 Welcome to another video. I thought I'd do something a bit more loose and free flow compared to my last video since that one took forever and I wanted to cover a topic that I'd prefer to explore more casually rather than doing another long form analysis of it. The topic in question? Australian movies. Truth be told I haven't watched many Australian movies. I think part of that is because for me there's this uncanniness to the Australian accent when it's in a movie or on a TV show. I'll give an example before I ramble on about it. Think about how I sound now. It's kind of casual, you know, hello. My name is Jordan. I'm from the prison colony of Australia compared to something like underbelly where they talk like you don't know what you're doing. For those who may not have been able to tell the difference between the two, I guess the only thing I could say is that it feels performative. It's definitely not an objective measure by any sense of the word. But it just doesn't feel realistic to me. Like, of course, a bad performance is a bad performance. No language or accent barrier can hide that. But it does feel harder to suspend my disbelief when it's an Australian compared to, say, a Korean or American. All I can think is that's not how he sounds. We don't talk like that. Use those words. Maybe because I'm around Australians all the time, funnily enough. And I have more of a reference to how they sound. And I bring this up because I wonder if anybody else feels this way. Australian or otherwise, does it feel harder to engage with the performance when they're performing as someone from your country? Anyway, enough with that pretentious garbage. I'd like to welcome everyone to a series of videos where I'll be looking at notable Australian films and their place within Australian cinema. From the select few that I have seen, honestly, most of them feel pretty derivative of American and British movies. But there are also some that rank amongst my favourite movies ever. So I wanted to give them all a fair shake and see if there is any gold amongst them hills. Let's have a gander. The first one I'll be looking at is The Story of the Kelly Gang. The Story of the Kelly Gang is a mostly lost silent film from 1906. Only around 15 minutes of the movie remain, which has been restored along with stills from the film reel to piece together the narrative. Speaking of narrative, this movie is actually the first ever feature-length narrative film. Suck it, France. The story of the Kelly Gang was around an hour long and had a budget of £400 to £1,000. Australia used pounds like the British until the Australian dollar was introduced in 1966. Adjusted for inflation, £400 British in 1906 would be worth £51,079.41 today. That's $94,128 AUD and about $900 AUD. Filming took about six months and the film was actually shot here in my home state of Victoria, not too far from where I live in Melbourne. The suburbs of Ivanhoe, St Kilda, Rosanna, Eltham, Mitchum and Greensboro were used as filming locations. Ah yes, the birthplace of cinema. I'll add that everything I'm about to say in this review may not be 100% accurate. Some of the verification of the goings on in this film's production are prefaced with thought-to-be and possibly. Even the identity of the film's director is disputed, though it's commonly accepted today that Charles Tate directed the film. Only two actors are officially credited and of the two actors who are credited, neither play Ned Kelly. A pretty fascinating movie, honestly. I'm glad I chose to start off the series with this one, that's for sure. And seeing as there were no other feature-length narrative films at the time, I'm very comfortable in saying the story of the Kelly Gang was once the citizen cane of cinema. I'll watch the film on YouTube, in a couple of videos I'll link in the description. The first is a 20-minute video with no sound. I've leafed through articles that state the National Film and Sound Archive piece together of the film based on the best evidence they had. This includes the original program booklet when the film was shown back in the early 1900s, as well as the film's intertitles. It's kind of self-explanatory, but for anyone who doesn't know, intertitles are the words that appear on the screen in a movie that aren't part of the scene. They just tell the audience what's going on, where the scene takes place, or what a character is saying in quotations. These were common in silent films, since the only sounds were usually from the non-diagetic film score that accompanied the picture. Sometimes the music was played live on a piano or with a band or on a gramophone. What's actually really cool about that is when this film premiered back in 1906, they gave it live sound effects, so they would do something like clicking together coconuts to simulate the horse hooves. Obviously, recording equipment and software at the time wasn't as suited for outdoor filmmaking as it is today, to put it lightly. Talking