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Common sense media reviewers.

Intense classic war epic has big battles, racial slurs.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Soldiers show determination and bravery to help ot

Lieutenant Bromhead is arrogant, stuffy, and by th

Zulu people's dances, customs, and cultures are sh

An epic, intense siege features huge, bloody battl

Non-sexual nudity with Zulu women's bare breasts s

Infrequent language includes "bastard" and "bloody

Characters drink alcohol from a bottle and one get

Parents need to know that Zulu is an epic British war movie based on the true story of the 1879 Battle of Rorke's Drift, in which 150 British soldiers defended a camp against 4,000 Zulu warriors. The movie features a long, intense siege with big, bloody battles. The blood is bright red and unrealistic but many…

Positive Messages

Soldiers show determination and bravery to help others despite their own injuries and their desperate circumstances. Both sides in the battle show respect for the courage and effort made by their enemy.

Positive Role Models

Lieutenant Bromhead is arrogant, stuffy, and by the book. He also uses racist slurs. He uses his military training to try to defend the camp and fights bravely. After action he feels sick and ashamed. Reverend Otto Witt is a principled man who respects the Zulu people. He works with them and warns everyone they should leave camp to save the injured but is ignored. Margareta Witt wants to take away the injured soldiers. She cares for them at the camp, acting as a nurse despite being uncomfortable. She stands up to authority. Adendorff is experienced in the ways of the Zulus and advises the army, blaming their egos for the losses they endure. Zulu warriors show respect to the surviving soldiers.

Diverse Representations

Zulu people's dances, customs, and cultures are shown and respected by most characters. Some underestimate the Zulu army but are proved wrong in the face of their strategic skill. Characters who have spent time with the Zulu people say "they are a great people." Injured soldiers fight despite their disabilities, but are also referred to by ableist terms. Racist slurs are used by some. The only female character stands up to authority and tends to the injured despite it being an uncomfortable situation. The respect shown by both sides toward each other at the end of the movie has been criticized for hiding some of the horrors of British colonialism.

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Violence & Scariness

An epic, intense siege features huge, bloody battles. Characters are shot and speared resulting in (bright and somewhat unrealistic) bloody injuries. Dead bodies are shown on battlefields. Cows trample soldiers. A soldier grabs someone trying to give medical assistance, tries to kiss them, and rips their top.

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Sex, Romance & Nudity

Non-sexual nudity with Zulu women's bare breasts shown.

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Infrequent language includes "bastard" and "bloody." Zulu people are once referred to by the racist term "fuzzies," as well as "savages." A soldier also uses the term "cowardly Blacks." A wounded soldier is called a "cripple." Two Welsh soldiers are called "dozy Welshmen."

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Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Characters drink alcohol from a bottle and one gets drunk.

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Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Zulu is an epic British war movie based on the true story of the 1879 Battle of Rorke's Drift, in which 150 British soldiers defended a camp against 4,000 Zulu warriors. The movie features a long, intense siege with big, bloody battles. The blood is bright red and unrealistic but many people are shown shot and speared, and battlefields are strewn with corpses. The movie features arrogant British military men -- including Michael Caine 's Lieutenant Bromhead -- who call the Zulu people "savages" and other racial slurs, believing the British to be superior. Other characters balance this out, showing respect toward the Zulu people and warning others of their might and intelligence in battle. The only female character, Margareta Witt (Ulla Jacobsson), defies authority and cares for injured soldiers, despite one's aggressive sexual advances. The bare breasts of Zulu women are shown, with them in traditional ceremonial dress. Infrequent language includes "bastard" and "bloody." Soldiers show determination and bravery to help others despite their own injuries and their desperate circumstances. Both sides show respect toward each other, something which has been criticized for whitewashing imperialist rule. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

ZULU tells the story of how 150 British soldiers, led by John Chard (Stanley Baker) and Gonville Bromhead ( Michael Caine ), defended a missionary station against 4,000 highly-organized Zulu warriors.

Is It Any Good?

For a nail biting war movie, 150 soldiers defending against 4,000 expert warriors is a perfect set-up. That Zulu is based on a true story from the Anglo-Zulu War in 1879 adds even more heft. It's also gorgeously shot in Technicolor, with the British red uniforms in stark contrast to the gigantic blue sky of South Africa and its mountain vistas. Released in 1963 onto huge screens on pristine 70mm film, the movie has suffered over the decades, rarely seen outside of TV broadcasts and grainy VHS tapes. Now it can be seen at home in high definition, the true spectacle of Stephen Dade's cinematography can be appreciated once more.

