Rating: 
Summary: A great courtroom drama about the Scapegoats of the Empire
Review: "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.
Rating: 
Summary: Powerful Movie, but . . .
Review: "Breaker Morant" viewed without context is undoubtedly a very fine, exciting, and well acted film.
However, I found myself troubled by two different things after watching it.
One is the way that Morant was depicted. I find myself wondering if the real Breaker actually behaved the way that he did in the trial. Because the truth is that came across, particularly with the "Rule .303 Speech," as being extremely arrogant and self-righteous. Even a casual review of great criminal trials will show that defendants who act that way usually wind up paying for it, right or wrong.
The second point is the lynchpin of the three Australians' defense: that they were only following Lord Kitchener's orders when they shot the Boer prisoners. Morant and his adherents claimed this was a verbal order from Kitchener to Morant's friend, the captain that we see getting wounded and captured (and subsequently tortured and murdered by the Boers) at the beginning of the film.
I would like to know the opinion of an expert on Lord Kitchener and the British military of that time about the plausibility of such a high-ranking figure giving such an extraordinary order to a mere captain. From my own experience as a captain in the American Army (mostly during the 1990s) this seems wildly unlikely (I think I spoke to four star commanders on one occasion in all of five years and that was pretty much an exchange of banalities). Overall, I find myself wondering if Morant and company used the death of their commander as an opportunity to create an "I was only following orders" defense, as opposed to a vendetta.
I guess we'll never know.
Rating:
Summary: Right or wrong?
Review: 60 years before its involvement in Vietnam, Australia's soldiers were at the forefront of issues about mistreating and shooting prisoners. The question at the centre of Beresford's film is the old Nuremburg war crimes trial excuse: what if the atrocity you perpetrated was ordered by your superiors - is it defensible? Much more than a film that questions obeying orders that require you to commit atrocities, this movie also examines the relationship between Australia, a newly independent nation at the turn of the century, and Britain. Australian troops, recruited from what were then British colonies, went to fight a British war against Boer farmers in South Africa. The courtroom saga of Breaker Morant centres around the animosity between the Australians and their British commanders. Clearly, Beresford is suggesting that the Australians were duped by the British to commit war crimes, only to fall victim to diplomatic moves between the British and the pro-Boer Germans at the war's end. Once again, this is a fine period drama that is one of the great achievements of Australian cinema's new wave of the 1970s. Beautifully shot and brilliantly acted, watch out for a young Bryan Brown and excellent performances by Jack Thompson and Lewis FitzGerald as well as a standout portrayal of The Breaker by Edward Woodward.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best Australian films every made
Review: A subtle masterwork by Australian film maker Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy), BREAKER MORANT tells the true story (with some historical liberties) of three Australian soldiers put on trial for shooting prisoners during the Boer War in South Africa. The trial revolves around Cpt. Harry Morant (Edward Woodward in a fantastic performance), a soldier and poet who claimed his shooting of Boer prisoners was done under orders from above. It is both a court room drama and a story of the role of ethics in war. Told through the trial with flash backs to the past, Beresford never looses sight of the very human story he is telling. BREAKER MORANT is a jewel of a movie.
Rating:
Summary: Rule 303 indeed
Review: A very powerful film, which richly deserves the praise it has accumulated over the years.
Beresford certainly shone in this, one of this finest moments, and the cast, especially Woodward, Brown and Thompson were just superb.
I read the Kit Denton book Case Closed many years ago, and the movie appears to be partly based on that. Information seems to have come to light after the event, such as Kitchener's diaries confirming the order to shoot 'enemies' wearing British uniforms in any form, and the evaluation of Morant's 'psychotic' character by some of his fellow troopers. However, it doen't really change the central issue of putting soldiers on trial for political reasons, while the gin-swilling politicians continue to mess things up from thousands of miles away.
The British made such a hash of the Boer War(s) that it is no surprise that two thirds of their war dead died from disease rather than enemy action. Likewise the thousands of Boer women and children who died in the British concentration camps (the Brits invented them to 'concentrate' the prisoners into a manageable environment) only died due to administrative incompetence, not through any attempt to harm them.
It was against this background that an Aussie BVC patrol were put on trial for summarily executing Boer prisoners, whom some claim were coming in to surrender. Yet there is so much that we can never really know in this case, as so much of what was believed to be evidence has been contradicted, such as whether one of the Boers had really been wearing a dead British officer's (Morant's friend) army pants.
