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Zulu Customer Reviews (19 - 21 of 42 Reviews)

My favorite character was Colour Sergeant Bourne. The Actor portraying him did a great job, I'd follow him into action any day. His facial expressions were prefect and he had some of the best lines in the movie, also. "mark ye targets"...."say sir, officer on parade"...."there's a good gentleman" come to mind.

For those who don't know, the British soldiers there actually suffered very few fatal casualties....about 10 I believe. Amazing, when you realize that they were fighting at very close quarters and sometimes even hand to hand. Well done, Men of Harlech.

Basically an Anti-War Movie
Zulu is basically more of an antiwar movie than an action adventure flick. War is not glamorized in Zulu and it is shown in all its horrific repulsiveness. Nor for that matter are there any heroes in Zulu for nobody acts heroically. The officers and soldiers know that its likely that they will die defending their isolated frontier outpost against the Zulu hordes and they are bitterly resentful of that fact.

This makes Zulu an original and different movie. However, the quality of the acting is generally low, although Michael Caine delivers a splendid performance. The script, direction and special effects are also deficient. Zulu was made on a low budget and it shows.

Zulu is an example of how a great idea does not necessarlily result in a great movie.

20th Century version of a 19th Century action
Some time after seeing ZULU in theatrical release, I found Morris' *The Washing of the Spears* and learned that some significant details of the film were in error. For one thing, very few of the defenders of Rorke's Drift were the beardless young soldiers depicted in the movie, most of 'B' Company, 2/24th, being regulars of long service. For another, the depiction of Assistant Commissary James Langley Dalton as a fussy "old maid" type was unspeakably unfair. (Dalton was in fact a former Sergeant-Major with a Line Regiment, the 85th [Kings] Light Infantry, and was the individual responsible for convincing Lt. Chard to fortify and stand against the Ulundi Corps at the mission station. For his courage and the role he played in the defense of the Drift he was himself quite justly awarded the Victoria Cross.)

In the 20th Century, we've become accustomed to seeing the ranks of infantry companies filled with young conscripts, usually 18 to 20 years of age, and we've lost touch with the fact that most of the "Little Wars" of Victorian England were fought by battalions of regulars wherein private soldiers were commonly in their late 20s and early 30s, with eight or ten years' service in their respective regiments. Moreover, we're inclined to think of noncombatant support troops like Commissary Dalton as "civilians in uniform" when in actuality they were likely to be hardened military veterans "double-dipping" in secondary careers (when they weren't active-duty NCOs or commissioned officers seconded to support functions).

Finally, there are the romantically heroic depictions of Chard and Bromhead with which ZULU has to contend, the characterizations of these officers being very much at odds with historical record. In reality, Rorke's Drift was almost entirely a Sergeants' fight, with Colour Sergeant Bourne and ex-Sergeant Dalton largely responsible for the successful organization and execution of a skillful and tenacious defense against incredible odds.

ZULU is an excellent action/adventure film, and stands up well even today, but it could have been even better had it been done with greater historical veracity, paying overdue tribute to the career enlisted men who made the British regimental system of the 19th Century the exemplary organizational model it was.