Director Cy Endfield takes his time to let the audience settle in with both sides. We spend time at an equally thrilling and graceful Zulu ceremony, attended by Reverend Otto Witt ( Jack Hawkins ). At the British missionary camp, we get to know the key players. Caine's breakthrough performance came as the stuffy, by-the-book Lieutenant Bromhead, who ignores Witt's warning to retreat, believing the British superior to his enemies, who he calls "savages." Zulu 's not jingoistic, with Endfield ensuring there is a voice of reason at every turn and doesn't shy away from the losses suffered on both sides. But this is just a cinematic snapshot of the Colonial-era British invasion of South Africa. The British army went on to win the war, resulting in the death of 6,930 Zulu people and leaving 3,500 more injured. The ethics of this can spark plenty of discussion.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how war was portrayed in Zulu . Was it a realistic portrayal? Did you know about the Anglo-Zulu War before you watched the film? Are you interested to find out more? How to talk to kids about violence, crime, and war .

Did you find the movie's violence realistic? How did the impact of this kind of violence compare to what you might see in movies today? Does exposure to violent media desensitize kids to violence?

Discuss some of the racist language used in the film. Did it seem necessary or excessive? What did it contribute to the movie?

What examples of courage , perseverance , and teamwork can you provide from the film? Can you think of a time when you've demonstrated these character strengths ?

Is it important to know how truthful a historical movie actually is? How would you find out about a film's accuracy? Do you favor more authenticity or a "better" story?

Movie Details

• In theaters : June 17, 1964
• On DVD or streaming : September 11, 2001
• Cast : Michael Caine , Jack Hawkins
• Director : Cy Endfield
• Studio : Embassy Pictures
• Genre : Drama
• Topics : History
• Character Strengths : Courage , Perseverance , Teamwork
• Run time : 138 minutes
• MPAA rating : NR
• Last updated : December 15, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Cannes Film Review: ‘Zulu’

The unhealed wounds of post-apartheid South Africa get a brutal but superficial once-over in Jerome Salle's savagely violent cop thriller.

By Justin Chang

Justin Chang

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The unhealed wounds of post-apartheid South Africa get a brutal but superficial once-over in Jerome Salle ‘s savagely violent cop thriller “ Zulu .” Toplining Orlando Bloom and Forest Whitaker as two detectives uniquely scarred by their nation’s cruel racial legacy, this adaptation of Caryl Ferey’s 2010 novel has the commercial slickness of Salle’s transnational actioners “Largo Winch” and “The Burma Conspiracy.” Yet the French-South African co-production is stacked with cliches and contrivances that fail to resonate with any real specificity or authenticity, the fine location work notwithstanding. The film’s grueling subject matter will severely test its theatrical prospects, demanding dedicated specialty handling .

The sensationalism starts immediately, with a harrowing flashback to the politically motivated atrocities that occurred in South Africa’s KwaZulu- Natal province in the early ’90s, seen here through the eyes of a terrorized child. After witnessing his father get burned alive, the boy grows up to be Ali (Whitaker), chief of the Cape Town police’s homicide division. It’s the present day, nearly 20 years after the official end of apartheid, but the racial/social inequities and horrific violence of the era still persist in subversive ways, as becomes clear when Ali and two other cops, Brian (Bloom) and Dan (Conrad Kemp), begin investigating the grisly murder of a 20-year-old white girl.

Turns out the deceased had a mysterious meth-based drug in her system, the origins of which the cops trace to a gang of machete-wielding drug dealers, leading to a vicious standoff that ends tragically for Dan. But even after the girl’s presumed murderer is found, Ali and Brian find themselves plunged deeper still into a disturbing thicket of corruption and injustice whose branches can reach, with unnerving precision, into their personal lives. Perhaps the most unsettling and provocative plot development concerns the nature of the drug in question, a so-called “ethnic bomb” effectively engineered to carry out apartheid’s genocidal aims.

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With its numerous scenes of torture, shootings and stabbings, plus the odd severed head or hand, “Zulu” orchestrates a whirlwind of violence that feels equal parts tough reality and exploitation. Even the closeup shots of lab mice, ripping each other to shreds after having been given concentrated drug doses, feel calculated to shock and repel. The sheer unpleasantness of all this admittedly virtuoso carnage simply overwhelms whatever ideas scribes Salle and Julien Rappeneau might have intended to get across about the endangered state of South Africa today, from the racial divisions that continue to spur gang warfare to the injustice of granting amnesty to apartheid killers. It doesn’t exactly further the cause to have the characters engage these topics in heavy-handed discussions, replete with dialogue such as “The past is the past” and “Some things aren’t easy to forgive.”

Although neither actor is at his best here, Whitaker and Bloom have been given meaty character histories to play, the better to link their personal traumas to their respective investigations (which, interestingly, seem to occur almost independently of each other). Yet these melodramatic formulations serve only to clutter and cheapen the narrative, particularly in the case of Brian, who spends far too much of the picture exchanging insults with his ex-wife and playing neglectful dad to a teenage son who looks more like Bloom’s younger brother. It all comes perilously close to soap opera, a sense reinforced by the filmmakers’ fondness for showing Bloom in various states of undress.

Technically, the picture is first-rate, benefiting from the expert combo of Denis Rouden’s vibrant-hued photography and superb location scouting. A stunning helicopter shot of Cape Town announces the film’s sweeping sociological intentions at the outset, and Salle provides fascinating glimpses of the city at every level, from the cluttered shantytowns to the wide-open sand dunes where the climactic action unfolds. Alexandre Desplat supplies a keening, operatic score that, however overplayed, sounds almost like the cry for justice and forgiveness that the rest of this morally and dramatically confused picture struggles to articulate.

Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (closer, noncompeting), May 25, 2013. Running time: 106 MIN.

• Production: (France-South Africa) A Pathe Distribution (in France) release of an Eskwad, Pathe, Lobster Tree, M6 Films co-production, with the participation of Canal Plus, Cine Plus, M6, W9. (International sales: Pathe Intl., Paris.) Produced by Richard Grandpierre. Executive producer, Frederic Doniguian. Co-producers, Eric Vidart Loeb, Juli Lotter, Romain Le Grand.
• Crew: Directed by Jerome Salle. Screenplay, Julien Rappeneau, Salle, adapted from the novel "Zulu" by Caryl Ferey. Camera (color, widescreen), Denis Rouden; editor, Stan Collet; music, Alexandre Desplat; production designer, Laurent Ott; costume designer, Rae Donnelly; sound, Nico Louw; supervising sound editor, Pascal Villard; re-recording mixer, Jean-Paul Hurier; special effects supervisor, Cordell McQueen; stunt coordinator, Kerry Gregg; line producer, Janine van Assen; associate producers, Florian Genetet-Morel, Vivien Aslanian; assistant director, Brieuc Vanderswalm; casting, Mito Skellern.
• With: Orlando Bloom, Forest Whitaker, Conrad Kemp, Inge Beckmann, Tinarie van Wyk-Loots, Regardt van den Bergh, Randall Majiet, Patrick Lyster, Joelle Kayembe, Tanya van Graan, Danny Keogh, Christian Bennett, Iman Isaacs, Nomhle Nkoyeni, Dean Slater, Oscar Pietersen, Khulu M. Skenjana, Chuma Sopotela, Thenjiwe Stemela. (English, Afrikaans dialogue)

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The untold story of the film Zulu starring Michael Caine, 50 years on

The battle of rorke’s drift has entered british folklore thanks to the 1964 movie. but the story of the film is almost as remarkable as what it depicts. sheldon hall looks back, article bookmarked.

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This Wednesday marks a double anniversary. On 22 January 1879, at a remote mission station in Natal, South Africa, barely more than 100 British soldiers held off wave after wave of attacks by some 4,000 Zulu warriors. The Battle of Rorke’s Drift lasted 10 hours, from late afternoon till just before dawn the following morning. By the end of the fighting, 15 soldiers lay dead, with another two mortally wounded. Surrounding the camp were the bodies of 350 Zulus.

This makes for a remarkable tale of courage and tenacity, on both sides of the perimeter. But historically the battle was a minor incident which had little influence on the course of the Anglo-Zulu War. It might have remained a footnote in the history books or an anecdote told at regimental dinners had it not been for a film which dramatised the story and has kept it in the public mind ever since.

Premiered 85 years to the day after the event it commemorates, the film Zulu is 50 years’ old this week. On its initial release, in 1964, it was one of the biggest box-office hits of all time in the home market. For the next 12 years it remained in constant cinema circulation before making its first appearance on television. It has since become a Bank holiday television perennial, and remains beloved by the British public. But the story behind the film’s making is as unusual as the one that it tells.

The filmmakers

The principal artists responsible for Zulu were hardly Establishment figures. Screenwriter John Prebble was a former Communist Party member who had volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War. His co-writer, the American director Cy Endfield, had fled Hollywood in the early 1950s after he was named as a Communist during the McCarthyite witch-hunts. Endfield’s production partner and the film’s main star was Stanley Baker, a life-long supporter of the Labour Party.

All three were committed to progressive causes, but their motives in making Zulu were not political. It is not an anti-imperial diatribe any more than it is a celebration of colonial conquest. Its main purpose was frankly commercial, but Baker also saw the story as an chance to pay tribute to his Welsh homeland. This certainly explains the strong emphasis on the Welshness of the private soldiers – one of the many fictionalised elements of Zulu that have created a myth around the battle.

Filming under Apartheid

The producers had to keep their political views in check when they made the decision to shoot the film in South Africa, then in the grip of Apartheid. There were strict, legally enforced guidelines regarding the degree of freedom permitted to the cast and crew. It was impressed upon the 60-odd British visitors that sexual relations with people of other races would result in possible imprisonment, deportation or worse. Warned that miscegenation was a flogging offence, Baker is reported to have asked if he could have the lashes while doing it. The authorities were not amused.

The main filming location was in the spectacular Drakensberg Mountains in the Royal Natal National Park, a popular tourist spot distant from any large township. But a number of incidents brought home the realities of the oppressive regime. Chatting to John Marcus, one of several professional black stuntmen employed on the film, assistant editor Jennifer Bates invited him for a drink in the bar/canteen that had been built on site for the crew. Marcus pointed out that he was forbidden by law to mix socially with whites and could not enter.

