VIDEO DISCOVERY : British Hit Below the Veldt in Beresford’s ‘Breaker Morant’

Bruce Beresford is probably best known in the United States as the director of “Driving Miss Daisy” and “Tender Mercies.” But the Australian filmmaker’s greatest achievement may be “Breaker Morant”--his brilliant 1979 film that captured 10 Australian Film Institute awards.

Harry (Breaker) Morant was a real-life Australian officer in the Bushveldt Carbineers, a mostly Australian combat unit of the British army. The unit was formed during the Boer War (1899-1902) to fight the Dutch rebels in South Africa.

As played with great force by Edward Woodward, Morant is cultured but hotheaded. After a fellow officer and friend is brutally killed, an enraged Morant captures a group of Boer rebels--one of whom is found wearing the khakis of the dead officer--and has them executed without trial. Inhumane? Unjust? Probably. But it was also the type of swift and unmerciful action that the British high command expected from its officers.

“Breaker Morant” revolves around the British government’s attempt to sacrifice Morant and two fellow Carbineer lieutenants by trying them for the “murder” of the Dutch rebels and--in a separate incident--the killing of a German priest. The trial was used by the British to show the Boers and its German allies that it was serious about peace.

Much of “Breaker Morant” takes place in the courtroom. As the inexperienced but tenacious attorney who defends the three officers, Jack Thompson helps bring the film intensely alive. It is Thompson’s character who unearths the hypocrisy and deceit behind the murder charges. He also raises the film’s key question of what is and is not appropriate behavior during wartime.

“Breaker Morant” is so well written, acted and directed that it doesn’t matter at all that most of the events leading up to the trial are conveyed via flashbacks. Complex and not at all prone to cheap moralizing, this tough-minded film is a powerful examination of the politics of war.

“Breaker Morant” (1979), directed by Bruce Beresford. 110 minutes. Rated PG.