This movie has been compared to Kubrick's "Paths of Glory" and there are plenty of parallels. But there is a major difference. Kubrick's three grunts were executed because they didn't follow orders and take the Ant Hill. Beresford's are "sacrificed" because they followed the norms, written and unwritten. Our sympathies are all with the defendants.
An interesting thought experiment suggests itself. Let's change the prosecutors from 1903 Brits into 1946 Allies. Let's change the defendants from Australians to high-ranking German officers. Let's change the setting from South Africa to Nuremberg. Would the film still generate the same sympathy for the defendants, whose only defense, in both cases, was, "I was just following orders"? Were any of the defendants in this film less guilty of following orders than, say, Goering, the head of the Luftwaffe, who was more interested in his pet lions than in the disposition of Jews?
I realize that this is an abrasive consideration, but films like this prompt one to wonder if justice was served in either case. It's difficult to imagine how Goering, with his name, could have escaped the hangman except as he did. I think the saying is, "What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander."
Easy enough for us to sit back and say, "What a bunch of politically motivated jerks those prosecutors were," when we see "Breaker Morant." True, they were morons. But thinking about it leaves me, at least, a little queasy. As for killing civilians because they are trying to kill you, that leaves me not merely queasy but a victim of projectile vomiting.
An interesting thought experiment suggests itself. Let's change the prosecutors from 1903 Brits into 1946 Allies. Let's change the defendants from Australians to high-ranking German officers. Let's change the setting from South Africa to Nuremberg. Would the film still generate the same sympathy for the defendants, whose only defense, in both cases, was, "I was just following orders"? Were any of the defendants in this film less guilty of following orders than, say, Goering, the head of the Luftwaffe, who was more interested in his pet lions than in the disposition of Jews?
I realize that this is an abrasive consideration, but films like this prompt one to wonder if justice was served in either case. It's difficult to imagine how Goering, with his name, could have escaped the hangman except as he did. I think the saying is, "What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander."
Easy enough for us to sit back and say, "What a bunch of politically motivated jerks those prosecutors were," when we see "Breaker Morant." True, they were morons. But thinking about it leaves me, at least, a little queasy. As for killing civilians because they are trying to kill you, that leaves me not merely queasy but a victim of projectile vomiting.