Production
It was the first film from Frank Shields. He says he was inspired to make it after visiting Breaker Morant's grave. He was unable to get finance from the funding bodies so made it himself for $7,000. He researched it in Australia, wrote and shot it inI paid for the horses and cameramen with cases of beer. I didn’t know how to work a camera; they taught me how to make a film so it was like my film school... What holds the doco together is the story. It’s like a Greek tragedy – Morant was like theNed Kelly Edward Kelly (December 1854 – 11 November 1880) was an Australian bushranger, outlaw, gang leader and convicted police-murderer. One of the last bushrangers, he is known for wearing a suit of bulletproof armour during his final shootout wi ...and theFletcher Christian Fletcher Christian (25 September 1764 – 20 September 1793) was master's mate on board HMS ''Bounty'' during Lieutenant William Bligh's voyage to Tahiti during 1787–1789 for breadfruit plants. In the mutiny on the ''Bounty'', Christian se ...; at one point he crossed a line that he could never come back from. At the end of the day it all comes down to story.Charlotte Willis, "Breaker Morant doco sees light of day - again", ''If Magazine'' 11 Oct 2010
accessed 2015
Reception
The film won the Greater Union Awards for best documentary at the 1975 Sydney Film Festival. It aired on the ABC in 1975. Shields wrote a book based on the documentary, ''In Search of Breaker Morant: Balladist and Bushveldt Carbineer'', which was published in 1979.References
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