i love how the relationship between the two of them changes. first, morant treats thomas with contempt and doesnt take him serious (without words, he just grins and looks at him like thomas was a complete idiot) but at the end he is obviously quite fond of him.
shareI feel sorry for Thomas. In reality he was only given 1 day to prepare for the case against Morant and the others.
shareOh, you "feel sorry for Thomas" ... what about Morant, Handcock and Witton? Sure, Handcock is guilty of shooting the Reverent Hesse, but come on, it was to stop the Germans having any excuse to enter the Bore war, PLUS it was Lord Kitchener who told the Bush-Veldt Carboneers to shoot the prisioners and to keep it all secret.
Witton - what about that poor kid? All he did was shoot a Bore in self-defence, and he gets life imprisionment in a Penal colony!
Either you have clearly missed the key themes in this film or your just some 14 year old kid who can only think on one wavelength at a time.
Year 12 student --- Studied Breaker Morant for English
um.. i think youre a bit confused,
first of all you spelt Reverend, Hess, Bushveldt, carbineers and Boer wrong.
Second if you'd paid attention then you would know that Witton infact only served 4 years and it was not in a penal colony because such things no longer existed, he was in penal servitude but having already come from the colony of Australia it wouldn't make much sense to just send him home would it?
You also seemed to have missed a large chunk of information regarding the Germans, i suggest you watch it again.
If you hadn't signed off as a year 12 student i would've been greatly inclined to suggest that you were the 14 year old kid, i feel very sorry for you if you intend on writing about this film on the exam because you will surely fail.
Another Year 12 student --- Also Studied Breaker Morant for English
I was sympathetic with Thomas too. I felt like he became 'one of the guys' as the movie unfolded and that he sincerely did believe that they were being done a dirty deal. Like I said in another post, those guys WEREN'T clean but they WERE being singled out and railroaded as a public display. (I would have just kept Hesse in custody for a while.)
shareI felt sorry for Thomas too. You can see he's a man who truly believes in justice and thinks he's been summoned to give these men the best defense possible, but slowly he realises his role is to help the prosecution win.
I thought it was amazing how he completely turned their expectations upside down, putting up such a good defense he made it obvious there was never any way these men could ever leave the trial acquitted.
So I feel sorry for him, yes, because he realised in the end he served no purpose at all. His defense was inconsequential, it was merely bureaucratic.
This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.
They clearly chose this guy because of his inexperience. But it turned out he was a very good defense lawyer because the charges were trumped up and he believed these guys were being railroaded. Something I do not think he realized when he got the case. I think his character was the heart of the movie and I felt bead for him because he was helpless, he could not save the prisoners no matter what. And I also believe he must of felt very bad for his own country for allowing such a travesty of misjudgment. This movie reminds me a lot of Paths of Glory. When three innocent men were executed because of some higher ups gross mistake. Both heartbreaking movies.
shareMajor Thomas originally turned up to help his mate, Major Lenehan out with his defence in the courts martial. When Thomas discovered Morant and the others had no defending officer he volunteered to help them... this roughly 24 hours before the trial was to commence.
shareRight. I guess they were not even going to give them lawyers if Major Thomas did not show up to help his friend. The whole process had to disappoint Thomas. So I also felt bad for him. Imagine being in his place and having to defend innocent soldiers lives in a kangaroo court. Gee now I see why they call railroaded court procedures Kangaroo Courts.
shareCan I feel sorry for Thomas and the three prisoners?
shareInteresting article. You have to go to google.com and type "Major Thomas, Lenehan" . The first result is "Law Society of New South Wales - Legal History: Doubting Thomas ..."
Click on the "cached" link (because if you click on the regular link you won't be able to view the article).
It gives an interesting summary about the real Thomas. It also gives credence to Morant's comment in the film that the British really wanted them executed.
Major Thomas' introduction is no different than Lt. Greenwald in the Caine Mutiny.
Here was a country solicitor, with no courtroom experience helping out at first glance is a bunch of bloodthirsty murderers. The lines between him and Handcock are perfect:
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?
And...
Harry Morant: As a matter of interest, how many courts-martial have you done?
Major Thomas: None.
George Witton: 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 Witton: 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.
It's when they went to trial and they saw how despite his lack of preparation he was a damn good defense attorney.