 | "The barbarities of war are seldom committed by abnormal men. The tragedy of war is that these horrors are committed by normal men in abnormal situations." On trial for their lives, Harry 'The Breaker' Morant and his fellow defendants face being put to death to ‘protect the honour of the British Empire.’ Their defence is summarised by the words above. Their jailers - the representatives of Empire - dismayed at the conditions of war forced upon Woodward and his men by the tactics of Boer guerrillas in this new kind of war, are nonetheless unwilling to accept the necessity of opposing the guerrillas as they must.
As Morant says 'It's a new kind of war .... It's a new war for a new century.' A new century in which one's enemies 'shall be of thine own household.'
For an American audience, 'Breaker Morant' is Vietnam, the Prequel. In a theme many American directors would later explore, all without Beresford's sure-footedness, it is the story of honourable men adjusting themselves to confront and defend themselves against the twentieth-century's collapse of values, only to find themselves buried - literally - by the values of those for whom they are supposed to be fighting.
Woodward’s character shines, resolute in his certainty that he has done the right thing; that his Boer prisoners - shot 'under rule .303!' - deserved everything they got; yet still disturbed at what this decision has done to his own humanity. As he walks to his death, he finds time to comfort his fellow prisoners: 'Live each day as though it were your last,' he says. 'One day you're sure to be right.'
A little-known masterpiece.
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