A powerful somber mood, mostly disciplined direction, steadfast dialogue and rifle-straight acting. This is no super hero film, right and wrong get blurred and many more people die than need be. Nor does the killing find the certainty of ideal justice.

It's a hard film, with all the integrity of Ned Kelly. While on the back of a horse or the middle of a bank robbery in honor of his unjustly imprisoned mother and friends -- there's a sense of mission. But as the bodies start to line the wake of his gallop, one has to wonder when enough is enough.

Shot in a gritty, dusty washed-out glare, purposely devoid of color, the picture digs itself into the dry rocky countryside. A careful beautiful score senses the mixed mood, brewing and brooding undercurrent of the script and orchestrates respectively. Heath Ledger nails his role as an 1870's Australian renegade: tough as leather, but young, perhaps a tad too ready to fight, but a sense of dignity, honor, wrapped with an on again off again respect for life. Whether or not this film accurately depicts the real life legend of Ned Kelly -- I don't have the background to know.

The production is always engaging, always compelling, but to what end? What happens in Australia after Ned Kelly and his band make their mark? The film doesn't say. Not a strong B+, but a B+ nonetheless.