Was Morant a 'killer'? If he was, then so was Kitchener. Perhaps the main difference was that some people kill with a stroke of a pen and others with a 303 rifle.
As with the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, there has to be accountability in war. No question. But it is also inappropriate to place a bunch of young men in harm's way, in an asymmetrical warfare situation, and expect them to be immune to provocation and imminent physical danger, and to react calmly and rationally in every case.
It clearly was a politically-motivated show trial and the men should never have been executed, even if a trial had actually been warranted. I'm not anti-British, I grew up in the UK, I'm just anti British stupidity.
Rating:
Summary: How 'bout the music?
Review: After scanning every one of these reviews I can't believe nobody has mentioned the musical score. Besides being a great film, the music is haunting and one of those tunes you will find yourself humming for the next week or two.
Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended
Review: Along with Kubrick's Paths of Glory, this film ranks tops among its genre. During the Boer wars in Austrailia, Morant and his associates are prisoners to be executed for something stupid. While in custody, the Boers attack and Morant and his men are given rifles and fight valiently to stave off the attack. What does this act of bravery earn them! The answer is a big resounding nothing. Like the previously mentioned movie, it shows you how egos in the military get in the way of justice! Great acting and directing along with a story that is compelling to the last scene!
Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended
Review: Along with Kubrick's Paths of Glory, this film ranks tops among its genre. During the Boer wars in Austrailia, Morant and his associates are prisoners to be executed for something stupid. While in custody, the Boers attack and Morant and his men are given rifles and fight valiently to stave off the attack. What does this act of bravery earn them! The answer is a big resounding nothing. Like the previously mentioned movie, it shows you how egos in the military get in the way of justice! Great acting and directing along with a story that is compelling to the last scene!
Rating:
Summary: Compelling historical drama
Review: Harry `Breaker` Morant, was an immigrant Australian who served in the Boer war (1900-1903), where Dutch/German Boers wanted independence from England. This was intolerable to the British Empire at the time and Lord Kitchener despatched the army to put down this `revolt'. Empire troops were drafted in to help, among them Australians from the new nation. The Boers were waging early guerrilla-style warfare, picking off English troops before melting away and Britain was steadily losing the war. Lord Kitchener decided to engage troops of the Australian `Bushveldt Carbineers', among them Harry `Breaker' Morant, his superior officer and future brother in law Captain Hunt, as well as fellow soldiers Handcock and Witton to adopt the same guerrilla tactics. Although they (somewhat conveniently) received no written orders, it was `made patently clear' they were to take no prisoners, and to shoot anyone wearing stolen British uniform. After their well-liked Captain hunt was captured after an ambush and his body later found horribly mutilated, Morant and others found the perpetrators and vowing vengeance, carried out their orders. Several of the Boer soldiers were subsequently executed along with a collaborating German missionary. With Germany possibly about to enter the war, Britain needed heads on a plate and three `expendable colonials' were found who fitted the bill. The compelling courtroom drama shows how the defendants (innocent or otherwise) were manoeuvred towards a guilty verdict for political expediency and are mere pawns in a far greater drama. In an age where failure to obey any orders, written or otherwise, in the British army was mutiny punishable by firing squad, our three defendants are damned if they do carry out orders and damned if they don't. A compelling look at the often blurry nature of war, it's hardening effect on human attitudes and how power sometimes corrupts justice. Whether guilty or not, these men still deserved a fair trial and this powerful film conveys that well.
Rating: 
Summary: "Breaker" Morant, Outstanding Examplar of "Australian" Wave
Review: I remember seeing this riveting film with my father in Westbury, LI, roughly after the period (due to shifting economics) cinemas became duplex. True, "Breaker Morant" is a smaller-scale film in one sense, but it is much greater than many of "epic" dimensions. The performances are uniformly (no pun intended) outstanding, Mr. Beresford's direction so skillfull it is arguably the finest filmed adaptation of a stage play I've ever seen. (In fact, in my first lapse of critical acuity, I didn't discover this until long afterwards!) The films begins as a fact-based courtroom drama yet ends with a truly rare, poignant (not mawkish) poeticism. The script is fully realized: for example, it shows the title character as a refined, cultured man of the world. Late in the story, when in prison and offered the opportunity to escape, a visitor says: "You can see the world." So powerful is the portrayal of Morant, his devastatingly simple reply was interpreted prima facie by my accursed literal mind! (Hence, my second, and more serious critical lapse.) Australia should be proud of this contribution to world cinema, for it is a great, rara avis: a memorable film.
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