The film is about the 1902 court martial of 3 officers under British command in the Second Anglo-Boer War: lieutenants Harry Morant, Peter Handcock and George Witton. The 3 officers are accused of war crimes; they are Australians serving in the British Army. Morant, Handcock, and Witton stand accused of murdering captured Boer fighters and a German missionary in the Northern Transvaal. The facts of the case are presented in flashbacks. As a result, such scenes alternate with developments in the court martial, which follows, itself, the classical format of a court case.
A wide range of issues are touched upon in the movie. What is a war crime? What if officers were merely following orders? Could they avoid doing what they did? This may all sound dry and even academic, but the movie is constructed in such a way that it never feels that way at all. There are many striking battle scenes inserted in the narrative too.
Overall, this is a remarkably good film, which grips the viewer from beginning to end. It reconstitutes the context - Britain's imperial expansion across Southern Africa in the early 20th century - extremely well, and the characters feel very real and, in fact, very modern. I recommend this historical drama, which dwells on a dark page of British colonial history that is well-known in Australia, but not in Britain.
[I had problems with the DVD. I have informed Cinema Paradiso. It may have to do with the way it was recorded.]