In his autobiography, Michael Caine recalls an incident in which a black labourer was reprimanded by an Afrikaans foreman with a punch in the face. Baker sacked the foreman on the spot and made clear that such behaviour would not be tolerated. Caine swore never to make another film in South Africa while Apartheid was in force, and kept to his word.

Introducing Michael Caine

Keeping watch over the tightly budgeted film was production supervisor Colin Lesslie. “I am very glad to be able to tell you,” he wrote at one point to the Embassy Pictures’ chief in London, “that in my opinion and from the little he has done so far, Michael Caine as ‘Bromhead’ is very good indeed. When he was cast for the part I couldn’t see it but I think (and hope) I was wrong.” This must have been a common reaction.

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Not quite an unknown, the 30-year-old Caine was already making a name for himself on television but was becoming type-cast in working-class Cockney parts. Casting him as a blue-blooded officer in his first major film role represented a considerable risk, but it was one that paid off.

Alhough Caine has sometimes claimed that reviewers gave him a hard time, in fact almost every mention of him in press notices was favourable. Zulu brought him the attention which led to multi-film contracts and to top billing in his very next picture as Harry Palmer in The Ipcress File (1965).

Thousands of ’em?

Just as the soldiers were played by real soldiers – eighty national servicemen borrowed from the South African National Defence Force – so were most of the Zulus real Zulus. A mere 240 Zulu extras were employed for the battle scenes, bussed in from their tribal homes over 100 miles away. Around 1,000 additional tribesmen were filmed by the second unit in Zululand, but most of these scenes hit the cutting-room floor.

Living in remote rural areas, few if any Zulus had visited a cinema and television had not reached Natal. The crew rigged up a projector and outdoor screen, and the Zulus’ first sight of a motion picture was a Western. From then on, the “warriors” had a better idea of what they were being asked to do. Responsible for training and rehearsing them were stunt arrangers John Sullivan and Joe Powell. “The Zulus were initially suspicious of us in case we were taking the mickey,” says Powell, now 91. “After a couple of days they realised we weren’t and got into it. After that you couldn’t hold them back.”

Contrary to stories the Zulus were not paid with gifts of cattle or wristwatches but received wages in Rand. The main corps was paid the equivalent of nine shillings per day each, additional extras eight shillings, and the female dancers slightly less again. Associate producer Basil Keys remarked: “There is no equality of pay for women in the Zulu nation!”

Buthelezi’s tribute

For the opening sequence depicting a mass Zulu wedding, 600 additional background artists were brought in, including nightclub performers from Johannesburg, to play the principal dancers. During breaks in filming, they twisted and jived to modern pop records played over Tannoys, with director Cy Endfield among the crew members joining them.

The small but key role of King Cetshwayo was given to his direct descendant, the present-day Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi. The wedding dance was choreographed by Buthelezi’s mother, a tribal historian, and supervised by stuntman Simon Sabela, who later became South Africa’s first black film director. In July last year, accepting an award named after Sabela, Buthelezi dedicated it to “that epic production, which became a milestone event, not only in cinematic history, but within the Zulu nation.” He recalled that the cast “found themselves re-enacting the deeds of their own grandfathers. Somehow this drew the audience into what was, in the end, a very human experience.”

History and politics

Like all films, Zulu is of its time and captures the mood of its time more profoundly than is often realised. A conservative view would see it as a hymn to gung-ho heroism, to flag-waving patriotism and the glory days of the British Empire. In fact, by 1964 the sun was already setting on the empire and undoubtedly Zulu stirred a lot of nostalgia for it. For some, that explains its appeal.

But look again. The knowledge that colonialism was in its dying fall is there in the film. The script is filled with a sense that the soldiers are in a place they don’t belong and don’t want to be. The indigenous people are not disorganised savages but a disciplined army. And the young lieutenant, played by Caine, who had earlier dismissed the enemy as “fuzzies” and the levies on his own side as “cowardly blacks”, now declares himself ashamed at the “butcher’s yard” he has brought about.

A modern awareness of racial representation means that Zulu has undoubtedly “dated”. If the film were to be remade today, as internet rumours continually suggest, it would certainly be done differently. But the absence of individuated black characters doesn’t make it racist. Though told from the British point of view, it shows that viewpoint change from dismissive contempt and naked fear to respect and even admiration. The famous (and entirely fictional) salute the departing Zulu army pays to the garrison survivors is returned with their – and our – gaze of awe and wonder.

Adapted from an article in Cinema Retro No 28 (c) Sheldon Hall 2014

Sheldon Hall is a Senior Lecturer in Stage and Screen Studies at Sheffield Hallam University. An expanded second edition of his book ‘Zulu: With Some Guts Behind It – The Making of the Epic Movie’ will be published later in the year by Tomahawk Press. For advance orders and inquiries, visit tomahawkpress.com or email [email protected], with ‘Zulu’ in the subject box

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Eye For Film >> Movies >> Zulu (1964) Film Review

Reviewed by: Jennie Kermode

One of the most important war movies of all time, attracting rave reviews on its release, Zulu has now been relegated to the Sunday afternoon television slot; most people are familiar with its story, but younger people are unlikely to have given it a proper viewing. This is particularly unfortunate as its splendid cinematography deserves to be seen on the big screen. It's a film whose impact depends on its sense of scale, inspiring a sense of wonder at the scale of the forces involved. Because in the end this isn't just a film about one group of men fighting another. It's about a clash of civilisations.

