Ned Kelly in popular culture

Ned Kelly was an 19th century Irish Australian bushranger who has had a significant impact on popular culture. His exploits have inspired numerous works in a range of media and artistic mediums.

Literature

A. Bertram Chandler's novel Kelly Country (1983) is an alternate history in which Kelly leads a successful revolution; the result is that Australia becomes a world power.

Our Sunshine (1991) by Robert Drewe was the basis of the 2003 film, Ned Kelly, that starred Heath Ledger.

Peter Carey's novel True History of the Kelly Gang was published in 2000, and was awarded the 2001 Booker Prize and the Commonwealth Writers Prize.

Terry Pratchett's novel "The Last Continent" has a character called "Tinhead Ned" that is loosely based on Kelly.

Bush poetry and verse

Many poems and ditties emerged during the Kelly era (1878–80) relating their exploits. Some were later put to music.

Stringybark Creek (below) was often sung, to the tune of "The Wearing of the Green", during the Outbreak. Offenders caught chanting or singing this piece were fined £2 or £5, in default one or two months.^[1]

Stringybark Creek

A sergeant and three constables
Set out from Mansfield town
Near the end of last October
For to hunt the Kellys down;
So they travelled to the Wombat [Hills],
And thought it quite a lark,
And they camped upon the borders of
A creek called Stringybark.

They had grub and ammunition there
To last them many a week.
Next morning two of them rode out,
All to explore the creek.
Leaving McIntyre behind them at
The camp to cook the grub,
And Lonigan to sweep the floor
And boss the washing tub.^[2]

Ned Kelly at war

Ned Kelly captures President Kruger and wins the Boer War, 1900

In early June 1900, when the Boer Transvaal capital Pretoria fell to the British assault, President Paul Kruger and his government fled east on a train and evaded capture. In the Melbourne Punch of 21 June 1900, a cartoon titled "BAIL-UP!" depicted the Kelly Gang capturing Kruger's train and seizing Kruger's gold, thus winning the Boer War for the British.^[3] This is among the first of the Australian political cartoons to invoke Kelly's memory.

Ned Kelly the honest bushranger, 1915

During the tough days during World War I cartoons in the Queensland Worker, later re-printed in Labor Call, 16 September 1915, showed profiteers robbing Australian citizens, while Ned Kelly in armour watched on saying; "Well Well! I never got as low as that, and they hung me."^[4][5]

Ned Kelly – invoked to fight the Japanese in 1942

During World War II, Clive Turnbull published Ned Kelly: Being His Own Story of His Life and Crimes. In the introduction Turnbull invoked the Kelly historical memory to urge Australians to adopt the Kelly spirit and resist the oppression of the potential invader.

Ned Kelly in iconography

Sidney Nolan's painting The Trial, depicting Ned Kelly on trial

The distinctive homemade armour Kelly wore for his final unsuccessful stand against the police was the subject of a famous series of paintings by Sidney Nolan.

Jerilderie, one of the towns Kelly robbed, built its police station featuring numerous structural components mimicking his distinctive face plate. Some examples include walls made of differently toned bricks making up his image to storm drains with holes cut in them to form it.^{[citation needed]}

An image of Kelly, based on Sidney Nolan's imagery, appeared in the "Tin Symphony" segment of the opening ceremony for the year 2000 Olympic Games.^[6][7] He has also appeared in advertisements, most notably in television spots for Bushell's tea. A man drinking tea in the iconic suit of armour is the focal point of part of the ad.

Australia Post produced a stamp/envelope set The Siege Of Glenrowan – Centenary 1980 to mark the capture of Kelly 100 years before. The 22-cent 'stamp' printed on the envelope shows Kelly 'at bay' wearing his armoured helmet and Colt revolver in hand.

Film

The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906) now recognised as the world's first feature-length film had a then-unprecedented running time of 60 minutes. One of the actual suits worn by the gang (believed to be Joe Byrne's) was borrowed from a private collection and worn in the film. Two pieces of film totalling 21 minutes still exist and one piece includes the key scene of the Kelly's last stand.^[8]

Harry Southwell wrote, directed and produced three films based on the Kelly Gang: The Kelly Gang (1920), When the Kellys Were Out (1923) and When the Kellys Rode (1934), as well as the unfinished, A Message to Kelly (1947).

The Glenrowan Affair was produced by Rupert Kathner in 1951, featuring the exploits of Kelly and his "wild colonial boys" on their journey of treachery, violence, murder and terror, told from the perspective of an aging Dan Kelly. It starred the famous Carlton footballer Bob Chitty as Ned Kelly. It was one of the last films to portray him with an Australian accent.

In 1967, independent filmmaker Garry Shead directed and produced Stringybark Massacre, an avant garde re-creation of the murder of the three police officers at Stringybark Creek.

