Though not as bad as its reputation would suggest, this biopic never recovers from director/co-scriptwriter Tony Richardson’s woeful miscasting of its star, Mick Jagger, as the 1870s Australian bushranger, bankrobber, cop killer and iconic Robin Hood figure, Ned Kelly. Richardson clearly wanted to draw upon Jagger’s anti-establishment reputation for the role, but the rock’n’roll association doesn’t meld with Kelly’s all-too-real insurrectionist bandit status. Jagger is totally unconvincing as a wrestling, bearded horse- thief who would live under the stars for weeks on the wild Outback ranges. His Irish accent also flutuates like the wind. The film is as historically accurate as it needs to be, but Richardson overuses Waylon Jennings’ title ballad (it punctuates nearly every major scene), overtly spelling out the attitudes of the protagonists, those who hunt them and what is taking place on screen. Buy Peter Carey’s novel True History Of The Kelly Gang instead.