Based on a true story (though its depiction of some real life characters is hotly contested), Zulu follows events at a small missionary station and supply depot called Rorke's Drift in Natal, just across the border from Zululand. As a despairing pastor struggles to establish peace, a battle breaks out at Isandlwana in which the British are roundly defeated. Rushing to the depot, the pastor and his daughter warn the troops who have a field hospital there and are working on building a bridge. From the outset, their situation is heavily symbolic. Doubtless they see themselves as an island of civilisation, developing facilities that will one day be of use to everyone in Africa - but in the process, of course, they are engineering a civil and cultural conquest which the Zulus know fine well may destroy their whole way of life and the independence of their people.

Focusing as it does on an engineering regiment rather than an army of conquest, the film is able to get away with a lot of direct exposition to fill in viewers about each side's resources and abilities, though it also provides an opportunity to leave certain things unexplained, such as the reason for the Zulu impis' superior physical abilities (their use of performance enhancing drugs would have been a controversial subject for a film at the time of release). This delivery is well handled and film sensibly takes its time to let us get to know the men and their relationships before plunging into the action. Knowing that there is no way they can outrun their enemy, the soldiers choose to stay and try to defend their tiny outpost. This would go on to become one of the most celebrated actions in British military history, with numerous awards made for bravery, but, stirring music aside, there is little focus on that here - rather than simple glorification we get a complex portrait of the embattled men's psychology. It's an approach that simultaneously acknowledges their courage and challenges its necessity, undermining familiar beliefs about war.

Parts of this film are so well handled that it's difficult to find any flaw in them at all. The performances are beautifully judged - including that of Michael Caine in his breakthrough role - and they succeed in engaging viewers despite the gulf in attitudes and expectations between 1879 and today. It's unfortunate that we don't get to see more of what's happening on the Zulu side, beyond a bit of commentary on their tactics, but this is perhaps necessary in order to maintain the sense of claustrophobia within the outpost - this is an ensemble film but we are expected to identify strongly with a particular group. The early battlefield tactics of the British are, quite frankly, an object lesson in what not to do in that situation, but there is plenty to admire in their resolve if not in their actions.

Where the film is weakest is in its depiction of the battle scenes themselves. Cy Endfield's skill is notable when it comes to landscape and interpersonal drama, but here he is out of his depth, and no amount of inventive camerawork can take away the sense that we are watching a game of tig where simply being touched by a spear or bayonet makes one fall over and die. Aiming to tell a story like this without gore is commendable, but the complete absence of blood in some scenes makes it hard to suspend disbelief. It's out of keeping with the studious realism of other aspects of the production.

On the cusp between two traditions in the making of the war movie, Zulu is interesting in that it develops a critical perspective that still leaves room for admiration of the soldiers involved - on both sides of the conflict. Whilst keeping its storyline simple, it effectively demonstrates how each side learns to respect the other, inviting viewers to do the same - and in the process proving far more challenging to the colonialist narrative than the more outwardly anti-Empire films that came later. Even as it presents us with a stage along the way to the further development of that Empire, it presages its downfall - the downfall of an idea that could no longer be sustained in the face of the human understanding made stark and inescapable on the battlefield.

Director: Cy Endfield

Writer: John Prebble, Cy Endfield

Starring: Jack Hawkins, Michael Caine, Stanley Baker, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Nigel Green, Ivor Emmanuel

Runtime: 138 minutes

Country: UK

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Zulu Movie Review (1964) – Stanley Baker & Michael Caine Are Sensational

It’s great to see that another classic British film that has been restored. It’s also a war film that I’m referring to and is the focus of this week’s review. So without further ado here is my Zulu movie review (Blu-ray version).  I’ll be honest I love this film, it’s incredibly well made, but more on that later.

• Zulu (1964)
• Directed by: Cy Endfield
• Written By: John Prebble, Cy Endfield
• Music By: John Barry
• Cinematography By: Stephen Dade
• UK Rating: PG
• Foreword spoken By: Richard Burton

So for those of you yet to experience this classic war film here is a brief plot overview.

It should be noted that Zulu is based on a true story.  The year is 1879, South Africa the British have a small outpost/hospital/trading post at Rorke’s Drift consisting of between 100 to 150 men.

Following the routing of the British Army in a earlier battle against the Zulu’s, there is nothing to protect or stand in the way of the advancing Zulu Army that consists of between 3000, to 4000 Zulu warriors.

The British at Rorke’s Drift are utterly unaware of what awaits them and furthermore they are completely unprepared for the fight.

