Law on Film
Breaker Morant (Guest: Michel Paradis) (episode 1)
This episode examines Breaker Morant, the 1980 Australian New Wave film depicting the military trial of Harry ("Breaker") Morant and two other Australian soldiers for war crimes committed during the Second Boer War in South Africa. The film, directed by Bruce Beresford, offers a gripping account of the trial and raises a host of questions about law and justice during wartime--questions that are as relevant today as they were when the trial took place more than a century ago. I am joined on this episode by veteran attorney Michel Paradis, who has served as military defense counsel in landmark war crimes trials at Guantanamo Bay and who has written widely about issues of international law and military justice. Michel is a lecturer at Columbia Law School in New York and a partner at Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP.
Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
6:15 An age-old question: Can you deny justice to the guilty?
8:04 Breaker Morant as both courtroom drama and western
9:14 Who was Harry "Breaker" Morant?
9:54 A new kind of war?
12:08 People who commit atrocities don’t usually think they're the bad guys
15:10 The superior orders defense
20:22 The politics of war crimes trial
28:28 The defense lawyer as hero in legal dramas
37:36 Did the defendants get a fair trial?
40:00 The law of reprisals
46:20 Echoes of the My Lai massacre case
49:17 Defense counsel’s closing: War changes men’s nature
50:44 The Australian New Wave
51:49 The trial’s aftermath
57:24 Why should everyone see this film?
Further reading:
Boslaugh, Sarah, “'Breaker Morant' Is an Epic Tale, Set during the Boer War,” Pop Matters (Oct. 15, 2015), https://www.popmatters.com/breaker-morant-2495479235.html
Buckmaster, Luke, “'Breaker Morant': rewatching classic Australian films,” The Guardian (June 19, 2014), https://www.theguardian.com/film/australia-culture-blog/2014/jun/19/breaker-morant-rewatching-classic-australian-films
Davies, Glenn, “Criminal or hero: The life of ‘Breaker’ Morant,” Independent Australia (Mar. 4, 2022), https://independentaustralia.net/australia/australia-display/criminal-or-hero-the-life-of-breaker-morant,16113
Gardner, Susan, “Can you imagine anything more Australian?: Bruce Beresford’s 'Breaker Morant'” Kunapipi, vol. 3, issue 1 (1981), https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1094&context=kunapipi
Sinyard, Neil, “'Breaker Morant': Scapegoats of Empire,” The Criterion Collection (Sept. 23, 2015), https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/3713-breaker-morant-scapegoats-of-empire
Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember.
For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/faculty/full-time/jonathan-hafetz.cfm
You can contact him at jonathanhafetz@gmail.com
You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz
You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm
You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast
This episode examines Breaker Morant, the 1980 Australian New Wave film depicting the military trial of Harry ("Breaker") Morant and two other Australian soldiers for war crimes committed during the Second Boer War in South Africa. The film, directed by Bruce Beresford, offers a gripping account of the trial and raises a host of questions about law and justice during wartime--questions that are as relevant today as they were when the trial took place more than a century ago. I am joined on this episode by veteran attorney Michel Paradis, who has served as military defense counsel in landmark war crimes trials at Guantanamo Bay and who has written widely about issues of international law and military justice. Michel is a lecturer at Columbia Law School in New York and a partner at Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP.
Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
6:15 An age-old question: Can you deny justice to the guilty?
8:04 Breaker Morant as both courtroom drama and western
9:14 Who was Harry "Breaker" Morant?
9:54 A new kind of war?
12:08 People who commit atrocities don’t usually think they're the bad guys
15:10 The superior orders defense
20:22 The politics of war crimes trial
28:28 The defense lawyer as hero in legal dramas
37:36 Did the defendants get a fair trial?
40:00 The law of reprisals
46:20 Echoes of the My Lai massacre case
49:17 Defense counsel’s closing: War changes men’s nature
50:44 The Australian New Wave
51:49 The trial’s aftermath
57:24 Why should everyone see this film?
Further reading:
Boslaugh, Sarah, “'Breaker Morant' Is an Epic Tale, Set during the Boer War,” Pop Matters (Oct. 15, 2015), https://www.popmatters.com/breaker-morant-2495479235.html
Buckmaster, Luke, “'Breaker Morant': rewatching classic Australian films,” The Guardian (June 19, 2014), https://www.theguardian.com/film/australia-culture-blog/2014/jun/19/breaker-morant-rewatching-classic-australian-films
Davies, Glenn, “Criminal or hero: The life of ‘Breaker’ Morant,” Independent Australia (Mar. 4, 2022), https://independentaustralia.net/australia/australia-display/criminal-or-hero-the-life-of-breaker-morant,16113
Gardner, Susan, “Can you imagine anything more Australian?: Bruce Beresford’s 'Breaker Morant'” Kunapipi, vol. 3, issue 1 (1981), https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1094&context=kunapipi
Sinyard, Neil, “'Breaker Morant': Scapegoats of Empire,” The Criterion Collection (Sept. 23, 2015), https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/3713-breaker-morant-scapegoats-of-empire
Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember.
For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/faculty/full-time/jonathan-hafetz.cfm
You can contact him at jonathanhafetz@gmail.com
You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz
You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm
You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast