- 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."
- Peter Handcock: [standing on a table] There once was a lad from Australia, who painted his ass like a dahlia, the color was fine and likewise the design, but the aroma -whew!- that was the failure.
- Peter Handcock: [Drummond has just left the witness stand] You couldn't lie straight in bed, Drummond.
- Sgt. Maj. Drummond: I don't have to take that from you.
- Peter Handcock: You wanna do something about it? Come outside, I'll knock your bloody head off!
- Lt. Col. Denny: Control yourself, Mr. Handcock, or you will find yourself in serious trouble.
- [Handcock scoffs at this]
- Lt. Col. Denny: You find that amusing?
- Peter Handcock: Well, I was just wondering how much more serious things could be.
- 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.
- Major Thomas: The fact of the matter is that war changes men's natures. The barbarities of war are seldom committed by abnormal men. The tragedy of war is that these horrors are committed by normal men in abnormal situations. Situations in which the ebb and flow of everyday life have departed and have been replaced by a constant round of fear and anger, blood and death.
- 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.
- Major Bolton: How did Lt. Handcock look?
- Corporal Sharp: Like he was thinking, sir... like... I can't think of the...
- Major Bolton: Did he look like he was agitated?
- Corporal Sharp: Agitated? Yes, that's it, sir. Yes, sir, he looked agitated.
- Major Thomas: Objection. Major Bolton is leading the witness.
- Major Bolton: I will rephrase the question, sir. Tell me, Corporal Sharp, how did Lt. Handcock look?
- Corporal Sharp: Agitated, sir!
- 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.
- Lt. Col. Denny: [reading depositions from two married women who are providing an alibi for Handcock] Lieutenant Handcock, what does Mrs. Vanderberg mean by "entertained"? Did you sing to her?
- Major Thomas: Sir, you can appreciate that these ladies' reputations are in a vulnerable position and as these letters confirm Lieutenant Handcock's whereabouts on the day in question, could they not forgo the embarrassment of actually appearing in court?
- 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.
- Peter Handcock: New South Wales Mounted? What sort of a lawyer are you?
- Major Thomas: They haven't locked me up, yet. What sort of a soldier are you?
- Lt. Col. Denny: I must say, I find this sort of behavior from a soldier in the British Army morally disgraceful. These were married women.
- Peter Handcock: Well, they say a slice off a cut loaf's never missed.
- Major Thomas: Leftenant Handcock's personal morality is not on trial, sir.
- Lt. Col. Denny: [under his breath to a fellow officer] Regrettably.
- Sentry: [to Major Thomas] Excuse me, sir. I was in a public house last night, sir.
- Major Thomas: Were you, Sergeant?
- Sentry: Yes, sir. I overheard one of the witnesses talking about the prisoners. In his cups he was, sir. A very indescreet gentleman.
- Major Thomas: [later in court, questioning Corporal Sharp] Have you not been saying in the local pubs that you would walk barefoot from Cape Town to Petersburg to be on a firing party to shoot Lieutenant Handcock?
- Corporal Sharp: [visibly shaken] Well, sir I might have said something like that over a pint, sir. It may have been the beer talking, sir, not me, sir.
- Lord Kitchener: Needless to say, the Germans couldn't give a damn about the Boers. The diamonds and gold of South Africa they're interested in.
- Major Bolton: They lack our altruism, sir.
- Lord Kitchener: Quite.
- Peter Handcock: [after helping repel a Boer attack on the prison where he and Morant are being held] Well that broke the monotony.
- 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.
- Major Thomas: Tell me, Mr. Robertson what was Lt Hancock's reason for putting Boer prisoners on open cattle cars on the trains.
- Capt. Robertson: Well the Boers had been mining the lines and blowing up a lot of trains. He thought it might stop them.
- Major Thomas: Well did it?
- [Robertson looks at the prosecutor]
- Major Thomas: Did it?
- Capt. Robertson: Yes, but I don't think...
- [he's interrupted]
- 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.
- Peter Handcock: Knew? Of course they bloody knew. You can't trust these blokes. How many sides you fighting on, mate?
- Lt. Col. Denny: This evidence is completely irrelevant.
- Major Thomas: Irrelevant? Irrelevant when l have established that it was common practice among the Bushveldt Carbineers to shoot prisoners? Why would an officer of Captain Hunt's spotless reputation invent an order, sir?
- Lt. Col. Denny: We all admire your zeal in defending your fellow Australians, Major Thomas, but intemperate speech and wild accusations do not further your cause.