Michael Caine plays the commanding officer, Lt Bromhead at Rorke’s Drift, a slight cocky and arrogant character. Also in the area are a group of Royal Engineers lead by Lieutenant John Chard play by Stanley Baker.

When word arrives of a imminent attack the two Lieutenants have to decide who will take charge with Lt John Chard (Stanley Baker) just by months serving longer and therefore the senior officer getting the ominous job.

What follows are wave after wave of relentless attacks in what looks to be a futile defence.

• Play Dirty (1968) Blu-ray Review

Conclusion: Zulu Movie Review (1964) Blu-ray

It has to be said the way the film looks and feels in terms of direction and the way it builds the tension is absolutely perfect.  The cinematography is outstanding with the beautiful backdrop of South Africa.

Next I have to mention the soundtrack to the film, be it the Zulu chanting or the fabulous score from John Barry (James Bond Fame) all helps in elevating the film even further.  There is a nice documentary included on the Blu-ray version explaining how the music was created by incorporating the Zulu beats.  It’s well worth checking out.

Now to the acting and unsurprisingly with a great main cast and great supporting cast they deliver a performances that give the film a realistic and believable feel.  This is Michael Caine’s first main film role and he delivers the goods.  Caine plays an upper class officer and is a great contrast between that of Stanley Bakers character.

I believe it’s because of his performance here that he began to be offered the roles that made him famous, think Harry Palmer (The Ipcress File) and Alfie.  These were indeed his next two films and iconic ones.  But it was Zulu which was ultimately his big break.

Whilst Caine delivers a outstanding performance the films best performance comes from that of Stanley Baker.  He is the commanding officer faced with overwhelming odds. Initially playing a officer appearing to be somewhat out of his depth, by the end of the film you would not want anyone else in charge.  Great acting!

I know one thing for sure if I was in that predicament I would love to have Colour Sergeant Frank Bourne (Nigel Green) alongside me.  He is exactly the guy you need when anything’s going to hell!

Zulu Movie Review (1964) Blu-ray

The question is have they delivered near perfect sound and picture on the Blu-ray version?  Well no it’s not near perfect it’s actually PERFECT.  Zulu has been restored to look better than any other version out there including when it was first released.

The picture is nice and crisp and sharp without speckles of dirt or flickers.  It really does increase the enjoyment level seeing this newly restored version.  Top marks to all involved in the restoration.

Special features include a couple of documentaries one of those is with John Barry about the music of Zulu as I mentioned earlier.

The Blu-ray version ranks as one of the best restoration of a classic film I have seen. It truly looks amazing and shows why you really don’t need to remake classics when they look this good!

Zulu (1964) is available now on Blu-ray from Amazon .

The Amazon links on this page are affiliate / associate links. By buying through the links we may receive a commission for the sale. This has no effect on the price you pay.

A truly great war film, that delivers a outstanding visual and audio experience. Not only that but there are many memorable acting performances.

The film shows plenty of respect to the Zulu warriors and their bravery, whilst depicting the utter despair of the British Army.  This is done extremely well, the British who seemingly survive one attack only for another series of probing and relentless Zulu assaults to continue in what feels like an endless cycle.

Popcorn Cinema Rating: Zulu (1964)  

MOVIE RATING: OUTSTANDING

BLU-RAY RATING: EXCELLENT

POPCORN CINEMA: RECOMMENDED

A truly great war film, that delivers in every aspect, a outstanding visual and audio experience.

Zulu (1964) Film Trailer

That was my Zulu movie review but I guess you would like to see a bit of it.  I’ll leave you with a little taster…

Original Theatrical Trailer – Not representative of Blu-ray Version

Summary: Zulu (1964) Blu-ray Review

Movie title: Zulu (1964)

Duration: 133 mins

Director(s): Cy Endfield

Actor(s): Stanley Baker, Michael Caine, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Nigel Green

• Movie Rating
• Blu-ray Rating

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From the Archive | The Problems with Zulu

We look back at Phil Morris ‘ 2013 exploration of the art of Zulu, Cy Endfield’s iconic cinematic telling of the Welsh at Rourke’s Drift.

Zulu is a perennial Christmas TV favourite: eminently quotable, it forms a matrix of reference points that facilitate a multitude of immediate intimacies between men – in particular, Welshmen – for whom the trials of war have, for generations, been experienced vicariously through schoolboy comics and Playstation video games.

The screenplay for the film was based on an article, one of a series on the topic of battlefield courage, written by the historian John Prebble, who peppered his subsequent script with occasional sideswipes at the savagery of colonial war. Such nods to the anti-war spirit of the nineteen sixties, however, sit awkwardly alongside the Kiplingesque thrills of imperialist adventure that provide the film with its dramatic and emotive charge. Zulu venerates the martial bravery and supreme self-discipline of an indigenous African people, but it is also an unabashed nationalistic celebration of the Celtic warrior spirit. One of the stranger aspects of the film is that, in spite of its title, the heroic function of the film belongs to a small contingent of redcoats who hold out against successive tides of nameless black hordes, whose voices are raised only in thunderous pre-battle chants. Stranger still, this imperialist myth was shot, almost entirely, on location in South Africa, and in full compliance with the apartheid laws, by a formerly blacklisted Hollywood liberal, Cy Endfield, and the Welsh socialist actor-producer, Stanley Baker.