The next major film of the Kelly story was Ned Kelly (1970), starring Rolling Stone Mick Jagger and directed by Tony Richardson. It was not a success and during its making it led to a protest by Australian Actors Equity over the importation of Jagger, with complaints from Kelly family descendants and others over the film being shot in New South Wales, rather than in the Victoria locations where most of the events actually took place.

Yahoo Serious wrote, directed and starred in the 1993 satire film Reckless Kelly as a descendant of Ned Kelly.

In 2003, Ned Kelly, a $30 million budget movie about Kelly's life was released. Directed by Gregor Jordan, and written by John M. McDonagh, it starred Heath Ledger as Kelly, along with Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush, and Naomi Watts. Based on Robert Drewe's book Our Sunshine, the film covers the period from Kelly's arrest for horse theft as a teenager to the gang's armour-clad battle at Glenrowan. It attempts to portray the events from the perspectives of both Kelly and of the authorities responsible for his capture and prosecution. It was not a success; one review dismissed it as fiction.^[9]

That same year (2003) a low budget satire movie called Ned was released. Written, directed and starring Abe Forsythe, it depicted the Kelly gang wearing fake beards and tin buckets on their heads.

Television

Ian Jones and Bronwyn Binns wrote a script for a four-part television mini-series, The Last Outlaw 1980, which they co-produced. The series premiered on the centenary of the day that Kelly was hanged. The film's detailed historical accuracy distinguished it from many other Kelly films. Actor John Jarratt starred as Kelly.

In the 1990s British ads for the cereal Weetabix implied that it made the eater so strong and powerful that others were terrified of him. One such TV ad had Kelly in full armour in a hut under siege by the police. As the officer in charge calls for his surrender, Kelly emerges from the hut with a spoon and cereal bowl, threatening to "eat the Weetabix" if they make a false move. The officer tells his men to stand back since Kelly is not bluffing. One of them cocks his rifle, whereupon Kelly brings the spoon to his mouth only to find that the mouthpiece in his helmet is too small for the spoon. Thus he cannot carry out his threat and is forced to surrender.^{[citation needed]}

Music

• In 1971, US country singer Johnny Cash wrote and recorded the song "Ned Kelly" for his album The Man in Black.
• The Australian band "The Kelly Gang" consisted of Jack Nolan, Scott Aplin, Rick Grossman (bassist for Hoodoo Gurus) and Rob Hirst (drummer for Midnight Oil) and recorded one album Looking for the Sun (2004)^[10] which has one of Sidney Nolan's iconic "Ned Kelly" series as its album cover.^[11]
• "Shelter for my Soul" was written and recorded by Powderfinger's Bernard Fanning for the 2003 film Ned Kelly. It was written from Kelly's perspective on death row and played over the movie's closing credits.
• "888" was written and recorded by Melbourne Celt/Punk band The Currency. It has a reference to the Old Melbourne Gaol. And its lyrics say "It says here, Ned's parting words, it says here, such is life".

Other songs about Ned Kelly include those by Paul Kelly ("Our Sunshine" (1999)), Slim Dusty ("Game as Ned Kelly" and "Ned Kelly Isn't Dead"), Ashley Davies ("Ned Kelly" (2001)), Waylon Jennings ("Ned Kelly" (1970)), Redgum ("Poor Ned" (1978)), Midnight Oil ("If Ned Kelly Was King" (1983)), The Whitlams ("Kate Kelly" (2002)), Blackbird Raum ("The Helm of Ned Kelly" (2009)), and Trevor Lucas ("Ballad of Ned Kelly", performed by Fotheringay on their eponymous album). He was also referred to in the Midnight Oil song "Mountains of Burma" (1990) ("The heart of Kelly's country cleared"), and also a song by Rolf Harris.

References

1. ^ Max Brown, Australian Son, p. 81.
2. ^ Max Brown, Australian Son, pp. 80–81.
3. ^ Wilcox, p. 103.
4. ^ (J. Beaumont, Australia's War 1914–18, 1995.)
5. ^ http://john.curtin.edu.au/journalist/graphics/c19.jpg
6. ^ Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, The who's who and what's what of the Opening Ceremnony, GamesInfo.com.au
7. ^ David Fickling, Ned Kelly, the legend that still torments Australia, The Observer, 30 November 2003
8. ^ Hogan, David (7 February 2006). "World's first 'feature' film to be digitally restored by National Film and Sound Archive" (Press release). National Film and Sound Archive. http://www.nfsa.afc.gov.au/about_us/media_releases/release.php?id=183. Retrieved 25 March 2008. 
9. ^ "FILM REVIEW: Ned Kelly". News Weekly. http://www.newsweekly.com.au/articles/2003apr19_ned.html. 
10. ^ "Rick Grossman". Australian Rock Database. Magnus Holmgren. http://hem.passagen.se/honga/database/g/grossmanrick.html. Retrieved 25 January 2008. 
11. ^ Piggot, Stacey. "Australian Music Online entry on The Kelly Gang". Archived from the original on 8 September 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070908012830/http://amo.org.au/artist.asp?id=3734. Retrieved 24 January 2008.