Browse all reviews by letter     A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 0 - 9

United Kingdom 1970
Directed by
Tony Richardson
99 minutes
Rated M

Reviewed by
Bernard Hemingway
2.5 stars

Ned Kelly (1970)

Myth merges with myth as Mick Jagger, then pop dreamboat and celebrity rebel, and just off the set of Nic Roeg’s classic Performance, plays Ned Kelly as a popular hero and victim of anti-Irish British establishment. He and English director Tony Richardson do a good job of eliciting sympathy for our No 1 legend but unlike Roeg, who a couple of years later produced one of the classic films about white Australia, Walkabout (1971), Richardson only manages at best perfunctory story-telling with the film itself.  Blacks and Jews do not come off well but the strangest aspect is the Shel Silverstein penned,Waylon Jennings-sung soundtrack.

FYI: Jagger’s squeeze at the time Marianne Faithful was originally cast a Maggie Kelly but was shipped back to England after a drug overdose and was replaced by Diane Craig.

 

 

back

Want something different?

random vintage best worst