User reviews

The Kelly family have carved out a little piece of paradise in the old Australia where their father has created a cattle ranch and brought up a loving family. Then the Great War breaks out and the two eldest brothers, Billy and Jack, sign up together with their rambustious cousin Paddy.

We also have the antics that take place back home, with the opposition to conscription, the fretting of the families and the low dealings of opportunistic bush rangers.

Now I watched this on Amazon Prime Video and thought it would be a time killer, but no it is actually really good for an indie. The WW1 scenes may be lacking in money but they have tried extremely hard to recreate the terrible atmosphere of the war. Purists will not be impressed though. There are some scenes that are a bit of a stretch in that they never could have happened and that has caused some criticism – the hospital for example – but I do not want to spoil the plot.

The acting is very good to 'just OK' but the story is strong enough to make you forgive any shortcomings as this is a film that demands that you go along for the ride and you will enjoy it. I was hooked right till the end so this is one of those films that I can recommend but with the above caveats and I am being glass half full.

I guess it's all about expectations, having watched this film with no high expectations on the quality of acting, script or sets I was very much surprised. I found it a very enjoyable film and gave it a 6/10. The cast acted fine for the script, it was no 'Saving Private Ryan' and I was not expecting a high quality experience when looking at the cast. For me it was well worth a watch and I am glad that I did, well written, great landscapes and the war scenes were realistic enough. If you like war films to be gritty then this has it but also there are two stories going on here which merge well.

Again, my expectations may be low, but at the time of writing/rating this had a score of 6.4, not bad for a low budget offering and I look forward in seeing the cast in future projects.

It's worth the watch especially for Aussies. It so could have been great except for. The copious goofs The unrealistic bits throughout the movie. Other posters here name some but there is way more . And then there is some terrible acting and that brings me to my point "Nepotism killed this movies sucsess."

Although the film seemed to have a slight issue with the flow, I though the historically based story was interesting. I liked the family aspect of the story. The acting had ups and downs, but didn't significantly take away from the film.

Considering the low budget and a cast of unknowns, this film was very good. Several basic goofs have already been noted: the 1914 tank, the unmilitary haircuts and beards, for example. Perhaps the most jarring event was the soldier-deserter being handcuffed to a hospital bed on the eve of his execution, which was carried out immediately outside the hospital.

A frequent gripe (usually relating to Westerns) that I have with depictions of solitary horsemen on long treks through remote country is that apart from a modest saddle roll they seldom have saddle-bags carrying food and other necessities. (Heck, even I on a six-hour walk take a rucksack of bits & pieces with me.)Thus it was with Billy's extended quest for his sister.

Here and there the acting was somewhat uninspired.

IMDB gives the film's length as 94 minutes, but the version that I saw on YouTube ran for 108.

The story had promise but the weak acting and dumb over-exaggeration killed it for me.

I guess it would make good comedy if satire is your thing?

William Kelly's War was a complete surprise. It was launched in cinemas without much fanfare. I wondered why? It had great reviews, a well known producer, a director on his second assignment and a little known cast in a story that had the audience cheering at the end of the movie. The tale of the two heroic brothers with their cousin Paddy really drew me in, I really cared for them as they are sent from battlefront to battlefront whilst their family back home are involved in another war with Bushrangers. The loving close-knit family is very cleverly set up at the front of the movie. The period settings, set design and characters are authentic, the pace perfect. This is a movie that connects with its audience, highly recommended.

Just watched it on Amazon Prime. The person who said it was impossible to group 3 bullets like the 3 in a row shown in the movie. I agree at 1000 yards, it would be tough. The most important thing at that distance is a powerful high quality s one. William wasn't using a scope. It would be super human to even see the center of the target let alone 3 .308" bullet holes at 1000 yards. But great bench test shooters. ( I did it for years) not only shoot a lot... but the larger part of a shooters time is working up cartridge loads for their weapon. Literally you don't just have how much gun powder . But I can think of a dozen or more variables that a loader/shooter would try to consistently get their bullet in the same hole 3 times. Not at 1000 yards, but I had a perpose built 100 yard outdoor range I built at my ranch. I had many weapons but I also had just 2 or 3 special weapons that I worked on to get that bullet to go through the same hole 75 out of 100 times. Or better. So yeah I'm sure. That was a cgi shot. But his shooting was the. Center of this movie for me.

