Solid cinematic storytelling, with a commendable performance by Mick Jagger. While the movie would've benefited a great deal from a soundtrack produced by The Rolling Stones themselves, NED KELLY isn't so much a "rock and roll" picture (except, perhaps, at heart) as it is a damning indictment of The Powers That Be (that WERE). It's gritty in that GREAT NORTHFIELD, MINNESOTA RAID-kind of way (which was likewise a tip of the hat to some of those "gray area" folk heroes, though the James and Younger brothers are generally acknowledged these days to have been outright outlaws) and, in its depiction(s), somewhat ahead of its time. (It may be hard for some people to believe, but there was a time when Good was good and Bad was bad and never the twain met- at least not on The Big Screen- not often, at any rate, especially in movies made in America-, and never EVER on American television.) With the housing crisis in this country in mind, NED KELLY just might be the kind of movie more people should seek out...
