Ned Kelly by Robert Drewe

[Jolie_Ijaz]

Ned Kelly by Robert Drewe

You know a film is a must-see when Orlando Bloom is featured as a feisty outlaw. Robert Drewe’s adaptation of the life of infamous Ned Kelly presents to its readers a dual persona: the beastly image crafted by the news press and the humorous attempts to live up to that image by the Kelly Gang. The Kelly Gang isn’t really that bad. Their life’s achievement, the robbing of a small bank, comes with good: they burn all mortgages and binding papers the government uses to manipulate its people.
They’re actually painted in a very warm light. This includes their generous regard for their prisoners (including police officers) and their light-hearted dealings with the Australian law-enforcement officials. They’ve been misunderstood.
Drewe’s book is a quick read. Besides the length, the syntax is short. The only difficulty I had was in understanding an Australian colloquial dialect.
The story also tends to jumps around, making it difficult to develop a sense of time and sequence.