pictures became more commonplace in and after the 1920s. Though there were talkies being played in France at the time, such as films of operatic concert performances. The other video also seemed to be sourced from the national film and sound archive, but didn't include some of the key scenes in the film and is uploaded on a random personal account. Though it does include some still images from the film as well as eye-tellicised intertitles that give us the information from the lost footage. This gives the second video a sort of documentary feel. I'll be bouncing back and forth between these two uploads in this review. Also, also, it seems fitting that one of Australia's most famous stories would be the basis for its first movie. Ned Kelly, infamous book-stranger, impoverished outlaw since he was a teen danger, a fancy-filled tale about a guy who stood up to the establishment and killed a bunch of shifty cops all while stealing from the rich to give to the poor. Sometimes. If we get a Red Dead game set in Australia, more than likely it's going to be based on this guy. Robbed a bunch of banks, trading stations and other settlements with his brother and friends before being captured by police at Glen Rowan following a bloody shoot-out where he'd done his famous metal plate armour. The armour used in this film is actually the original authentic caliama. Then, of course, he was tried and hanged, sometime between being informed of his execution later in the day and the moment before he was hanged. He said the phrase, Life is such. Life is strange. Is life such? Such is life. Some say it was his last words, others say he said it on the walk to the gallows or when he found out he was going to be hanged. All can agree, though, it inspired one of the tackiest tattoos to ever exist. After seeing this film, I definitely recommend doing your own research on Kelly. He was a fascinating character and there's a lot of information that fills in the blanks of this story. Suffice to say, all this info made me very excited to see this film in action, so I'm going to stop rambling and get into it. We can't really comment on the quality of the writing or any film making elements accurately during the intertitles of lost scenes since, well, we don't have the footage, which does suck. I imagine it would have been quite the experience back in 1906 to see this film premiere at the Atheneaium Theatre in Melbourne. I actually went there the other day and got this photo. Since there's no sound in this film, I was listening to some royalty-free Scott Joplin ragtime, which is what you're hearing now, to get me into that silent film mood. So, let's do it. We get the film's title plus a roll call of the Kelly gang, Ned Kelly, Dan Kelly, Joe Byrne and Steve Ha. Then we get a shot of them in the Banya Valley that we'll see later. The second video included intertitles of the lost footage. We were meant to start on the Kelly farm with Ned's mum. Ned's sister Kate hears from a bunch of cops that they plan to arrest Ned's brother Dan for horse theft. She rides home to warn him and is followed by police constable Fitzpatrick. So the movie is opening up on the 1878 incident in which Fitzpatrick approached the Kelly home and was assaulted by the Kelly brothers after allegedly trying to accost Ned's sister. It was rough with his mother after trying to find out where Dan was. This is the angle the film takes. Different accounts say the Fitzpatrick was drunk, attacked first. It's all pretty up in the air. What was officially reported, though, was that Kelly and his brother tried to kill Fitzpatrick. It makes sense the film would start here since after this point, Ned and the others would be on the run for two years until being captured in Glen Rowan. This is essentially the start of the Kelly gang. I love how I've talked quite a bit about this film already and I've barely seen any footage. After the first couple of intertitles, we get to constable Fitzpatrick with Ned Kelly's sister and mother. A wide shot gives us all of these characters plus establishes the farm. We see the house, the fence in the back and the barn behind it. Fitzpatrick looks like a visual representation of the word Haramph. The Kelly ladies are dressed pretty dapper as well. Not the kind of attire I'd expect from Australian peasants at the time, though every picture I found of Kate Kelly shows us she had an extensive wardrobe of crude black formal wear. Fitzpatrick asked Kate for a dance before he takes her brother to jail. After all that kerfuffle, Ned Kelly runs out of the house to assist his defense. Kelly shoots to the ground, which scares Fitzpatrick into dropping his gun. All of a sudden, the Dream Team roll up. They mount up and hit the trail with the Kelly ladies holding Fitzpatrick at gunpoint, presumably forever since we never see Fitzpatrick again. You're under arrest. And you're under arrest. And you're under arrest. You're under arrest, too. We get some nice shots