The film is an enduring classic; expertly crafted, epic in scale, with enough attention paid to the delineation of complex characters to provide Stanley Baker and Michael Caine with career-defining roles. A supporting cast of brilliant character actors, including Jack Hawkins, Patrick Magee and Nigel Green, flesh out a gallery of memorable characters, most notably the latter creating an indelible impression as the steadfast Colour Sergeant Bourne. John Jympson’s innovative editing allows Cy Endfield’s assured direction of the action sequences to unfold with electric pace and all in sumptuous Super Technirama 70mm film. John Barry’s memorable and superbly-orchestrated score, which was inspired by recordings of Zulu music he had researched, amplifies the grandeur of the conflict and the Drakensberg Mountains where the film was shot. Both in creative and technical terms, Zulu is a formidable film-making achievement; yet it is this very excellence that should compel us to examine its ideological flaws.

The broad facts of the story are dramatised with reasonable historical accuracy. The film opens with the annihilation of a column of fifteen hundred British soldiers by an army of twenty-thousand Zulus at the Battle of Isandlwana. Later, that same day, a force of four-thousand Zulus is seen marching on Rorke’s Drift, an army station-post manned by a meagre force of Royal Engineers and members of the twenty-fourth regiment of foot. News of the earlier disaster, and the prospect of imminent death, prompt the two commanding officers to this sardonic exchange:

Lieutenant Chard : The army doesn’t like more than one disaster in a day.

Lieutenant Bromhead : Looks bad in the newspapers and upsets civilians at their breakfast.

These lines suggest that rather than being dedicated to the military and ideological aims of British imperial policy; both officers are estranged from their fellow countrymen by a curious blend of cynicism and fatalism – the eternal excuse of the soldier intended to absolve him of his crimes, I serve at her majesty’s pleasure . In a later exchange, a young private demands of his wise old NCO:

Pte. Cole : Why is it us? Why us?

Colour Sergeant Bourne : Because we’re here, lad. Nobody else. Just us.

The realpolitik of imperial conquest is thus glossed over with the soldier’s shrug: theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die . In contrast, the Zulu warrior does not even get to pose his question, never mind receive an answer. The single utterance of a black character in the film is made by King Cetewayo, with the order of summary execution of a warrior who has man-handled the daughter of his guest, the white missionary Otto Witt. The moment attests to Cetewayo’s immense power, but also to his otherness, his barbarity, his supposed lack of civilisation. Cetewayo’s political aims and emotional ties to his country remain unexplored, a mystery, they are unimportant to the screenwriters and film-makers. The voiceless grievances of the Zulus – who, let us not forget, have had their lands invaded by the British – loom in ominous silence over the film. No one appears interested in why they are fighting or why they have to be killed. The bravery of the Zulu is certainly acknowledged, even admired by the British (and the Boer Adendorff) but, ultimately, the presence of the Zulus serves only to contextualise the bravery of their Welsh enemy.

The silencing and over-simplification of the Zulu are given added bite by the casting of Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi in the role of his great-grandfather King Cetewayo. Buthelezi would later lead the Inkatha Freedom Party, which became notorious for its collaboration with the Afrikaaner National Party in its fight against Nelson Mandela’s ANC. Stanley Baker might not have predicted Buthelezi’s future political career, but according to Baker’s widow, Ellen, the Sandhurst-educated Buthulezi was ‘treated very differently by the [South African] government’ which should have given Baker some inkling.

The Sharpeville Massacre had taken place a week before principal photography. Ellen Baker maintains that the South African security police (BOSS) were present on set throughout the shooting of Zulu . Given this political context, and the strictures imposed on the producers by the apartheid regime, the casting of Buthulezi and the lack of dialogue in the film for its black characters, seems at best naïve, and at worst complicity. Perhaps the exigencies of film production contrived to dull Stanley Baker’s politically liberal instincts, as James Booth, who played the iconic Private Hook, recalled twenty years later, “It is fun when you’re boys playing at soldiers.”

Historical epics require a little artistic licence if they are to work as dramas, and the minor historical inaccuracies in Zulu will not be listed here, as most of them concern changes to certain characters’ backstories. Yet in one notable instance, the interpolation of an invented event, the paradoxical wrong-headedness of the film is vividly illustrated. Prior to a final charge, the Zulus begin a war-chant to summon up their bloodlust and intimidate their redoubtable enemy. Chard, played by Baker, approaches Private Owen, played by the Welsh singer Ivor Immanuel:

Lieutenant Chard : Do you think the Welsh can’t do better than that, Owen?

Pte. Owen : Well, they’ve got a very good bass section, mind, but no top tenors, that’s for sure.

In other words, the Zulus lack polyphony – they lack the complexity and sophistication of Western music. They also lack that other signifier of Western prowess, the Henry-Martini repeating rifle. For lacking both, the Zulus must die.

