marți, 26 februarie 2019

Breaker Morant, based on the play by Kenneth Ross - 10 out of 10


Breaker Morant, based on the play by Kenneth Ross
10 out of 10


Breaker Morant is one of the best motions pictures ever written, even if there is a very small chance that you have heard about it – well, there is an infinitesimal chance that you read this anyway.

It has won the Best Supporting Actor and was nominated for the most important cinematic prize, the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival of 1980, with two other prestigious nominations on the list:
Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium and the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film.

One astounding aspect of this drama is the complexity of the characters, for it is hard – maybe impossible – to find personages that cover almost all the range from hero to the other extreme, of monstrous killers.
Furthermore, there is not just one man who has all this under the same skin, but two, out of the three charged with murder and court martialed during the Boer War by the British Army.

Edward Woodward is phenomenal in the title role of Lieutenant Harry Harbord ‘Breaker’ Morant and the same is true about the other members of the cast:
Jack Thomson, winner of the Cannes Festival Award, as Major J.F. Thomas, Bryan Brown as Lieutenant Peter Handcock and all the other wondrous actors.

Three Australians are charged with murder and the accusation is gruesome considering that the crimes they are supposed to have committed refer to executing helpless prisoners.
This is as despicable as a crime could be and the extraordinary thing is that the men appear from the start of the trial to admit to this and thus make the rest of the feature seem pointless on the surface.

This would be just looking at the surface, albeit it has been stated from the start that this constitutes one of the main attractions of the motion picture, the fact that the protagonists are at the same time monstrous – except perhaps for the youngest of them – and at the same time victims, scape goats and pieces of a puzzle which the British commanders manipulate and sacrifice of their chess board to end a war that is unwinnable.

As we learn about the circumstances of the fighting, we see that the heroes that are also antiheroes have received orders from their superiors to the effect that they are to take no prisoners and all the captives are to be shot and killed, albeit the audience must be thinking that heinous orders must be disobeyed, constituting what we would call today crimes against humanity.
The situation is more complicated, for as Breaker Morant explains at times, they are fighting a guerilla war, wherein their opponents use men, women and children, without respecting any rules and making us think of the IS and other terrorist organizations that are ruthless, albeit consulting historical books we would surely find many differences – this is where on Bill Maher joke comes to mind…

“Islam is a religion of peace…there is a piece of you here…a piece of you there…”

The trial seems to be – and perhaps would end up as it looked from the start – a kangaroo trial, for the army leaders state in private that they want to finish the war and the execution of the three would send a message that they punish their own and the two parties can negotiate in a better climate, as a result of this human sacrifice.
However, the defendants that are in the beginning destined to be murdered have an unexpected luck when the man selected to defend them proves to be a formidable fighter, in spite of his total lack of experience, for he had never been to court for a case and worked on land titles.

Major Thomas puts such a formidable defense that he has a tremendous impact – albeit he may not be able to change the fate of the trial – that he calls the general commanding the troops, to the outrage of the officer in charge of the proceedings, who has to give in though, when the rights of the defendants are read from the manual that dictates the proceedings.
Nevertheless, the general does not show up in court and sends a subordinate with the mission to deny that they gave orders for the Boers to be shot when taken prisoners, even the opposite is true.
The film is marvelous in that it has fighting – even as they are in jail, the rebellious Boers attack and the prisoners defend with courage and brilliance and their counselor indicates that according to tradition this must be pardoned for their acts of valor, only to be refused by the puppet court – a splendid court drama, combined with a spectacular psychological and historical side.

Peter Handcock has killed, among others, a German priest who has travelled though their camp and talked to Boer prisoners who in their turn are executed, albeit Germany was not a part in that conflict – yes, they were supportive of the rebels and with hindsight, we know that they would engage the British in two World Wars, but the situation is as complex, intriguing, thought provoking as it is possible.
At one point, it is suggested – and this can be a description of the drama in just a few words – that the firing squad should be brought in for trial and when the defense demands that, the court retorts that they were only following orders…

Yes, but this is what the accused have done…executing the orders given by the High Command…

Breaker Morant is for many good reasons – and it is on my Best 100 list – on the New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made List:

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