Breaker Morant [1980] [DVD]

Before coming to America to make such acclaimed films as Tender Mercies and Driving Miss Daisy, Australian director Bruce Beresford made a lasting impression with this compelling courtroom drama, considered one the finest films of the Australian new wave of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Based on a true story about three soldiers in the Boer War who are served up as political scapegoats of the British Empire, the film uses a flashback structure to dramatise the courtroom testimony. It begins when the three Australian soldiers are railroaded for the justified killing of a German missionary and placed on trial for court-martial not as a matter of justice, but to mollify the German government for the sake of political expediency. Burdened with a competent but inexperienced and hopelessly disadvantaged lawyer, the soldiers realise that their fate has been sealed and the outcome of their trial is a fait accompli. Unfolding with urgent precision and a riveting focus on its well-drawn characters, Breaker Morant was the all-time box-office hit in Australia at the time of its release in 1980, and it remains one of the very best historical dramas ever made. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

16:9 Wide Screen
DVD 5
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital English
Dolby Digital
Interactive Menus
Character Biography
Interview With Edward Woodward

The film that brought world acclaim for Edward Woodward, tells the true story of Lieutenant Harry (Breaker) Morant in the Boer war in South Africa, which has deteriorated into a bitter guerilla war. His Australian unit, the Bushveldt Carbineers are ordered by the British High Command to fight the Boers and to "take no prisoners". In revenge over the death and mutilation of his friend during a Boer ambush, Morant's unit captures and then excecutes prisoners - an act which leads to one of the most controversial court-martials in military history.