Movies - 'Breaker' Morant

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	Movies - 'Breaker' Morant

'Breaker' Morant is a 1979 Australian feature film, directed by Bruce Beresford and starring British actor Edward Woodward in the title role. The all-Australian supporting cast features Bryan Brown as Lieutenant Handcock, Lewis FitzGerald as Witton, and Jack Thompson as Major Thomas.

Beresford co-wrote the screenplay with Jonathan Hardy and David Stevens. Although the screen credit is given to Kenneth Ross for his 1978 play as the source material for the adaptation, the screen story also owes a great deal to the novel The Breaker by Kit Denton, first published in 1973, which was inspired by Denton's meeting and conversation with a Boer War veteran who had known Harry 'Breaker' Morant.

The film was produced by Matt Carroll. Although the action is set in South Africa, principal photography took place entirely in Australia.

The film was a top performer at the Australian Film Institute awards, with ten wins. It was also nominated for the 1980 Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay.

Plot Summary

"Breaker Morant" concerns the murder trial of three Australian soldiers, officers of the elite Bushveldt Carbineers in South Africa. Harry "Breaker" Morant, Peter Handcock, and George Witton are accused of the murder of one Boer prisoner, the subsequent murders of six more, and Morant and Handcock are accused of the sniper-style death of a German missionary, the Rev. Hesse. Their defense counsel, Major Thomas, has had only one day to prepare their defense.

Lord Kitchener, who ordered the trial, hopes to bring the Boer War to an end with a peace conference. To that end, he uses the Morant trial to show that he is willing to judge his own soldiers harshly if they disobey the rules of war. Though, as one character mentions, there are great complexities associated with charging active-duty soldiers with murder, Kitchener is determined to have a guilty verdict, and the chief of the court supports him.

The causes and occurrences relating to the trial are developed. Morant's execution of the Boer prisoners was revenge for the mutilation and death of his friend and commanding officer, Captain Hunt. Angered by the incident, Morant led an attack on a Boer camp. There, they captured a Boer prisoner who was found to be wearing Captain Hunt's khaki jacket. Morant ordered him to be executed, an order immediately followed.

The murder of six Boer prisoners was in much the same fashion; having surrendered, they were captured, which Morant later justifies, saying "You know the orders from Whitehall. If they show a white flag, we don't see it. I didn't see it." Before the execution, Morant notices the German missionary, Rev. Hesse, speaking with the Boer prisoners, who are under guard. Morant, furious, is convinced that Hesse is a spy, though he has no proof. A conversation with Handcock leads to the latter taking a rifle and horse and following the missionary, who is found shot the next morning.

During the trial the court's bias toward a guilty verdict becomes apparent, as well as the political machinations behind it. The focus is on whether or not orders were issued by Kitchener to shoot all Boer prisoners; Major Thomas' case is that there were standing, though unwritten, orders to do so. Since these were verbally relayed to Captain Hunt, and by Captain Hunt to Morant, there is no way to prove that the orders existed.

Ironically, it develops that while Morant acted under orders by shooting the prisoners, he and Handcock were in fact responsible for the murder of Hesse. Handcock, who took care to obtain an alibi from two "ladyfriends," admits to Witton that he actually followed Hesse and shot him. However, the court acquits them of the murder of Hesse, but finds them guilty of the other two charges.

Kitchener is conveniently absent from the area and not available for reprieves, though he does commute Witton's sentence to life imprisonment before leaving. Morant and Handcock are shot in the morning as Witton is taken to the prison transport.

A summary appears at the end of the movie, stating what happens to some of the characters. Major Thomas returned to his native Australia and continued his law practice, which was otherwise confined to estate planning and wills. Witton served three years of his sentence but was released after a national outcry, and wrote a book entitled "Scapegoats of the Empire," an account of the Breaker Morant affair. This proved so inflammatory that it was suppressed by the British during the World Wars, as it expressed a very anti-British sentiment.

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