of rural Victoria as the cops begin searching along the river for the Kelly gang. The gang are camping out near Stringy Bar Creek. They encounter two police officers shooting birds in the trees. You've cocked your last heel. The gang shoots the cops offscreen in the missing footage. Then hold the other one hostage whilst they eat all his food and drink all his drink. The one with the gun, I think that's Ned. I've I've forgotten which one is Ned. The one with the gun holds up the surviving police officer. One of the other Kelly boys comes running out of the bush to tell them some other cops are rolling up and then it hits the fan. Holy, those bullet trails, they don't look like props. I try to find some history on the use of prop firearms, but all I found was some regulations that were introduced relevant to the use of firearms in film, but nothing about when they were first used. I don't know if these guns are real or props. Feel free to comment prop firearm expert who I know is watching this. Either way, it looks kind of dangerous. Good to know filming standards have improved. The guy who I am now more certain is Ned Kelly. I think it was the beard shoots at the ground to scare the police off because shooting at the ground injured constable Fitzpatrick's hand last time, and he must be trying out that strategy again. It doesn't work. Instead, they die. One of the police officers manages to escape and gets word back to the police about the colleagues. The gang are camping again, chatting about life when Ed goes off for a bit to a Kreegan shanty. I think this is meant to be Kate, I'm not sure. He winches to her about how hard it is to steal things from people, then kill them afterwards. It looks like there's some form of argument, then the next shot warps into him going for a swim. I suppose this is to lose the scent from trackers or dogs. Ned and his sister ride off back to the camp, evading the police. The Kelly gang have a large bounty put on their heads. I've got to say, these wide shots might seem a bit entry level as far as cinematography goes, but all the footage so far has given us a clear look at every scene, and the camera is even following important viewpoints in each sequence. I imagine film reel was pretty scarce back in 1906 Greensboro. I imagine they would have used the enter titles to also help with some of the cuts. We have seen some dips in coordination in each scene, but the staging is pretty impressive for these very lengthy scenes, especially the ones with horses. Just wanted to give that to the film. Obviously, things have improved and new techniques have been introduced, but still not bad for a first try. So now we've gotten to my favorite sequence in the entire film of the three sequences that are available. And that is the stick up at Young Husband Station. The real life accounts of this event suggest that the Kellys were robbing a funeral. Ned introduces himself, maybe as some sort of traveller or something and is allowed inside. He asked the men to come out and the gang robbed them at gunpoint. However, they don't rob the women and children. Who says that chivalry is dead? Some of the funeral attendees just hang around, chilling. I imagine the director wasn't too sure on how to direct the extras, and so they just watch kind of nonchalantly as their assumed partners, relatives and friends get robbed. They look kind of bored. All of a sudden, Sandy Gloucester rocks up. Whoop, yep, yep, yep, yep, forward, yep, yeah, well, forward, now forward again, yep, back up a tiny bit, yep, and there, there. Sandy Gloucester is a hawker. I've resumed to have been coming to the funeral to hawk. Maybe passing by, he doesn't exactly look dressed for the funeral. I have a stunning suspicion that this man is actually a time travelling Mark Bowen from Idols. As his father has held at gunpoint and robbed of his cart, the Gloucester's son goes inside the station to warn someone his dad's about to die. He doesn't hurry himself because he hates his father and wants to take over the business. Sorry, let me rephrase that. The Gloucester kid goes inside the station to find some lollies. People come out to watch Sandy Gloucester beg to the Kelly gang to spare his means of providing for himself and his son. Our heroes ignore him and laugh at this selfish request. Then another group of four rock up to the station and are tricked by more of Kelly's dastardly schemes. Ned Kelly nearly gets run over. The gang of four are sent inside with the others. This is a pretty wild funeral. Everyone cheers the gang. I hope I'm getting hijacked by a funeral to steal from everyone who comes around the corner. Speaking of coming around the corner, the station manager rocks up. All right, now, you ready? Watch this. How that horse just drops him off screen is hilarious. Instead of riding off on his horse and escaping the angry gunman, the manager rides back to the gang and allows himself to be taken prisoner like a true