La leyenda de Ben Hall

growing up in Ben Hall country really made this movie something special to me . As a child spending days fishing the Dog and Duck lake . Searching for old relics at the site of the Inn .Feeling the spirit of those men while sitting under some aged red river gums knowing those gums would have sheltered the bush rangers .Also having an understanding of the distances they traveled all comes to life as i watched BEN HALL. ON a recent visit to Forbes i was fortunate to meet the cast of Bushrangers it was very brief but great to chat about how they felt portraying the gang .On occasions growing up there i had visited where Hall was shot and Gilbert .As well as there graves .I give full credit to all who made this come to life

This is a true story.

In Australia 1864, Ben Hall (Jack Martin) wants to give up being a Bush-ranger (A bandit), but is convinced by his friend John Gilbert – aka Happy Jack – (Jamie Coffa) to give it one more go to make enough money to go to the United States. John Dunn (William Lee) joins them and together they rob mostly travelers. Ben Hall has unfinished business with his wife Biddy (Joanne Dobbin) who left him and he wants to take his son Henry (Zane Ciarma) away from her. The government is in the process of passing The Felons Apprehension Act which would make Ben, Happy Jack and Dunn OUTLAWS and could be shot on sight by any citizen.

This movie is about the last 9-months of Ben Hall's life. Before that he and his gang robbed at will and then Ben's gang was disbanded and he led a quiet life until John Gilbert came after him to continue the life of crime.

This is a very good western, and some may compare him to Jesse James although all we saw was Ben, Happy Jack and Dunn only robbing travelers and not trains and banks as Jesse James did. Later we did see an attempt to rob a mail coach with a lot of money, but it was not successful. Ben Hall was known all throughout Australia and was known to never have killed a man.

The cinematography was stunning, the dialogues were spot on, the acting by all was very good, and the music was low key, but okay. The shooting scenes were carefully done and were impressive. The movie may be a little too long, but very engaging.

Ben Hall played by Jack Martin seems to have been a reasonable man who wanted no part of killing. He even allowed a lady he was robbing to keep a necklace she wanted badly. Jamie Coffa as John Gilbert aka Happy Jack was a bit of a clown and a loose cannon sometimes. William Lee as John Dunn was simply a good follower and loyal to Ben Hall.

You keep asking what happened to Ben Hall at the end. Ben Hall was betrayed by his good friend Mick Coneley played by Adam Willson and was ambushed by the police Mick's wife Mary (Erica Field) always had a thing for Ben.

At the end of the movie there are statements what happened to all. (7/10)

Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: Yes. Language: Some F-bombs, but not many,.

But these guys were really special.. I don't know how accurate this is, but it looks like they tried at least.. I think the problem is in the script tho.. Should have focused more on Hall and how he managed so many robberies without killing anyone.. That would have been very interesting to me.. This was just a typical Western buddy movie.. Not sure why all the hate.. Certainly wasn't that bad and better than a lot of the tripe these days.. Acting was ok, tho the Happy Guy was a bit annoying.. Cinematography was pretty good I thought.. Flow was decent.. Production quality ok.. Just felt a bit too black and white.. Except for the kids there were zero likable characters and I think that made it a major bummer.. Really just approached it wrong and focused too much on the negative.. Too slice of life for me.. Still, I'd have given it 6 1/2 stars if possible as it's still a passable Western..

The film tries to celebrate this Aussie villain by casting a charismatic demeanor to play Hall in contrast to the personality give to Happy Jack, who was portrayed as a borderline fairy with Napoleon syndrome. The film is a little dry as there was little direction as to what drives the main character after giving up on retribution pretty early on in the film. In short the film had fillers scenes that drove up the run time. In all, this is a period drama with a (true to) life lesson that to every man's downfall is a woman. The cause for the fracture between trusted friends was over a woman. 6 on a ten scale because I can't pull for villain main characters and the movie was too long. Higher than avg due to good acting performances.

When we think of Australian bushrangers it's highly likely that the first name that springs to mind is Ned Kelly.

The armour wearing Irish outlaw that to this day remains one of Australia's most well-known figures has had his fair share of the spotlight when it comes to feature films, documentaries and countless other iterations, so it's about time we are treated to another bushranger fuelled local production and up and coming director Matthew Holmes is here to answer our call.

Based on the true story and inspired by Holmes work on the short film The Last Days of Ben Hall, The Legend of Ben Hall sees us transported to the dangerous and violent lands of a burgeoning Australia in the 1860's were wanted bush bandit Ben Hall and his various band of fellow trouble makers are hunted through the thick surrounds of the bush as they try and secure themselves fortune by various robberies, hold-ups and other dastardly deeds.

I for one must admit to not knowing about Ben Hall and his tribulations as an outlaw of the local lands but Holmes captures the time and place in our history fantastically to give us a first-hand insight into the later life of this everyday man turned hunted criminal.

The film looks great, filmed with a steady hand and a keen eye; there really aren't many local productions that feel this polished. From gun fights, hand to hand brawls, through to simply capturing the rugged natural wilds of a yet to be civilised Australia, Holmes and his production team have nailed the setting completely but Legend's failure to connect us emotionally to Hall, some disappointing acting and a runtime that needed some extra trimming all hold the film back from becoming the truly great experience it could've been.

While he certainly looks the part, in the lead role of Hall, actor Jack Martin struggles to convey the necessary range we needed to invest ourselves into Hall as our central figure and he remains a somewhat mysterious figure throughout, as we're never shown his early beginnings or real reasoning behind becoming the figure he became and while the man never took a life as far as we know, it doesn't exactly make him a likable persona.

The other notable downfall of this otherwise cut-above local production is the supporting turn of Jamie Coffa as Hall's outlaw sidekick John Gilbert. Coffa's turn is at times nigh on unbearable as his Gilbert cackles and crazies his way through various scenarios and it feels like a turn dialled up to 11, when it needed to be dialled quite a ways back and while it's nice when actors try and liven up dramatic proceedings, Coffa's turn feels way out of place here.

The Legend of Ben Hall shines a light on a little known piece of Australian history and showcases Holmes often impressive skill as a director, that should make local and international audiences excited for his next outing, the horror tinged Territorial, that hopefully will be finding its way into cinemas sometime in the near future.

Not always on the mark and frustrating in some of its execution, particularly within its performances, The Legend of Ben Hall is however a finely put together independent local production that deserves a larger audience on home video formats than it was afforded in a brief cinematic run towards the end of last year.

3 trigger happy officers of the law out of 5