Breaker Morant (1980)

Edward Woodward: Harry 'Breaker' Morant

Photos 

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Quotes 

• [last lines] 

  Harry Morant : Shoot straight, you bastards. - Don't make a mess of it!

• Sentry : Do you want the padre?

  Harry Morant : No, thank you. I'm a pagan.

  Sentry : And you?

  Peter Handcock : What's a pagan?

  Harry Morant : Well... it's somebody who doesn't believe there's a divine being dispensing justice to mankind.

  Peter Handcock : I'm a pagan, too.

  Harry Morant : There is an epitaph I'd like: Matthew 10:36. Well, Peter... this is what comes of 'empire building.'

  Major Thomas : Matthew 10:36?

  Minister : "And a man's foes shall be they of his own household."

• Harry Morant : As a matter of interest, how many courts-martial have you done?

  Major Thomas : None.

  George Wittow : None?

  Peter Handcock : Jesus, they're playing with a double-headed penny, aren't they?

  Major Thomas : Would you rather conduct your own defence?

  George Wittow : But you have handled a lot of court cases back home, sir?

  Major Thomas : No. I was a country-town solicitor. I handled land conveyancing and wills.

  Peter Handcock : Wills. Might come in handy.

• Harry Morant : It really ain't the place nor time to reel off rhyming diction, but yet we'll write a final rhyme while waiting crucifixion. For we bequeath a parting tip of sound advice for such men who come in transport ships to polish off the Dutchman. If you encounter any Boers, you really must not loot 'em, and if you wish to leave these shores, for pity's sake, don't shoot 'em. Let's toss a bumper down our throat before we pass to Heaven, and toast a trim-set petticoat we leave behind in Devon.

• Harry Morant : "To do good to mankind is the chivalrous plan, And is always as nobly requited, Then battle for freedom wherever you can, And, if not shot or hang'd, You'll get knighted."

  George Wittow : Did you write that, Harry?

  Harry Morant : No, no. It was a minor poet, called Byron.

  Peter Handcock : Never heard of him.

  Harry Morant : I did say he was a minor poet.

• Harry Morant : [Thomas is visiting Morant on the morning of his execution]  Cheer up. You look as if you were going to a funeral.

  Major Thomas : Harry...

  Harry Morant : It's all right, Major. I've had a good run. There's nothing for me in England anymore. And back in Australia, well they say if you need a couple of stiff drinks before you climb up on a wild horse, you're finished.

• George Wittow : [after Handcock has admitted to murdering the missionary]  Major Thomas has been pleading justifying circumstances and now we're just lying.

  Peter Handcock : We're lying? What about THEM? It's no bloody secret. Our graves were dug the day they arrested us at Fort Edwards.

  George Wittow : Yeah, but killing a missionary, Peter?

  Harry Morant : It's a new kind of war, George. A new war for a new century. I suppose this is the first time the enemy hasn't been in uniform. They're farmers. They come from small villages, and they shoot at from behind walls and from farmhouses. Some of them are women, some of them are children, and some of them... are missionaries, George.

• George Wittow : [Saying his goodbyes to Morant and Handcock]  Harry! Peter!

  Peter Handcock : See you in hell, mate!

  Harry Morant : [Gripping George's hand]  Goodbye, George.

  George Wittow : [Sobbing]  Why did they do this to us, Harry? Why?

  Harry Morant : They have to apologize for their damned war. They're trying to end it now, so they need scapegoats.

  George Wittow : [Being dragged away by prison guards]  HARRY! PETER!

  Harry Morant : George! We're scapegoats to the bloody empire!

  George Wittow : [Being led past the soldiers preparing their rifles for Morant and Handcock's firing squad]  Jesus...

• Major Bolton : [discussing the death of Reverend Hesse]  When he left Fort Edward, you knew that he was going to report back here to the authorities in Pietersburg.

  Harry Morant : I had no way of knowing what he was going to do.

  Major Bolton : But it would have been in your interest, would it not, to prevent him?

  Harry Morant : Well, I hardly know about that. All I do know is that someone prevented him, and I'm still here on trial.

  Major Bolton : I suggest that you instructed Leftenant Hancock to follow the Reverend Hesse and to shoot him!

  Harry Morant : I had sent a message to Colonel Hall in Pietersburg informing him of my intentions towards the Boer prisoners. I have nothing to hide.

  Major Bolton : I find that statement hard to believe.

  Harry Morant : Then I suggest, sir, that you recall Colonel Hall from India. He will confirm it. I don't mind waiting.

• Lt. Col. Denny : Was your court at the trial of Visser constituted in any way like this? What rule did you shoot him under?

  Harry Morant : Like this? Well, no sir, it wasn't quite like this. No-no. No, sir, it wasn't quite so handsome. And as for rules, we didn't carry military manuals around with us. We were out on the veldt, fighting the Boer the way he fought us. I'll tell you what rule we applied, sir. We applied Rule 3-0-3. We caught them and we shot them under Rule 3-0-3!

