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Why make a film about Ned Kelly? More ingenious crime than those committed by the reckless Australian bandit are reported every day. What is there in Ned Kelly to justify dragging the mesmeric Mick Jagger so far into the Australian bush and away from his natural haunts? The answer is that the film makers know we always fall for a bandit, and Jagger is set to do for bold Ned Kelly what Brando once did for the arrogant Emiliano Zapata.

The bandit inhabits a special realm of legend where his deeds are embroidered by others; where his death rather than his life is considered beyond belief; where the men who bring him to“justice” are afflicted with doubts about their role.

The bandits had a role to play as definite as that of the authorities who condemned them. These were men in conflict with authority, and, in the absence of strong law or the idea of loyal opposition, they took to the hills. Even there, however, many of them obeyed certain unwritten rules.

There robbers, who claimed to be something more than mere thieves, had in common, firstly, a sense of loyalty and identity with the peasants they came from. They didn’t steal the peasant’s harvest; they did steal the lord’s.

And certain characteristics seem to apply to “social bandits” whether they were in Sicily or Peru. They were generally young men under the age of marriage, predictably the best age for dissidence. Some were simply the surplus male population who had to look for another source of income; others were runway serfs or ex-soldiers; a minority, though the most interesting, were outstanding men who were unwilling to accept the meek and passive role of peasant.

They usually operated in bands between ten and twenty strong and relied for survival on difficult terrain and bad transport. And bandits proposed best where authority was merely local —over the next hill and they were free. Unlike the general run of peasantry they had a taste for flamboyant dress and gesture; but they usually shared the peasants’ religious beliefs and superstitions.

The first sign of a man caught up in the Robin Hood syndrome was when he started out, forced into outlawry as a victim of injustice; and when he then set out to “right wrongs”, first his own and then other people’s. The classic bandit then “take from the rich and gives to the poor” in conformity with his own sense of social justice; he never kills except in self-defense or justifiable place; his people admire and help to protect him; he dies through the treason of one of them; he behaves as of invisible and invulnerable; he is a “loyalist”, never the enemy of the king but only of the local oppressors.

None of the bandits lived up fully to this image of the “noble robber” and for many the claim of larger motives was often a delusion.

Yet amazingly, many of these violent men did behave at least half the time in accordance with this idealist pattern. Pancho Villa in Mexico and Salvatore Giuliano in Italy began their careers harshly victimized. Many of their charitable acts later became legends.

The bandit in the real world is rooted in peasant society and when its simple agricultural system is left behind so is he. But the tales and legends, the books and films continue to appear for an audience that is neither peasant nor bandit. In some ways the characters and deeds of the great bandits could so readily be the stuff of grand opera — Don Jose on “Carmen” is based on the Andalusian bandit El Empranillo. But they are perhaps more at home in folk songs, in popular tales and the ritual dramas of films. When we sit in the darkness of the cinema to watch the bold deeds of Ned Kelly we are caught up in admiration for their strong individuality, their simple gesture of protest, their passion for justice and their confidence that they cannot be beaten. This sustains us nearly as much as it did the almost hopeless people from whom they sprang.

1．Which of the following words is NOT intended to suggest approval of bandits?

A．Bold (Para. 1).

B．Claimed (Para. 4).

C．Legend (Para. 2).

D．Loyalty (Para. 4).

2．Of the following reasons which is the LEAST likely one for becoming bandits?

A．They liked theatrical clothes and behavior.

B．They wanted to help the poor country folk.

C．They were unwilling to accept injustice.

D．They had very few careers open to them.

3．“…began their careers harshly victimized” (Par. 9) means that they _____.

A．had received excessive ill-treatment

B．were severely punished for their crimes

C．took to violence through a sense of injustice

D．were misunderstood by their parents and friends

4．What has made bandits suitable as film heroes is that they_____.

A．are sure they are invincible

B．possess a theatrical quality

C．retain the virtues of a peasant society

D．protest against injustice and inequality