Breaker Morant
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Movie Reviews of Breaker Morant
Movie Review: breaker morant movie
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great movie for anyone who loves history. Pay close attention to the dialogue. The trial scenes are authentic and realistic. One has to see the movie more than once to catch all the nuances. It is worth it.Movie Review: "Breaker" Morant, Outstanding Examplar of "Australian" Wave
Summary: 4 Stars
I remember seeing this riveting film with my father in Westbury, LI, roughly after the period (due to shifting economics) cinemas became duplex. True, "Breaker Morant" is a smaller-scale film in one sense, but it is much greater than many of "epic" dimensions. The performances are uniformly (no pun intended) outstanding, Mr. Beresford's direction so skillfull it is arguably the finest filmed adaptation of a stage play I've ever seen. (In fact, in my first lapse of critical acuity, I didn't discover this until long afterwards!)The films begins as a fact-based courtroom drama yet ends with a truly rare, poignant (not mawkish) poeticism. The script is fully realized: for example, it shows the title character as a refined, cultured man of the world. Late in the story, when in prison and offered the opportunity to escape, a visitor says: "You can see the world." So powerful is the portrayal of Morant, his devastatingly simple reply was interpreted prima facie by my accursed literal mind! (Hence, my second, and more serious critical lapse.) Australia should be proud of this contribution to world cinema, for it is a great, rara avis: a memorable film.
Movie Review: historical note
Summary: 4 Stars
i enjoyed this movie tremendously. the acting was superb. there is little to add to the other reviewers' comments about the film.however, about five years or so after the movie was released, i happened to read an article in the Los Angeles Times, an interview with the man who wrote the book on which the movie was based. between the time he researched, wrote and published the book, and the release of the film, the time limit set by the british secrecy acts on information about the boer war expired. the author then had access to materials that had not been available when he was writing his book. in the los angeles times interview, he stated that the then newly released information proved that the trial was, in fact, completely necessary and not, as he had originally supposed and as had originally seemed, without the military information, a political or expedient act. i believe he even called morant a psychotic.
none of which detracts from the film as a film.
Movie Review: Good but not excellent presentation
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a brilliant and compelling movie, but I wish to comment on the DVD presentation mainly. The picture is widescreen (non-anamorphic) and though it is a clear picture, there are quite a few scratches and blurs throughout. The colours are OK and it is overall fair to good. The sound is stereo (DD2.0) with no special emphasis (basically mono through two speakers, I think).
The extra's are very basic. You get a very scratchy trailer, a list of the other films for the cast and production notes (a fancy word for copying the credits onto another page).
Hopefully there will be a special edition with commentaries, documentaries and so forth, but for the moment this is the only edition and is worth the money for the story alone.
Movie Review: The war to get the diamond and gold mines
Summary: 4 Stars
It appears the word "commando" came from this war.
These Australians were the scape goats of a peace that came after,
but we saw here the power of an irregular force
fighting for their homes against trained and well equipped troops.
The movie came out on DVD after South Africa had lost to just such
an Army of blacks.When we don't learn from history or pay attention to it,
then we have to learn it all over again?
Well acted and set drama in which Britain as an Empire
fails one of the faithful romantic poets who
fought her wars.