In the most celebrated scene of the film, the predominantly Welsh defenders of Rorke’s Drift break into a spontaneous and polyphonic rendition of the Welsh anthem Men of Harlech . There is no historical record of soldiers singing during the battle. Only fifteen per cent of the British soldiers present were actually Welsh. Over a third of them were English. The regimental song of the soldiers at Rorke’s Drift was, in truth, A Warwickshire Lad . The question then arises as to why Men of Harlech features so prominently in Cy Endfield’s film. A new set of lyrics for the song was written especially for Zulu.  They are worth quoting in full:

Men of Harlech, stop your dreaming

Can’t you see the spearpoints gleaming

See the warrior pennants streaming

O’er the battlefield

Men of Harlech, stand ye steady

It cannot be ever said ye

For the battle were not ready — Welshmen never yield!

From the hills rebounding

Let this war cry sounding

Summon all at Cambria’s call

The mighty foe surrounding

Men of Harlech, on to glory

This will ever be your story

Keep these burning words before ye

Welshmen will not yield!

The original lyrics were written in the late eighteenth century and reportedly celebrate the heroic defence of Harlech Castle by Welsh soldiers under the command of Dafydd ap Ieuan from 1461 to 1468. Other sources claim it refers to another siege of the same castle, involving Owain Glyndwr in 1404. The important point to note here is that this song, which refers to anti-imperial resistance against the English, is sung by Welsh soldiers wearing the uniform of their colonial masters in the act of conducting imperialist aggression against people who are themselves expressing their resistance in song. In this crucial scene, Baker’s Welsh chauvinism has allowed him to present the defenders of Rorke’s Drift as Welshmen notionally protecting their little patch of Wales located in the middle of the Drakensberg Mountains. The station-post is no longer Zulu-land; it belongs to the Welsh who will defend it to the death.

Some may argue that John Jympson’s expert cross-cut editing between the opposing ranks of singing soldiers in this scene, establishes some form of moral equivalence between the two forces – their respective bravery appears to evoke some form of mutual respect. Yet while this spurious equivalence credits the Zulus with immense physical courage, it ignores their moral right to their land. The film climaxes with the Zulu army departing the field, but not before saluting their fellow braves inside Rorke’s Drift. No such salutation is mentioned in the historical records, and it’s most likely that the Zulus made a tactical retreat after spying a British relief column on its way.

Before the credits roll, the sonorous tones of narrator Richard Burton list the recipients of the Victoria Cross who fought in the battle, before Men of Harlech is reprised. The final words of the song boom out ‘Welshmen will not yield!’ The historical reality of the aftermath of the battle was more sordid and prosaic, as the historian Ian Knight describes:  ‘When the battle was over, the garrison and relief column went over the field, and shot or bayoneted all the wounded Zulu they found there.’

There is one exchange in which the cruelty of colonial aggression is acknowledged:

Lieutenant Bromhead : …I feel ashamed. Was that how it was for you? The first time?

Lieutenant Chard : The first time? Do you think I could stand this butcher’s yard more than once?

Lieutenant Bromhead : I didn’t know.

Lieutenant Chard : I came up here to build a bridge.

This seems to be a rather disingenuous case of trying to have your cake and eat it. Baker’s Chard wants to distance himself from his role within the imperial military machine, whereas the historical Chard continued to serve for many years in the British army after receiving his Victoria Cross, as did Bromhead. Zulu tries to present both the British soldiers and Zulu warriors as victims of a one-off historical happenstance over which neither had much control, They appear to fight each other reluctantly, yet bravely – indeed as ‘fellow braves.’ The reality was genocide. Zulu is not an anti-war film, nor truly is it a historical epic, it is a cavalry western in the old Hollywood style, in which white men kill indigenous people in order to steal their land, and are deemed heroic for doing so.

The emotive power of Zulu , its ability to inspire within Welshmen a yearning for past military glories is largely attributable to the skilled filmmakers who made it. Yet Cy Endfield’s film stands as a warning about the insidiousness of those old myths of empire and conquest. It is also proof that even those with a progressive political and social consciousness can be tempted into sacrificing their values in the pursuit of telling a ‘good’ story.

Phil Morris is a regular contributor to Wales Arts Review.

Banner illustration by Dean Lewis .

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Zulu Review

12 Jan 2013

NaN minutes

South Africa’s post-apartheid tensions resurface in a very silly, incredibly savage neo-noir that sees a serial-killer case mutate into a rage-drug conspiracy. In a film where all cops and suspects are angsty, damaged goods, a turbulent Orlando Bloom livens things up by acting like he’s swallowed a Sweeney box set.

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Zulu Reviews

... powerful performances... [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Dec 1, 2017

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Details: 2013, France, 110 mins

Direction: Jerome Salle

Genre: Crime

Summary: Two detectives – one black, one white – must work together to solve crime in Cape Town in South Africa.

With: Forest Whitaker ,  Natasha Loring and Orlando Bloom

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The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time.

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