Critics reviews

A high point of the Australian film renaissance of the 1970s and early '80s, Bruce Beresford's Breaker Morant is a magnificent dramatization of one of the most controversial episodes in Australian colonial history.

A time-jumping narrative that's rooted inside the linear temporal unfoldings of a pre-determined trial, Breaker Morant is like a conventional bloke in art-house clothing—but oh, what garb he has. Beresford takes the lore of Morant and lends it a balance that at once enshrines Morant's martyrdom, but refuses an outright act of hagiography by insisting that the gory details of his deeds, including the killing of a German missionary, be included.

The film is arguably an actors' tour de force, but cinematically dull. The courtroom segments betray their stodgy stageplay origins. Much of any emotional intensity generated by the use of close ups is dissipated by the predictability of the shot/ reverse shot patterns and of cuts invariably cued to changes of speaker.

Bruce Beresford's film was based on a successful stage play, and the theatrical structure is clear and rigid throughout. The film handles difficult issues of wartime morality, with clear parallels to the American experience in Vietnam, but Beresford's direction is so placid, distanced, and methodical that the film never admits any doubt or debate.

It's a Paths of Glory situation, complete with righteous anger at the expedient conniving authorities, distinguished by some strong courtroom scenes and an overwhelming pessimism. If it hardly breaks any new ground either formally or politically, it's nevertheless a moving and highly professional affair, in which Brown and Thompson give particularly good performances.