Breaker Morant
( dir. Bruce Beresford
)
1980
Adelaide
:
South Australian Film Corporation
,
1980
Z840559
1980
single work
film/TV
Adapted from the play of the same title by Kenneth Ross, Breaker Morant is based on the 1901 Boer War court martial of three colonial officers in the Bushveldt Carabineers, who are sacrificed to the dictates of imperial expediency. The interweaving of courtroom drama with the re-creation of the events leading to the court martial (the supposed murder of twelve prisoners and a German missionary) is given a degree of moral complexity, but the balance of sympathies is manipulated to favour the three Australian 'irregular' soldiers. The accused (Lieutenants Harry 'Breaker' Morant, Peter Handcock, and George Witton) are defended by Major Thomas, an inexperienced Australian lawyer who struggles to have his case heard.
Premiere:
First produced at the Athenaeum Theatre by the Melbourne Theatre Company, 2 February 1978.
Notable Later Performances:
Performed at the Seymour Centre: Reginald Theatre, 12-21 April 2012
Produced by Sydney-based Theatre Troupe.
Directed by Gareth Boylan.
The Breaker : A Novel
Sydney
:
Angus and Robertson
,
1973
Z818857
1973
single work
novel
historical fiction
There was a Breaker Morant - he was executed at Pretoria on 27 February 1902. His crime? Wilful murder of civilians. Yet to this day his guilt remains in doubt. Kit Denton's novel, The Breaker, does more than recount the facts and mystery surrounding Morant's death sentence. Full of action and set in three continents, it covers the entire range of the Breaker's activities. We see him as a champion horseman, a likeable larrikin, a popular balladist. We see him in love and in war. Then we see him face the firing squad that will end his life. Was he a cold-blooded killer or a scapegoat? Based on a true story.
