Imagine this. You’re facing a firing squad. You’ve declined a blindfold. You hear the word “Ready!” followed by “Aim!” and in the moment before the bullets fly you yell at those holding the rifles, “Shoot straight, you bastards! Don’t make a mess of it!” It seems pretty badass, and it might be cool to glorify the man who went out that way, but Harry “Breaker” Morant was a murderous piece of shit who got what he deserved.
--On This Day in History Shit Went Down: February 27, 1902--
Yeah, the words were an epic exit. In the 1980 film Breaker Morant, Edward Woodward stars as the title character, and delivers that same final line for the screen. It tells the tale of events during the Second Boer War in South Africa, which was typical colonialism fuckery with the British Empire fighting against mostly Dutch descendants called Boers in a land that belonged to neither of them. The war wasn’t going well for the Brits, but rather than give up they adopted a policy of scorched earth and putting women and children in concentration camps (more than 27,000 of whom died) to convince the Boers to give up. The British also killed a shit-ton of Native Africans, FYI.
Compared to that, it seems odd that Harry Morant was singled out as a war criminal, but he was still guilty of heinous crimes. Born in England in 1864, he moved to Australia when he was 19 and worked a variety of jobs, including breaking horses, the origin of his nickname. He joined an Australian mounted infantry unit and headed off to South Africa to serve Queen and Country and all that imperialist dogshit. While there, he did some killing that he wasn’t supposed to do.
During an ambush in the summer of 1901, the enemy killed the captain of Morant’s patrol. They had to flee and when they returned, they found the captain’s body mutilated (allegedly). Well, Harry was pissed, and he ordered and engaged in a series of revenge killings against both prisoners of war and civilians. Several members of his regiment were aghast, and 15 signed a letter a few months later detailing the crimes, sending it secretly to a commanding officer.
A court-martial of several soldiers with a variety of charges followed. The story of Morant only stands out among those tried because, even though it was not the director’s intent, the film Breaker Morant raised him to the status of an icon, even a martyr, who was supposedly railroaded by British authorities. In 2010 a petition was sent to Queen Elizabeth to have Morant posthumously pardoned, even though the film clearly shows Morant was guilty as fuck. I suppose it’s just that people are stupid and were probably captivated by those badass last words, which were spoken on the early morning of February 27, 1902, immediately before several high-caliber rifle rounds entered Morant’s chest.
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One of the most surefire (pun intended) ways of getting the public to forgive egregious fuckery is to be badass entertaining. Make people wish they'd thought of the joke/comeback/final act of resistance, and all past transgressions pale in comparison to the kudos you get for the inspiration porn you've just provided them.