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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An essential film about the hidden casualties of war.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Breaker Morant [1980] [DVD] (DVD)
Utterly convincing performance from Edward Woodward as the vengeful Australian soldier Lieutenant Harry Morant in this gripping and tragic film based on real events during the Boer War (from the book 'Scapegoats of the Empire'). With the British Empire losing its bitter fight with the Boer guerillas, Morant's Bushveldt Carbineers have to adopt the same ruthless mobile tactics. When Morant's commanding officer is captured and mutilated by the Boers, he carries out a reprisal attack and summarily executes the prisoners. The story unfolds through flashback as Morant and two co-accused face court marshall, but it soon becomes clear that they are merely scapegoats as Britain and Germany horse trade over the fate of their African colonies. Jack Thompson gives an award-winning portrayal of the dogged Aussie defence lawyer. In the gripping courtroom scenes, Thompson embodies moral outrage at British military hypocrisy. But although Morant's defence is that his troops had always been following unwritten orders to take no prisoners, the film doesn't gloss over the 'innocent' men's culpability for carrying out cold-blooded executions under 'Rule .303'. Scenes in the veldt are breathtakingly photographed, and the courtroom exchanges crackle with anger. But it's the searching relationship between Thompson and his client that give this film a moral complexity that avoids mere anti-imperialist platitudes. The film makes palpable the contempt of the British commanders' for their colonial inferiors and the cynicism towards the rank and file that would soon be re-enacted on a colossal scale in the killing fields of Flanders.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The universal quest for justice,
By Stephen A. Haines (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Breakre Morant [DVD] [1979] [US Import] (DVD)
There are so many positive facets to this film it's difficult to know where to begin. The historical basis of this film, if modified for screen presentation, is incontestable. The Breaker was an Englishman who emigrated to Australia. He was a known, if not celebrated, poet as well as a horse breaker. Like Peter Handcock, Harry Morant went into the army as much for a square meal as for any patriotic motives. The Boer War was distant and dubious for any meaningful values.Edward Woodward, sheathed in a corset for this film, is a dubious figure as a horse breaker, but displays a superb vehemence in his desire for vengeance for the mutilation of his friend. He recites The Breaker's poetry with sincere feeling and his final lines were delivered with the strength Morant displayed throughout his life. Morant's throwaway line to George Witton as the latter's being led off to prison that the trio were 'scapegoats of empire' became the title of Witton's account of the episode. Bryan Brown's portrayal of Handcock is almost certainly speculative, but he carries off the attitude of a loyal subordinate with style. The Bushveldt Carbiniers were a novel organization [the British introduced the concentration camp in South Africa as well as this irregular cavalry force], and Brown conveys the insecurity this force must have felt in operating in hostile territory. It is Jack Thompson who deserves the highest accolades for a performance in this movie. How this country solicitor really performed in the courtroom is immaterial [although Witton's book gives Thomas' full praise for his efforts to clear the officers]. Thompson renders superbly the role of a man striving for justice against a clearly stacked deck. This film may be about the Boer War, but that's wholly immaterial - it's a universal issue. Massive organizational power rendered against hapless individuals covers all levels of life, from military to corporate. Breaker Morant offers a multitude of lessons for anyone questing for justice. The Breaker's fate was a setback in that quest, but his story, superbly told to a world more willing to investigate such incidents for truth. Please view this film, have a think, then buy it and pass it to a friend. Then do the same with GALLIPOLI. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great courtroom drama about the Scapegoats of the Empire,
By Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)
This review is from: Breaker Morant [1980] [DVD] (DVD)
"Breaker Morant" is best military courtroom drama available on videotape and not just because it is based on a true story. Unlike "The Caine Mutiny" or "A Few Good Men," the trial takes up most of the film, with events depicted in flashbacks. Also, the defendants are innocent of (most of) the charges against them. Harry "Breaker" Morant (played by a still unknown Edward Woodward years before "The Equalizer") led a group of Australian horse soldiers who had to deal with guerillas during the Boer War. Because the British government wishes to negotiate a peace, Morant and two of his officers are charged with various violations of military law the most important being the execution of Boer prisoners. Leaving nothing to chance, the British command gives the defendants an Australian lawyer to defend them who has never been in a courtroom; however, the man is inexperienced, he is not stupid. It is clear to everyone that the trial is a sham. This is why "Breaker Morant" has more in common with "Gallipoli," another Australian film about British disdain for their subjects from that colony continent. "Breaker Morant" was directed by Bruce Beresford, who along with Jonathan Hardy and David Stevens was nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium for adapting Kenneth G. Ross' stage play. This movie also had one of the best trailers I have ever seen and it is impossible to forget Woodward's voice declaring, "We were out on the veldt fighting the Boer the way the Boer fought us." Bryan Brown plays one of the other defendants, but this is Woodward's film even when he is reduced to doing nothing more than sitting in his chair and letting the farce plays itself out to the end (Do not ask me to explain why it was Thompson and not Woodward who won the Australian Film Institute's award for Best Actor in a Drama that year). The conclusion of the film is simple yet powerful: we watch the final scene listening to the last poem written by Morant and then Woodward singing a British military song that hammers home the irony of the film.
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