Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

Blood Oath (1990)

play
Email a link to this page
To:
CC:
Subject:
Body:
clip The American arrives

Original classification rating: M. This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

Official trial observer US Major Beckett (Terry O’Quinn) arrives on the same plane as the key defendant, Vice-Admiral Baron Takahashi (George Takei). Beckett and the tribunal’s Australian prosecutor, Captain Cooper (Bryan Brown), soon clash.

Curator’s notes

by Lynden Barber

The arrival of the US major, who’s an official observer and therefore meant to be objective, on the same plane as the key Japanese defendant immediately seems odd. As the major soon makes clear, he does indeed have an agenda.

This scene fleshes out one of the film’s main themes: the Australian desire to achieve justice for war crimes versus the American desire to compromise and better serve their postwar interests in the Pacific.

It’s to the scene’s credit that both Captain Cooper and Major Beckett give credible, morally understandable reasons for their positions. Strong drama often pulls the viewer’s sympathies in successively different directions, as happens here.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer The American arrives from the feature film Blood Oath as a high quality video download.

To play the downloadable video, you need QuickTime 7.0, VLC, or similar.

You must read and agree to the following terms and conditions before downloading the clip:

australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

All other rights reserved.

ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

This clip is available in the following configurations:

File nameSizeQualitySuitability
bloodoat1_pr.mp4 Large: 17.1MB High Optimised for full-screen display on a fast computer.
bloodoat1_bb.mp4 Medium: 8.1MB Medium Can be displayed full screen. Also suitable for video iPods.

Right-click on the links above to download video files to your computer.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer this clip in an embeddable format for personal or non-commercial educational use in full form on your own website or your own blog.

You must read and agree to the following terms and conditions before embedding the clip:

australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

All other rights reserved.

ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

Copy and paste the following code into your own web page to embed this clip: