A better film than it's more famous Hollywood-produced cousin "Ned Kelly", and starting life as a crowd-funded short film, Jack Martin plays the titular anti-hero Ben Hall, who terrorised all comers in my home state of NSW, particularly around Jugiong and Forbes in the 1860's. The scenery is spectacular, even though Victorian locations (shock, horror!) stand in for NSW, and used sets from another of my all-time favourites, The Man from Snowy River to create that Australian countryside feel.
By all accounts, the film is about as historically accurate as one can be, with some of the dialogue coming from newspaper articles and eyewitness accounts. Impressive attention to detail from the filmmakers.
Bushrangers were a big part of Australian history - nice to see a homegrown film about someone other than old Ned. Sadly, without the backing of a Hollywood studio, few of my countrymen will see it.