This film whitewashed an Australian-Chinese soldier named Billy Sing. Apparently the filmmaker didn't feel the man suffered enough anti-Chinese racism in 1917, so he rewrote him as strictly Anglo. The battle back home seems to have been invented from whole cloth.

One hour into this movie and my patients has finally ended. Some war scenes but not many. More like a melodrama with mediocre acting. Give it a miss.

The initial clunkiness of the acting and low budget war scenes gave way to a gripping story of the survival of two brothers and their cousin who volunteer from a small fsmily farm in Australia to fight in WW1. The story covers both their war experiences and life at home as the family waits anxiously for news of their boys. Ben Meyers International blew it off as weak.

It is Mr Myer's arrogant and dismissively offhand review which is weak.

He showed his ignorance and raised doubts as to whether he had actually viewed the movie, when he said the brothers were conscripts. A significant part of the home story is about the failed referendum to introduce conscription. The Australian Army in WW1 was 100 per cent volunteer. As it was in WW2.

Magnificent Australian Film. If your interested in Australian History this will become a classic. Gripping story lines, great acting brings this movie of historical facts to life. Set before the Great War, during and after, William Kelly's struggle continues.

1 I like to see independent films give things ago and this is one area where WKW really does succeed. You virtually get 2 movies in one, like an old drive-in double bill. Producer/script editor Phil Avalon has been involved with independent Australian productions, just about what seems like forever. Nice to see he's still up to hanging out his shingle.

2 I don't think I've ever seen a longer cast list in an independent production. The IMDB full cast list is still much abbreviated. The post credits cast list in the film is huge.

3 BTW. Speaking of the cast, was the deserter, shot by the firing squad a female dressed as a male? Didn't really sound like, or even look like a male soldier. Even though it was a speaking part I couldn't see any reference on the IMDB cast list. Also good to see veteran actor Tony Bonner again, playing Mr Kelly. He's been around forever too and will always be remembered for his role as the helicopter pilot in Skippy the Bush Kangaroo.

4 I think the advertised running time of 95 minutes is incorrect. I had it much closer up towards the 2 hour mark.

5 It's no real secret that the movie was primarily shot on a farm in Victoria, so it's a little bizarre that the primary Australian setting was Proserpine in tropical North Queensland, a good 2000 km due north. As a former resident of Proserpine which is a centre for sugar-cane production, I can vouch that at no time in its history did it have cattle stations running over 1000 head of cattle just out of town, complete with gangs of roving, murderous cattle rustlers. Kind of funny to see a lack of tropical vegetation, but heaps of eucalyptus gum trees instead, as well as lots of blokes wandering around in heavy overcoats. Broken Hill looked extremely sodden and green too with plenty of trees in the background. LOL! For the interested unfamiliar viewer with Broken Hill's environs, check out Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. The geography is tellingly different. But again, why choose Proserpine when they could have chosen some place geographically closer to their filming location and it wouldn't have made any difference to the story, except make it seem more realistic?

6 Loved the Aussie guy's accent; the one playing the German torturer. Classic Sgt Schultz stuff! "Vee have vays and means ov making you talk!"

7 It was great to try to film an overview of Billy's participation and experiences of 4 years of fighting during World War 1, on a farm's property. But after about 45 minutes of close-ups, I was getting giddy and have to say, that not all of the action (and there was plenty) made a lot of sense. At least "back in Australia", we got some pulled back shots.

8 Good to see there were some cops finally brought into the story, after all this cattle rustling and murders around dear old Proserpine.

9 Quite honestly I thought the story was pretty silly, but there is plenty of action, one way or the other in William Kelly's War. Phil Avalon comes through again.

One of the best Australian movies I've ever seen. Wonderful story.

This film has the production look of a High School Senior project, and in many places not even that good. After five minutes I couldn't take any more.

Enjoyable Movie, with great Aussie feel. A lot of the shooting scenes with 3 ducks in a row where BS, but who cares.

Loved the fact that they didn't need to use lots of swearing and had the family as what bound the story together.

My Grandfather fought in WWI there have bee very feww movies about WWI, this one didn't help one little bit.

Ironic that most WW movies are based about WWII yet, no one has made a decent movie about WWI, except War Horse, and maybe, Galipoli...

Poor acting, errors designed to perpetuate stereotypes. The least they could have done is given the military proper haircuts.