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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