Ever heard of the 2003 Australian film "Ned Kelly" starring Heath Ledger and Orlando Bloom? If you have, I'm honestly not that surprised. What would impress me however, was if you knew that back in 1906 (even before Birth of a Nation) another film was made in Australia about the same subject: The Story of the Kelly Gang.
Running about 70 minutes in length, this film in widely accepted as the world's first ever full-length feature film, and it came straight from down under. Isn't that crazy? Only 17 minutes of Charles Tait's fortune-making picture have survived the test of time, and are now in possession of the National Film & Sound Archive. You can read all about their long and arduous search for these precious 17 minutes, as well as purchase the film for a mere $39.94 here.
I find it funny that they've included "special features" on the DVD. I mean, they obviously weren't thinking about special features in 1906. It cracks me up.
If you don't know anything about the Kelly Gang or their story, I'll give you a brief synopsis. It's actually pretty interesting stuff: Ned Kelly was a notorious Australian outlaw (or bushranger as they like to call it in the outback) who pillaged and plundered throughout Australia, yet somehow retained a good reputation with the locals. Much to the dismay of the police force however, he and his gang (his brother Dan Kelly, Steve Hart, and Joseph Byrne) were responsible for numerous robberies and killings. I won't tell you how it ends in case you want to check out the movie for yourself, but for those of you who are curious, here's a more thorough synopsis for you.
Anyway, since this movie was released in Melbourne in December 1906, many other films have been made about Ned Kelly and his cohorts (including but not limited to the 2003 blockbuster), so don't worry, you can definitely still see the entire story unfold if you want to. 17 minutes of clumsily restored footage is not your only option.
-Posted by Megan R.-
3 comments:
Very interesting--this is one of those fascinating stories of Australian history that is begging for cinematic treatment; it wouldn't surprise me is someone else tries to tackle it!
It's great to see a post on this. I was pretty disappointed we skipped over this kind of disappointed when we didn't start with this in class, actually.
Also released in 2003 was a low budget satire called "Ned." Abe Forsythe wrote, directed, and starred in it. I guess the Kelly gang ran around in this film with obviously fake beards and tin buckets on their heads. It would be interesting to see the 1906 original, then compare to the drama (complete with more sex appeal), and the satire. I didn't realize Ned Kelly was such a popular subject! I guess he is like the Jesse James of Austalia, in the sense of being a legend and very great character for film.
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