NED KELLY Milestones

After making a successful transition to a Hollywood career, Australian-born Heath Ledger returned to his native soil to star in this handsomely mounted 2003 epic directed by his friend Gregor Jordon (TWO HANDS) It’s a romanticized version of the history of the notorious 19th-century Kelly Gang that not only permeates Australian legend but also inspired the world’s first feature film in 1906 (THE STORY OF THE KELLY GANG) The son of poor Irish immigrants, Ned Kelly was a bushranger outlaw and folk anti-hero who the movie presents as standing up for the rights of common people (including his family) against British colonial authorities. Inspired by Kelly’s famously proud and defiant portrait, Ledger remarked, “I wanted to just find the character, stick to it, and give a consistent performance. ” In its brooding , silent heroism, his rendering serves as a striking counterpoint to the maniacal glee of his nihilistic Joker in this year’s hit THE DARK KNIGHT, and attests to Ledger ‘s impressive range . Jordan ‘s stately, somber film is filled with equal parts landscape poetry and rousing Western gun fights, and the film’s climactic showdown situates the narrative in clear, genre categories.