The Legend of Ben Hall

If I knew about The Legend of Ben Hall last year then I would of seen it in the cinemas. I found out about this awesome film in a class at film school after being tasked with researching it, I found that I was in need of getting this film for myself. Recently I found it at DVD store so I brought it and watched it. My opinion of the film; that it's a great Aussie Film. The acting, costuming, props, and everything about it was amazing. The lengths that Matthew Holmes went to keep it historically accurate amazed me. Many films can say they are accurate but in most cases they are betrayed in a fictional and story driven way. However this isn't the case here. When I finished watching it, I had to have a moment to take in the visuals. Because they are amazing. I was very much liked them to a point where I went and watched the special features to find out how they made it. The film is something that audiences love out Hollywood Westerns. It capabilities that essences but it isn't necessarily fictional. It actually happened.The drama That Ben Hall comes from historians that consulted with Matthew Holmes on the script. Because Great Aussie Films sometimes aren't seen by Australians. This film, I feel is a must see for any who loves Australians films, History of Australia and just good Australian Westerns. Sometime great Aussie flicks aren't seen at all. This one is a must to track down and get. 9 out 10, worth every dime.

Getting right into my movie/art criteria: Do I believe the characters? Yes! Right down to the supporting cast and minor characters -- I can't think of one I thought was acting a part in a movie. Do I care about the characters? 100% -- absolutely. Do I believe the story? Without a doubt. So believable, I felt I was watching a documentary, that I was secretly following Ben Hall's bushrangers around, from the comfort & safety of my modern home. Do I care about the story? Yes! I was sad that the movie ended. I wanted to keep following the gang around -- I wanted to see even more, but the story ended; there was no more to be seen. The Lengend of Ben Hall has joined my group of favorite outlaw movies, along with Unforgiven, American Gangster, and Josey Wales. The difference between Ben Hall and those others, beyond the obvious change of scene is, it evokes a different feeling. The classic outlaw pics have a decidedly familiar feel and context. As such they are not too much of a stretch for the emotions. With Ben Hall, the people, the landscapes, the music -- it's all unusual, a bit strange, a bit of a challenge to relate to. Something new and unusual can be a bit unsettling, even daunting. I find it refreshing. Ben Hall is a slow paced film. Scenes and situations have ample time to evolve. I find the slow pace appropriate to the intent of the film. Finally, loved Jack Martin's rendition of an introverted Aussie Bandit -- I look forward to seeing his evolution as an actor.

The amount of ten star reviews for this movie is so laughable. It's obvious they were given by people that were involved or knew somebody that was involved in this movie. You want to know which people? Just click on the names of the reviewers that gave a high rating and you will see that they only reviewed one movie. IMDb should not allow new reviewers to give a ten star review unless they continue reviewing afterwards. The Legend Of Ben Hall is just a mediocre movie. Only the settings like the landscapes were worth seeing. The acting is for sure not great, sometimes just okay but sometimes also bad. The story itself is a so-called true story. Well if that's the case there must have been alot of dumb Australians at that time. Everybody likes to see outlaws robbing banks, getting the money from them is like stealing from an even bigger thief. But these outlaws just rob normal people, and those same normal people just welcome them in their lifes, bars, houses. It's just too ridiculous for words. The action scenes are also very bad, the unlikeliness of outlaws escaping so easely everytime they get cornered is just too stupid for words. Believe me it was really bad. Add on that that the three outlaws look like they came straight out of a choir and don't look anything like dangerous and it's almost laughable. The movie is also extremely long for the story it is. You are litteraly waiting for it to end as fast as possible. I think I checked at least a dozen times to see how long I had to endure this movie even more. And when I read that this movie won some awards in Australia I'm really wondering with what other garbage it was competing. Don't waste your time on this one.

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

I bought two copies of this movie, one for my friend and one for myself and also ordered the collector's edition. Watched the DVD when I arrived at my friends' home, as she has the BIG screen TV, I couldn't wait until I got home to watch it. What can I say!! OMG! I KNEW this film, The Legend of Ben Hall, was going to be awesome! WOW!!! It's FANTASTIC! ALL Australian's should OWN their copy! All the actors were FANTASTIC!! Loved the way Jamie Coffa portrayed John Gilbert! Loved that character! The numerous places where this film was being done were beautiful. It shows the viewer the beauty of this great land of ours. Matthew Holmes, the Director of this film, and his team, made it as authentic as they could. It was so authentic that in a couple of the shoot out scenes, the main characters reloaded their guns during the shoot outs. I have NEVER seen anyone reload their guns/pistols/rifles in ANY movie. I'm sure you have sat and watched a western etc., where there is a shooting scene and they seem to have a bottomless pit of bullets in their weapons! The costumes also were wonderful and definitely for the right period. The makeup was also amazing. Congratulations to EVERYONE who was involved in the making of this GREAT Aussie film! All your special talents shone through it. Do yourself and your family a favour! Go buy YOUR copy of this AMAZING film! You WONT be disappointed!