gentleman. Lastly, he offers them some pointers for the next big robbery. That was awesome. I loved how each robbery was like clockwork. So many people just coming around that corner to get captured by the Kelly gang. It was like, me next, me next. The camera was just swirling from left to right throughout that whole sequence, giving it a lot more motion than the other scenes, such as the Kelly farm and stringy bar crink. I imagine because the director didn't have tracks to put the camera on obviously, but there was still an effort made to follow the gang throughout the entire sequence. As a result, it feels like a comedy sketch and is very entertaining. After robbing the funeral, Len garbed in some fancy new clothes thanks to Sandy Gloucester, the Kelly's decide to rob a bank. All we have are still images for this one. Similar situation to the last robbery. Ned Fane's friendliness. They deal with a resistant robbery victim. Kids look kind of bored. They load the prisoners up onto Sandy Gloucester's van then take them back to the station. There's a lot here that can be filled in by the meta knowledge that the Kelly gang had many sympathizers. Hence why those at the funeral were toasting with Ned and the gang. Without that knowledge, it can seem a bit confusing why everyone is so okay with the Kelly gang robbing them. Yes, welcome to our great grandfather's funeral. Please make sure to pill for his corpse. Try the Pavlova. Anyway, after that, there's a chase scene with Kate in the police, apparently. That scene is also missing unfortunately, though we do get an epic photo of her on a horse with a revolver. I'm not sure if these are camera photos or stills from the film. I think this one in the shot by the tree with the Kelly gang looking at their bandy poster. I think those are photos because the camera angle isn't as consistent as the other shots where they're trying to get more of the action. These stills that I believe to be just camera photos seem a bit taller for lack of a better term, plus the quality is a bit higher on these images than the film. I'd wager photos, but my P-brained knowledge on photography could be dead wrong. We get more stills this time of Aboriginal trackers. As far as I can tell, it was because of these gents that the police were able to catch up with the Kelly's at Glen Rowan. They were part of a Queensland native police unit, which was a branch of police where a group of indigenous police officers were typically overseen by at least one white officer. Indigenous Australians were often used as trackers back in the day of settlement. They were employed off of the communities they were in as a result of dispossession following Australia's settlement. The next still in the second video mentions a Mrs. Skillen, Kate's sister. That seemed like a strange way of describing a Kelly sibling. I did a little digging and it seems that Margaret Skillian was Ned, Dan and Kate's sister. Red and Ellen Kelly are both their parents, so it's still dead as a weird qualifier to me that this woman was Kate's sister and not just another Kelly sibling. Anyway, Kate's sister leads the police away by pretending to have supplies for the gang. Then Mrs. Byrne, Joe's mother hears that Aaron Sherritt has betrayed the gang to the police. Sherritt was a childhood friend of Joe and at one time wished to join the Kelly gang, which he was talked out of by Ned and Joe. Maybe this was revenge for not being allowed in the Kelly Club. Others say he was working as a double agent trying to learn what the police knew so we could help the Kelly's do crime better. Kate and Kate's sister hear about Sherritt's informantness and decide to warn Ned. They are chased through the river by a trooper. We get some cool clips of them epically evading them and horseback. Joe learns of Aaron's betrayal and feels betrayed. He and Dan kidnap Aaron's neighbor and use him as bait to lure Aaron out of his house where he was currently holed up with police, his wife and his mother. Joe shoots the Sherritt but does not shoot the deputies. This scene looks really cool in my head. There's actually this really cool still though where we see the interior of the house. Joe is shooting Aaron as his mother and wife look on in horror. The inside of the house with its horizontal panels going up the walls and vanishing out of frame, look as though they could go on forever. The size of the panels and depth perception of the room make the conflict inside feel so small and petty. Whether or not it was intentional, this is my favorite shot of the film. And all it is is this still of Aaron Sherritt getting blown to bits by his childhood friend. It feels like there's a lot of emotion here and I really wish I could have seen this scene. After that, the police officers in Aaron's house tried to pursue Dan and Joe but they briefly take one of the Sherritt ladies hostage then bugger off. In actuality, Dan and Joe tried to set the house on fire after taking her hostage but said