Ned Kelly- The True Story Of Australia's Most Legendary Outlaw

Product Description Rock superstar Mick Jagger makes his dynamic screen debut in this explosive tale from Academy AwardÂ(r)-winning* director Tony Richardson. Based on the fascinating true-life story of the 19th-century Australian Armored Bandit, Ned Kelly is a powerful, action-packed adventure that thrillingly captures a bold and lawless era. When their mother is unfairly persecuted by police, Ned Kelly (Jagger) and his brother Dan earn money for her defense by selling homemade liquor. But what begins as a simple moonshine operation quickly escalates into a series of armed robberies, desperate pursuits and deadly confrontations. Soon, Ned finds himself revered throughout the country as a larger-than-life sagebrush hero even as the law closes in and prepares for an all-out war. *1963: Best Picture, Director, Tom Jones Amazon.com Mick Jagger had one of his rare sizable acting roles, as the famed Australian outlaw, in this atmospheric biopic (remade in 2004 with Heath Ledger). The movie has the look and spirit of other Vietnam-era counterculture Westerns, with Irishman Ned Kelly a rebel against the unjust Establishment. Tony Richardson's direction has the free-for-all laxity of the era, though the general sense of mess is tidied up by the often stunning location photography by ace DP Gerry Fisher. What makes the film memorable is the soundtrack, a heavy portion of which is made up of Western ballads written by witty Shel Silverstein and sung by Waylon Jennings; elsewhere, the Amish-bearded Jagger croons "The Wild Colonial Boy." A charitable assessment of Jagger's performance would conclude that he brings an intriguing Pirandellian presence to the role; a more clear-eyed view would say that he simply doesn't have the acting chops to carry it off. --Robert Horton