death] Jesus Christ, lads, I think I need a drink.

Dialogue edit

Aaron Sherritt: [Coming outside half undressed] Hey, gotta keep your voice down? I've a visitor.

Joe Byrne: Who?

Aaron Sherritt: Mary Hegarty.

Joe Byrne: Mary Hegarty?

Aaron Sherritt: Mm-hm.

Joe Byrne: Jesus, she can be only thirteen!

Aaron Sherritt: Ah, I'm not superstitious.

Julia Cook: Don't make me grieve for you

Ned Kelly: I ain't dead yet!

Ned Kelly: I 'spose you're the Great Orlando.

The Great Orlando: That I am.

Ned Kelly: Well, I'm the Great Ned Kelly, and this here's the Fabulous Joe Byrne. [raising their guns] We'd like to join your circus.

Ned Kelly: The country belongs to us.

Woman in Crowd: Yeah.

Man in Crowd: That's right.

Ned Kelly: And we'll go wherever we like.

Dan Kelly: Where do you think Da is, heaven or hell?

Ned Kelly: No. He... he wouldn't be in hell, you know. He wasn't such a bad fella. He... he was just a dumb paddy who got picked on his whole life. And that does something to your pride, you know?

Ned Kelly: Such is life.

Intertitle: Despite petitions for a pardon that bore a total of 32,000 signatures, Ned Kelly was hanged on 11th of November, 1880.

Intertitle: He was 25 years old.

About Ned Kelly (2003 film) edit

Like Buffalo Soldiers, Ned Kelly takes a dense novel as its source material - in this case, Our Sunshine by Robert Drewe - and applies liberal amounts of voiceover to both stitch together an episodic narrative and provide a flavour of the book. But Kelly was, of course, more than a book, and Jordan - perhaps hamstrung by a limited budget - elides key episodes, hurries others, and singularly fails to elucidate the precise relationships of the Kelly gang.
- Colin Kennedy, Ned Kelly Review, (25 Sep 2003).