- Lt. Col. Denny: You are impertinent, Major Thomas. Are you suggesting that the most senior soldier in the British Army, a man venerated throughout the world, would be capable of issuing an order of such barbarity?
- Major Thomas: I don't know, sir. But I do know that orders that one would consider barbarous have already been issued in this war. Before I was asked to defend these men I spent some months burning Boer farmhouses, destroying their crops, herding their women and children into stinking refugee camps where thousands of them have died already from disease. Now, these orders were issued, sir, and soldiers like myself and these men here have had to carry them out, however damned reluctantly!
- Major Bolton: Of course, Morant and his friends are guilty.
- Major Thomas: Are they? Why not arrest the firing squad? They did the actual killing.
- Major Bolton: But they were following Morant's orders.
- Major Thomas: That's right. Just as Morant - was following orders.
- Lord Kitchener: Good God, Johnny, l'm not trying to prove some academic point. I'm trying to put an end to this useless war. The Boer leaders must see in this court-martial the demonstration of our impartial justice. If these three Australians have to be - sacrificed - to help bring about a peace conference - it's a small price to pay.
- Col. Ian (Johnny) Hamilton: I quite agree, sir. Though I doubt the Australians share our enthusiasm.
- Major Thomas: Let's not give our officers hazy, vague instructions about what they may and may not do. Let's not reprimand them on the one hand for hampering the column with prisoners, and at another time and another place, haul them up as murderers for obeying orders.
- Major Thomas: I don't ask for proclamations condoning distasteful methods of war. But I do say that we must take for granted that it does happen.
- Major Thomas: When the rules and customs of war are departed from by one side, one must expect the same sort of behavior from the other.
- 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.
- Col. Ian (Johnny) Hamilton: Colonials, most of them. Australians.
- Major Bolton: I understand they've been quite effective, sir.
- Col. Ian (Johnny) Hamilton: Very effective. We've just arrested three of them for shooting Boer prisoners and a German missionary.
- Lord Kitchener: I've received, Bolton, a telegraph message from Whitehall. The German government has lodged a serious protest - about the missionary, in particular.
- Major Bolton: Yes, sir.
- Lord Kitchener: The Kaiser, as you know, is our late Queen's grandson.
- Col. Ian (Johnny) Hamilton: The fact is that Whitehall feels the Germans are looking for an excuse to enter the war. On the Boers' side, of course. We don't want to give them one.
- Major Thomas: We've got a few witnesses of our own tomorrow, anyway.
- Peter Handcock: Not many. Just about anyone with a good word for us has been sent to India.
- 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.
- George Wittow: Do you think they're going to imprison us or cashier us, sir? My father, if he found out...
- Major Thomas: Haven't they told you? There are several murder charges. The penalty is death.
- Lt. Reed: Why is it he's referred to as Breaker Morant?
- Lt. Baxter: Ladies' man, perhaps? A breaker of hearts.
- Major Thomas: No, he was a horse breaker. I understand, the best in Australia.
- 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.
- Lt. Col. Denny: I'll knock your bloody head off. Control yourself, Mr. Handcock, or you'll find yourself in serious trouble. You find that amusing.
- Peter Handcock: I was just wondering how much more serious things could be.
- Lt. Col. Denny: This court-martial is convened by order of Horatio Herbert, Lord Kitchener of Khartoum, GCB, GCMG, RE, Commander in Chief of British and Colonial Forces in South Africa.
- Lt. Col. Denny: You are still introducing irrelevant material.
- Major Thomas: Sir. I wish to establish, and I have made the point before in connection with Mr. Robertson, that a precedent in this war has been well and truly set.
- Major Bolton: Sir, I would like to point out to my *learned* colonial colleague that the fact of the crime being previously committed in no way pardons the behavior of Lieutenant Morant and his friends.
- 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.
- Major Bolton: I've been wondering if you realize how anxious your own government is for a conviction.
- George Wittow: What do you mean?
- Major Bolton: Well, you've just become a Commonwealth. Your prime minister, Mr. Barton, wants to dissipate any lingering impressions of a frontier colony. Frontier behavior. You can be quite sure the conviction of these men will meet with Australian approval.
- 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.
- Peter Handcock: Hey, look at this. I got these from that lot. Dumdums. Ever seen what they can do?
- [points to his forehead]
- Peter Handcock: Put a neat little hole here and at the back, boom. All gone, nothing. Don't talk to me about what's right or wrong.
- Lord Kitchener: You go to Pietersburg, Johnny. You deal with the order to shoot the prisoners.
- Col. Ian (Johnny) Hamilton: What do I say?
- Lord Kitchener: I think you know what to say.