Delroy Lindo names his favourite movie of all time: “I just bawled like a baby!”
One of the best pieces of news from the 2026 Oscars nominations concerned the British star Delroy Lindo, who, after long being overlooked by the Academy, despite decades of stellar performances, finally got the recognition he deserved.
He’s nominated for ‘Best Supporting Actor’ for his role as alcoholic blues musician Delta Slim in Ryan Coogler’s all-conquering Sinners, and while chances are that Sean Penn will actually take the honour for One Battle After Another, the fact that Lindo was even nominated after so many years in the shadows is truly monumental.
As he’s now an Oscar-nominated actor, a fact he discovered while he was in bed, people are now taking much more of an interest in Lindo. He clearly has a good taste in movies, given what he’s been in, but what does he enjoy as an audience member?
In Cindy Pearlman’s book, You Gotta See This: More Than 100 of Hollywood’s Best Reveal and Discuss Their Favourite Films, Lindo spoke about his adoration of the classic French movie, Les Enfants du Paradis, or Children of Paradise if you want to get all boring and English about it.
While he spoke incredibly fondly of Marcel Carné’s movie, which was made during the height of the Nazi occupation of France, there was another film that ultimately took his top spot. The one he described as his “favourite” was Breaker Morant, an Australian biopic starring Edward Woodward as the titular English soldier. Set during the events of the Second Boer War, the story concerns one of the earliest trials for war crimes in English history, exploring Morant’s complicated legacy, with the movie’s poster asking if he was a “hero or villain”.
There’s one scene in particular that Lindo loves the most: as Morant and his comrade Peter Hancock, portrayed by Bryan Brown, walk up a hill to face a firing squad, the former reaches out a hand to the latter, and he takes it as the pair face up to their deaths with one final embrace.
“I remember the first time I saw the film and then came this moment,” Lindo recalled, “I just bawled like a baby! I saw it back in the days of the 1980s. I sat through it twice to see that moment again. I cried the second time. The coming together of human beings. These guys are about to die. One human being to another, they reach out, and they’re connecting. It’s human beings reaching out to each other, so we can all live and survive and be human.”
As with any film depicting this era of British colonialism, Breaker Morant can be divisive, as some people view the real man as a scapegoat for the crimes of the Empire, while others believe he got what he deserved. There are also issues with certain historical inaccuracies throughout the film, such as the omission of three other men who were on trial for the same crimes, but ultimately, critics agree that the film is immaculately made.
Your personal mileage with Breaker Morant may vary, but to Delroy Lindo, it’s one of the all-time greats.