Dreadful. Sceanery is nice though. Acting was appalling. The movie moved between comic, drama and utter silliness. I like Australian movies but this was a turkey. Costumes okay, script terrible. Actors had really nice teeth...... which is quite odd for the time period. Beards looked realistic, all I could think about was that least a few 'hipsters' were earning a few bucks!

First of all boring, I couldn't cope with the main character or the rest of them. A fearless outlaw who never shot anyone, a cheated husband who hit at one of his best friend's wife, eager for revenge, never actually does it, wanted to go to America, never did something in that direction. At some point I really wanted to hunt him myself. A non hero, a non anything, with my deepest apologies to Australian people if this offends them. I never seen a gun fight where nobody is able to shoot someone, not to kill but only shoot, in my entire life. Well except the end, there apparently nobody missed ...

Don't miss it, saw it last night at the Cinema Paradiso, Ettalong and it was better than all of my expectations. Unreal factual Australian movie. This is history in our backyard and I will be watching it again. So many sad moments, the scenery was breathtaking, just loved it. I was a little perplexed why it didn't cover Ben Hall's early years but hopefully this could be for another movie. I only rated it a nine, this leaves room for improvement which will be hard. It was like watching a history lesson, so beautifully done, I believe this will be an Australian classic in the years to come. At the end of the movie, I loved how details of what became of each main character, this is a great Australian story. Well done and thank you everyone involved with the making of this fine classic, you should be very proud.

I need to state I have NO direct connection to the Production of TLOBH, other than I became aware of it when it was a crowd funded short and have followed its journey from afar, on line, ever since. I remember thinking then that the scale of the story seemed to lend itself better to a feature film, clearly the creative team thought the same and thank god they did, thus comes the tale of Ben Hall (Jack Martin) a father and low level criminal who didn't willingly choose a life of crime. Hall is forced to choose between a life of poverty and one that might provide his family with a decent future. Therein lies the dichotomy for the central character in this engaging study of Australia's first elusive Bushranger. Along with his gang of robbers, a mixed bunch if ever there was one, John Dunn and Johnny Gilbert (Jamie Coffa and William Lee) the unlikely trio force the law enforcement to take action and the hunt for them is on. Will Hall's ever deeper slide into a life of crime push him away from his family forever or can he give them all a new life before it's too late? Criminally ignored by Austrailia's film festival circuit, I find it incredible that this is a feature film that started out from nothing, with very little assistance from the larger bodies of the professional industry down under has not been better supported by the movers and shakers in the industry in Oz. If ever there were a film to praise under such circumstances it would be this one. Matthew Holmes and his team have created a rich and believable world here, full of texture and character of the period that is entirely convincing. The action scenes are tense & gripping while the cast of largely unknowns, hold their own against many of Australians cinema leading contemporaries. The lead performance of Jack Martin is appropriately cold and well measured while Jamie Coffa brings an unusually camp energy to the proceedings which leaves one wondering if wine & women were not the only things his character were into. Holmes gets strong performances from the rest of his cast too - stand outs for me were Callan McAuliffe, whom I genuinely believed was an English actor from his accent and very nicely underplayed. William Lee is appropriately nervy while the man charged with Halls Capture, the Constable who hopes in vein to take Hall alive (The actors name I cannot recall) was extremely natural. Matthew Holmes clearly had a strong vision for his film and he has stamped it in all the right places. The rolling landscapes of New South Wales, not somewhere I am at all familiar with, were brought vividly to life, production design was excellent and the score by Ronnie Minder is something James Horner would have been proud of. In the digital age it is perhaps more feasible to make a feature film than ever before, but still not many people do it and that's because its hard, to make a period film, even more so, a further dilemma, when your hero is really an anti hero and the film is not a traditional good vs evil story, here everything is far more shades of grey, risky, but the film is so much stronger for it. It is right and proper that the film is now getting a decent release and I strongly urge you to support it. Anyone who likes the Western genre is unlikely to be disappointed here and while the film may feel long, the journey of the characters cracks along and the end creeps up on you before you know it. More like this from Australian Cinemas please.

I can recall a UK TV series Ben Hall in the 70's with the very excellent Jon Finch in the lead...it was brooding and atmospheric with great acting...so I was interested to see how this telling of the tale would stack up. In short it far surpassed expectation.I was mesmerised by the sheer spectacle of the cinematography, the sublime acting especially by Jack Martin who reminded me of Danial Day Lewis which is not a bad thing,and a script which only included what was needing saying...And yes, it was brooding, it was atmospheric...with landscape to die for...This is a film the Australian film industry and especially all involved can justly be extremely proud of,it was a "simply outstanding" movie. Australia has made some cracking movies in the past and this stands up there with the best of them. If only Hollywood would / could produce more of this quality movie instead of the constant drivel it churns out with only the occasional gem. I have only ever bothered to review one other movie before that was " INK" by Jamin Winans...another masterpiece and a low budget independent. Nothing else was really worth the effort...Trust me..this movie is well worth watching