Breaker Morant

One of a crop of impressive films to arrive from Australia in the late 1970s and early 1980s, BREAKER MORANT marked Bruce Beresford as a director to watch. Based on a play by Kenneth G. Ross, the film is a tersely dramatic account of the true story of the court-martial of three soldiers attached to the Bushveld Carbineers, a guerrilla warfare unit of the British army that operated during the Boer War (1899-1902). Edward Woodward stars as Lt. Harry "Breaker" Morant, the primus inter pares of this trio that includes Lt. Peter Handcock (Bryan Brown) and Lt. George Witton (Lewis Fitzgerald). Attorney Major J.F. Thomas (Jack Thompson) is given only one day to mount a defense of the officers, who have been charged with the death of Boer prisoners and a German minister. Weaving flashbacks into the trial proceedings, Beresford tells the story of the controversial killing, an act of revenge against the Boers for having killed and mutilated a close friend of Morant's. While the young Witton fears for his life, Morant and Handcock display only a caustically witty stoicism as they await the trial's outcome. Superbly executed in every area, the film is a memorable evocation of the hypocrisy of empire.

Cast:

"...Genuinely, surprisingly affecting..." -- Janet Maslin , (New York Times)

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