Breaker Morant (1980)

Charles 'Bud' Tingwell: Lt. Col. Denny

Photos 

Quotes 

• 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.

• 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?

• 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.

• 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!

• 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!

• 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.

• Lt. Col. Denny : You mean to tell me you were on intimate terms with two Boer ladies?

  Peter Handcock : Yeah, well, you could put it that way.

• Major Bolton : Where did you go when you left Fort Edward approximately half an hour after the Reverend Hesse?

  Peter Handcock : I went visiting.

  Court Official : Visiting?

  Major Bolton : Visiting?

  Lt. Col. Denny : Visiting?