Breaker Morant is a 1980 Australian war- and trial film directed by Bruce Beresford, who also co-wrote based on Kenneth G. Ross' 1978 play of the same name.
The film centers around the 1902 court martial of Lieutenants Harry Morant, Peter Handcock, and George Witton - one of the first war crimes prosecutions in British military history. Australians serving in the British Army during the Second Anglo-Boer War, Lts. Morant, Handcock, and Witton stood accused of murdering captured enemy combatants and an unarmed civilian in the Northern Transvaal. The film is notable for its exploration of the Nuremberg Defense, the politics of the death penalty, and the human cost of total war. As the trial unfolds, the events in question are shown in flashbacks.
In 1980, the film won ten Australian Film Institute Awards including: Best Film, Best Direction, Leading Actor, Supporting Actor, Screenplay, Art Direction, Cinematography, and Editing. It was also nominated for the 1980 Academy Award for the Best Writing (Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium).
Harry "The Breaker" Harbord Morant (9 December 1864 – 27 February 1902) was an Anglo-Australian drover, horseman, bush poet, and military officer.
While serving with the Bushveldt Carbineers during the Second Anglo-Boer War, Captain Morant was arrested and court-martialed for war crimes- one of the first such prosecutions in British military history. According to military prosecutors, Morant had retaliated for the combat death of a fellow officer with the summary execution of nine Afrikaner POWs. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. Captain Morant was then court-martialed for the murder of a Lutheran minister, Rev. Daniel Heese. The German-born Heese had witnessed the POW massacre, indignantly vowed to inform Morant's commanding officer, and had been shot to death on the way to the British Army HQ at Pietersburg. Morant was acquitted of the Heese murder, but his sentence for the POW massacre was carried out by a firing squad drawn from the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders on 27 February 1902.
Breaker Morant: A Play in Two Acts is a significant Australian play written by Kenneth G. Ross, centred on the court-martial and the last days of Lieutenant Harry "Breaker" Morant (1864–1902) of the Bushveldt Carbineers (BVC), that was first performed at the Athenaeum Theatre, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, on Thursday, 2 February 1978, by the Melbourne Theatre Company.
Described at the time as an "interesting, though underwritten biographical study", the first performance of the play was directed and designed by John Sumner (1924-), the founding director of the Melbourne Theatre Company.
First performance
The cast of the first performance of the play, directed and designed by John Sumner, on 2 February 1978 were:
Podcasts:
Breaker Morant
ALBUMS
- Comomusic Anthology 1990-2005, Volume 1 released: 2005
Comomusic Anthology 1990-2005, Volume 1
Released 2005- Causeways
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- Chesty
- I'll Be Gone
- There's No I in Werewolves!
- Under the Gun / Earthshaker, Yeah!
- King Hell
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- Burn the Flag
- Unmarked Number
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- Artists Are Boring
- Wampum / Flattery
- Falling Barns
- Wild on Chemicals in South Dakota
- Attack of the Raelian Clones
- Whimsican Dial
- Assholes and Elbows
- Dancing Lights / Slow Machines
Explosions in the Sky
ALBUMS
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- How Strange, Innocence released: 2000
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by Kate Voegele
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by Warrior Soul
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by Alexis Jordan
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by Fort Minor
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by Glenn Hughes
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by Tennis
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by Swollen Members
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by John Taglieri
High Road
by: Kate VoegeleAll I can say is things didn't go as I planned
Seems every day I'm learning is out of my hands
And coming to terms is harder than ever before
When you would give anything to know what all of this is for
Well there are things that I cannot change now
But these are strings that I will untangle
So gimme a high road to rise up and follow
I'll keep my eyes closed and breathe
And gimme a tightrope to walk from the highest peak
And I'll never look down at my feet
Somebody said if you can let down your pride
You won't be afraid, fear's not a safe place to hide
And I was convinced I'd never win your love, no
I didn't see all I really needed was my own
And there are things that I cannot explain now
But it's not too late and I am so thankful
And I got a high road to rise up and follow
I'll keep my eyes closed and breathe
And gimme a tightrope to walk from the highest peak
And I'll never look down at my feet
I've been down enough times to know it's no good
And I'm working overtime just thinking I should
Carry all of this weight around
I'm finding out that I never could
I never could
So gimme a high road to rise up and follow
I'll keep my eyes closed and breathe
And gimme a tightrope to walk from the highest peak
And I'll never look down at my feet