I'm Fucking Pumped For 'True History of the Kelly Gang'

"Based on Peter Carey's novel. The story of Australian bushranger Ned Kelly and his gang as they flee from authorities during the 1870s."

Here's the cast

Just to go through some of them in case you're not familiar, it stars MacKay who just recently fucking KILLED it in '1917'. Like, I'm utterly shocked he didn't get a best acting nom because the emotion and physicality he gave in that role was insane. Essie Davis you probably best know as Lady Crane from Game of Thrones. She's the theater lady Arya has to kill for the house of black and white but doesn't want to. Nicholas Hoult is probably best known to you as Beast from the newer X-Men movies, but he's a fantastic dramatic actor that you may remember from 'The Favourite'. Thomasin McKenzie was not only great in last years 'Jojo Rabbit' but fantastic in 2018's 'Leave No Trace', a top 10 movie of 2018 in my opinion. You obviously know both Charlie Hunnam and Russell Crowe, unless you live under a rock. 

This comes from Justin Kurzel, who I know from 2015's 'Hamlet', which I liked a lot and also 2016's 'Assassin's Creed' which fucking suckkkkkkkkkkkkkkked. However, I don't care cause this looks fucking awesome. Here's some background on the story of Ned Kelly and the Kelly gang. 

Ned Kelly's father was a pig thief in Ireland that was deported to Australia back when it was a penal colony. Specifically, he was sent to Tasmania which was then called Van Diemen's Land which is badass as fuck. Kelly Sr. got out of jail, and became a successful gold digger and settled down before dying relatively young of alcoholism. Ned Kelly then took up with a man named Harry Power, which is another badass as hell name. Power was a convict that escaped from prison in Melbourne, becoming a bushranger. He'll be played by Crowe in the movie. 

Power and Kelly commited a ton of armed robberies across the bush before Kelly was arrested, but later released when nobody appeared in court to testify against him (leading to rumors that his massive family was intimidating witnesses). Power was arrested soon after at his hideout, leading to rumor that Kelly snitched on him to get out of prison. Not good! Later, a man named Isaiah Wright came to visit Kelly's brother in law on a horse he borrowed from someone else. The horse went missing, and Kelly took the fall for it. After serving a long bid, Kelly challenged Wright to a boxing match to settle the score. He won after 20 rounds, and Wright became one of his biggest supporters. 

After that Kelly had an incident that led to his more serious brushes with the law. A police constable came to arrest Kelly's brother, and the constable was supposedly shot in the arm. There is no concise story on what happened, because literally everyone that was involved has a different one. But the constable said Kelly shot him, which lead to him becoming a legit outlaw. Kelly's mom was arrested and given a really hard sentence, which enraged both Ned and the public. Kelly and his brother hid out in the brush to avoid arrest, and the cops decided to come and find them on their own turf.  The Kelly's ambushed one group of the cops, killing one and using the second as bait to draw in a group of two more who were killed. 

They later went on raids of neighboring stations, and were apparently great gentlemen to basically anyone who wasn't a cop. Apparently once Ned demanded a man hand over his gold watch during a holdup, but when he found out it was a gift from the man's dead mother, he refused to take it. Including that, there was plenty of other incidents like that where the gang refused to rob people who were poor. This earned them a ton of goodwill, especially since the cops were basically arresting anyone who knew the Kelly's without cause and holding them. Another big swing in public opinion went their way when they robbed a bank and burned all the mortgage documents to erase people's debts. 

After this, they took a hotel hostage which lead to their eventual last stand. A snitch told an incoming train of troopers, who quickly surrounded the hotel and started unloading on them. That's when they realized that the Kelly gang was armored the fuck up. 

The Kelly gang had made a bunch of this rudimentary armor, which was still very effective at repelling bullets. They held their own while under seige in the hotel, but it became clear that it was only a matter of time until they were overrun. Ned Kelly managed to sneak out of the back, and surprised the back of the cops line and scared the shit out of them, clad in the biggest suit of armour out of them all. 

He sent he cops running, and their bullets had no effect on his armor at all. They eventually realized they could take out his legs, which they did. Kelly was subdued, and the rest of his gang died in the hotel during the shootout or possibly committed suicide after the cops lit it on fire. Kelly was arrested, and later hanged. Public support for the Kellys even after they were gone, and they were basically the Australian precursor to Bonnie & Clyde (although relatively better people by most accounts). There is plenty of movies about the Kelly gang, including 'The Story of the Kelly Gang', the world's first dramatic feature-length film ever. Also 2003's 'Ned Kelly' with Heath Ledger and Orlando Bloom.

Kelly's story is fucking awesome, and I can't wait to see this adaptation. Anyway, thanks for going through this wiki summary, and make sure to check out this blog if you're looking for anything to stream under quarantine. There is plenty of good crime choices in there.