Australia’s fascination for its most notorious bushranger shows no sign of fading. But the Kelly Gang in frocks? That'll test all our assumptions | GoodWeekendMag
. In the painting, Hart, rocking a floral dress and dainty boots, sits side-saddle, eyeing the viewer unflinchingly, a hand on his steed, another cupping the reins. Nolan had read, and was inspired by, J.J. Kenneally’s influential 1929 book, which mentions that Hart “frequently rode about in feminine attire”.
Everyone is watching small screens that reveal the action as it is filmed about 20 metres from us, inside one of Mintaro’s timber outbuildings. We have headphones on to hear the dialogue. Kurzel quietly coaxes his young Kelly Gang charges: “Then have little giggle fits.” One of the gang repeats his line about a “massive erection” and it’s the sort of language that seems out of place. More than a year later, when I finally see the film, I realise it’s not.
Earlier, in the catering tent, I’d talked to Sean Keenan, who plays Joe Byrne, about the dresses. “It’s strange when you put on a dress, a long, flowing, lacy dress,” he says, laughing. “There’s a weird feeling of power that comes from it.” Really? “Yeah, because as men we put on our boots, leather belts and hats, and there is armour in that. You are kind of putting on a face. And then to put on a dress and carry it with confidence and go, ‘I can wear this.
These are good points, but I’m not sure Kurzel’s film makes us question why we have become a nation of Nedophiles. Ultimately, it’s a film based on a book. And when it comes to the question of Kelly as hero or villain – a debate that raged even when he was alive – Carey’s book uses the hero template. Only at the end of the book does Carey have Thomas Curnow – the crippled school teacher who, in real life, heroically alerted police to Kelly’s plot to derail their train – question the myth.
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