screw it and ran off since it wasn't working. Next scene, the gangs stick up a police station in jewelry because why not? They put on some uniforms and had themselves acquainted with the town by the other police officers. Dan takes out a telegraph pole so the communications will be stopped from going in and out of the town. Then the Kelly start messing with the train tracks with the help of plate layers. The plate layer works on train tracks for anyone who, like me, didn't know what the word meant. The Kelly gang hoped to derail the train carrying police reinforcements. They take the plate layers back to Glen Rowan Hotel where the other patrons, the Kelly team, took hostage talk about the incoming train derailment. Kono, a school master, tells the gang that the station master has a gun. A fight ensues and Kono is able to escape and warn the police. The Kelly start having a few beers with the prisoners when the police rock up it. It started blasting. Despite the presence of innocent civilians, one of them being the son of Ann Jones, the hotel owner. Wait a second. This is the same material as Sherrod's house. Charles, take you absolute hack. Then all of a sudden Steppenwolf shows up in his sky being to kill the Amazonians. Man, this footage is warped. This could have probably been some of the footage found in random rubbish tips that was salvaged to put this film back together. Then the intertidal spoils Joe's death. We can see a little bit of it. Civilians in their line of fire, the police don't care. I am actually genuinely concerned for the safety of these actors. A random priest named Father Gibney comes out and says, hey, don't. The cops ignore him. Gibney goes into their line of fire, but with Jesus on his side, he avoids every bullet. The cops decide to set fire to the building, which in the second video turns the screen red. So this is what fires look like back in 1906. Steve and Dan decide to shoot each other rather than live out the rest of their lives in this nightmare red world. Wait, where's Ned? Father Gibney defies the Max Payne blood filter to save a plate layer from a certain agitation from looking at too much red. Ned escapes but comes back looking for his buddies thinking they're still alive, lol. Of course, he wears the epic metal-plated armor we all think of when we hear the name Ned Kelly. He kind of looks uncomfortable in it and probably shouldn't be dual-wielding when he can barely aim with one gun, but this looks cooler so I don't care. Ned is then attacked by a death grip's music video. He drives back some of the police officers, but remembers he has legs and they get shot to hell. He falls to a tree stump and is surrounded by police officers who disarm him and take off the armor. They then take him into custody. So falls Ned Kelly. After this, he gets treated for his wounds, then is charged for his crimes. He says some words about life or something and then gets hanged in the old Melbourne jail. Good fun. You know, I really enjoyed looking at this. There's a lot to take from this in terms of staging, camera and narrative methods that still get used today. The inciting incident involving the main character, intervening in something that doesn't directly concern them and having to face the consequences of that. The three act structure, which I think goes from Fitzpatrick to Stringybark, young husbands to the Sherrod incident, then Glenn Rowan as the final act. Using authority as the villain, the romanticism of the outlaw against the corrupt government forces that would become a staple of westerns and anti-heroes stories in Hollywood from the 1920s onward. The story of the Kelly Yang is absolutely flawed, but mostly in terms of its presentation. It feels unfair to criticise the story since there is so much missing it's difficult to judge what's well written. All in all, I think it's more about the experience in the history rather than the film itself. I'd recommend giving it a watch, putting some Scott Joplin or the Red Dead soundtrack, watch it with a friend and have a few drinks. It's an impressive piece for something that was made in the rigidage of Greensboro in a matter of six months. Regardless, these 20 minutes, including the warped footage, still frames, dipping frame rate, all of it is better than the entire hour and 40 minutes of Toy Story 4. Thank you all so much for watching. This is part one of a series on a selection of Australian films that I'll be analysing casually for the purpose of exposing myself and others to more Australian films. If you're interested, I have a long form review of Toy Story 4 that's also on my channel. Leave a comment if you want any and all feedback, positive or negative is appreciated. I also have some music and memes on my channel that I like, I think they're pretty cool. Remember to water that houseplant you forgot about on your land room table. I may be projecting a bit for that one. Subscribe to Eagle Alanic and have a happy holidays or else.