• Harry Morant : [after the ambush in which Captain Hunt is killed]  Well, Mr. Taylor, sir, so much for your damned intelligence report. "Eight Boers, exhausted" - that's what you said. "Horses with fever", you said. What do you say now?

  Capt. Alfred Taylor : I say avenge Captain Hunt.

• George Wittow : My father said the war would make a man of me.

  Harry Morant : Everybody's father says that, George.

• Harry Morant : The night's a trifle chilly, And the stars are very bright, A heavy dew is falling, But the tent is rigged aright, You may rest your bones till morning, Then if you chance to wake, Give me a call about the time, That daylight starts to break

• Major Thomas : They're looking after you here? Looks a bit Spartan.

  Harry Morant : Well, it's not exactly the Hotel Australia.

  Peter Handcock : More like a coffee palace. No grog.

• George Wittow : He believes in the British Empire, you know. We all do in my family. That's why I volunteered, to help keep the Empire together.

  Peter Handcock : Yeah? I volunteered because there's a depression back there and I've got a wife and kid.

  George Wittow : You believe in the Empire, Harry?

  Harry Morant : Do I?

  Peter Handcock : Don't reckon he does, mate.

• Major Thomas : You're the best witness the prosecution's got, Harry. Better watch your temper.

  Harry Morant : Yes, I'm sorry. It's my great failing. Impetuosity. Most un-British.

  Major Thomas : [to Handcock]  You better watch yourself, too. This is a British court-martial, not a backbox pub.

• Peter Handcock : Go on, read it to us, Harry.

  Harry Morant : Oh, Peter, come on. Come on. You know you loathe poetry.

  George Wittow : Well, there's not much else to bloody do here. Come on, read it.

  Harry Morant : "Oh, those rides across the river, Where the shallow stream runs wide, And the sunset's beams were glossing strips of sand on either side, They would cross the sparkling river on the brown horse and the bay, Watch the willows sway and shiver and the trembling shadows play, 'Tis a memory to be hoarded, Of a foolish tale and fond, Till another stream be forded, And we reach the great beyond"

  George Wittow : I don't want to die.

  Harry Morant : Well, every life ends in a dreadful execution, George. Yours will be much quicker and less painful than most.

  George Wittow : And a lot earlier than most.

• Harry Morant : They're part of the group that killed Simon Hunt.

  George Wittow : How can you be sure?

  Harry Morant : Kelly's commandos. The rest disbanded or moved into Portuguese territory.

  Capt. Alfred Taylor : Execute them.

  George Wittow : Aren't we supposed to...

  Capt. Alfred Taylor : This is guerilla war, not a debutante's ball. There are no rules here.

• Harry Morant : Simon, I thought the proclamation only applied to Boers caught wearing British khaki.

  Lt. Reed : New orders from Kitchener. Colonel Hamilton's confirmed it to me himself. No prisoners. The gentlemen's war is over.

• George Wittow : I used to hate Sundays in Melbourne. No trams or anything. On a hot day, you couldn't even get down to St. Kilda's for a swim.

  Harry Morant : Did you have family readings?

  George Wittow : No.

  Harry Morant : We did. I had to sit in a high-backed chair wearing a white lace collar, while my father read selections from "Pilgrim's Progress": "How glorious it was to see the open region filled with horses, With trumpeters and pipers, With singers and players..." Et cetera. Et cetera. Et cetera.

  Peter Handcock : Sunday was a good day for chasin' a few tarts around Bathurst. Everyone else was in church. I used to whip down the riverbank for a bit of smoochin'. Worst thing about dying, no more girls.

• Harry Morant : To Bushveldt Carbineers - the best fighters in a bad cause.

  Peter Handcock : Bloody hell!

• Harry Morant : You can't always choose which side you're going to fight on, can you? And these days it's so very easy to be on the wrong side.

• George Wittow : To freedom and Australia.

  Harry Morant , George Wittow , Peter Handcock , Major Thomas , Capt. Alfred Taylor : Freedom and Australia!

  Harry Morant : To freedom, Australia and horses.

  Harry Morant , George Wittow , Peter Handcock , Major Thomas , Capt. Alfred Taylor : Freedom, Australia and horses.

  Peter Handcock : Freedom, Australia, horses and women!

  Harry Morant , George Wittow , Peter Handcock , Major Thomas , Capt. Alfred Taylor : Freedom, Australia, horses and women!

  Harry Morant : Live every day as if it were going to be your last. One day, you're sure to be right.

• Capt. Alfred Taylor : I can have a horse standing by for you. Some of the guards are sympathetic.

  Harry Morant : And where would I go?

  Capt. Alfred Taylor : Lorenzo Marques. Portuguese territory. Take a boat and see the world.

  Harry Morant : I've seen it.

• Peter Handcock : [listening to carpenters building his and Morant's coffins]  Could have had the decency to measure us first.

  Harry Morant : I don't suppose they've had many complaints.