{"id":13931,"date":"2020-04-27T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-27T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/?p=13931"},"modified":"2024-03-02T21:19:19","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T05:19:19","slug":"justin-kurzel-kelly-gang-macbeth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/justin-kurzel-kelly-gang-macbeth\/","title":{"rendered":"True History of the Kelly Gang<\/i> and Justin Kurzel\u2019s Portrayals of Masculinity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A child has been sold to a criminal by a desperate mother. Holed up together in a lonely shack, the dubious mentor gives the young prot\u00e9g\u00e9 advice that he will hold onto for the rest of his short life: \u201cWhen a man farewells this world, all he\u2019s got left is his story.\u201d The child will grow up and pass on, to his own disciples, the message that \u201cevery man should be the author of his own history\u201d\u00a0 – for the truth is important to the outlaw Ned Kelly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Australian director Justin Kurzel\u2019s latest work, True History of the Kelly Gang<\/a>,<\/em> builds on themes established in his previous films The Snowtown Murders<\/em> (2011) and Macbeth<\/em> (2015). All three are based on real people and events, from 11th century Scotland to Australia in the 1880s and 1990s. Three of the central figures in these films – Ned Kelly (George MacKay), Macbeth (Michael Fassbender) and John Bunting (Daniel Henshall) – are acutely aware of their legacies, and all wrestle with their place in their country\u2019s history. The protagonists of all three films (including Jamie Vlassakis in Snowtown, <\/em>played by Lucas Pittaway) are murderers, but in at least two of these cases, we are encouraged to have some sympathy for these \u2018villains.\u2019 Once Ned Kelly achieves notoriety, he strives to assume control of his own narrative, but is aware that a \u201cmyth is more profitable than a man.\u201d Kurzel makes us aware from the get-go (via an opening title) that the tale is being told by an unreliable narrator: \u201cNothing you\u2019re about to see is true.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the opening passages of True History of the Kelly Gang<\/em>, Ned is a kid (played by Orlando Schwerdt) desperately trying to prove he is a man. Attempting to avoid repeating the mistakes of his Irish convict father, he\u2019s searching for father-figures, a role most prominently filled by Harry Power (Russell Crowe). Power is a bushranger, modeled on the outlaws of the Wild West or the highwaymen of 18th century England – a romantic \u2018Robin Hood\u2019 archetype. Though constantly let down by those in a paternal role, Ned seems doomed to relive the past and walk their same paths. Jamie in Snowtown<\/em> is in a similar position; he has been abused by one of his mother\u2019s boyfriends and his older brother. When the seeming \u2018nice guy\u2019 John comes along – he cooks meals and is caring towards Jamie\u2019s younger brothers – Jamie gravitates towards him as a mentor. But he\u2019s groomed and peer-pressured, helping to escalate the cycle of abuse into a \u2018crusade\u2019 against gay men and perceived pedophiles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ned Kelly\u2019s manliness is constantly challenged by his mother Ellen (Essie Davis). At the start of the film she refers to him as \u201cmy little man\u201d and the \u201cman of the house,\u201d and when she sends him off with Harry Power, she encourages him to\u00a0 \u201cgo out there and be a big man.\u201d George MacKay\u2019s entrance as the adult Ned is blisteringly provocative and aggressive; MacKay has never been this physical, visceral or animalistic on-screen before. But Ned is a mass of contradictions, reluctant to fully commit to the criminal life. When he returns home after a long absence, Ellen immediately manipulates him into stealing horses with her young boyfriend George (Marlon Williams) and Dan Kelly (Earl Cave). She does this while touching her face to Ned\u2019s, in a manner similar to Lady Macbeth in the infamous \u201cscrew your courage to the sticking place\u201d scene. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kurzel emphasizes the oedipal nature of Ned\u2019s relationship with his mother; he also has Lady Macbeth (Marion Cotillard) lay out her plan for King Duncan\u2019s murder while making love to Macbeth, taking emotional blackmail to a physical level. She calls him a coward: \u201cWhen you durst do it, then<\/em> you were a man.\u201d The feminine pressure in The Snowtown Murders<\/em> comes mainly from Verna (Aasta Brown), who lays out in graphically violent detail what she would do if she caught a pedophile, and berates her husband as a \u201cp*ssy.\u201d She will go on to pay the ultimate price for her insolence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In True History of the Kelly Gang<\/em>\u2019s most pivotal scene, Ned has a gun trained on Constable Fitzpatrick (Nicholas Hoult), but instead of displaying fear, Fitzpatrick sees right into Ned\u2019s soul. \u201cYou\u2019re not\u2026 the man your mother wished you were,\u201d he sneers. \u201cYou\u2019re a boy\u2026 looking for a Captain to tell him what to do.\u201d Jed Kurzel\u2019s haunting, rueful woodwind score drops in, while Ned\u2019s eyes shine with tears, followed by an overhead shot of Ned and his gang riding through the snow. Dan and Steve Hart (Louis Hewison) then tell Ned that they are the \u201cSons of Sieve (Ireland). We\u2019re rebels. Bandits. Warriors.\u201d Once again, the romantic notion of the outlaw is conveyed, not just through the dialogue, but through the beauty of the score and the vast, stunning High Country of Victoria, which is shot reverently by Ari Wegner. Kurzel infuses the film with nostalgia, as if we are already watching an inevitable past unfold, aided by Ned\u2019s wistful narration. This is the point at which Ned rises up as a leader of the gang and takes the decision to ambush and kill the policemen who are pursuing them. Kurzel presents Ned as taunted and provoked into becoming a killer, just as Jamie and Macbeth are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Ned Kelly and John Bunting replicate military structures and hierarchies, treating their followers as \u2018lieutenants.\u2019 Bunting compares himself to the soldiers celebrated on Anzac Day and asks, \u201cwhere\u2019s my <\/em>parade?\u201d Ned calls himself an \u201cironclad monitor,\u201d comparing himself to the small warship with outsized guns, as a challenge to those who underestimate him. The irony is that Ned makes a rousing \u2018pre-battle\u2019 speech while he is surrounded by his gang wearing pastel-colored dresses. The dress-wearing is something that disgusted and shamed Ned about his father, but he later adopts them as a kind of uniform, complete with charcoal warpaint. The soft dresses in pale pinks and yellows (expertly designed by Alice Babidge) are juxtaposed with the handmade armor that the gang crudely fashion, as well as the harsh, cold landscape around them and Ned inciting violence; once again, the chaotic and contradictory nature of Ned and his gang is laid bare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through his examinations of four notorious figures in the histories of Scotland and Australia, Justin Kurzel has exposed the vulnerabilities inherent in toxic masculinity, and how pressures on men to stand up and defend others from perceived dangers can lead to catastrophic results. Of course, it is frequently not about noble intentions, but seizing, wielding, and abusing power, and going to any lengths not to lose it. Macbeth and John Bunting are at one extreme of this, whereas Jamie Vlassakis and Ned Kelly could <\/em>be perceived more sympathetically; their complex portrayals mean it is left to the viewer to draw their own conclusions. When we see the men of history through the prism of the myths of their own and others\u2019 making, we can choose whether they are heroes or villains – or more likely, something in between. \"\"\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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