Partly. All the characters actually existed (at least one, Hook, was nothing like his screen character), and the tactics shown by both sides were broadly as shown. But there are dramatic liberties.

For UKers, Film4 is showing Zulu at 1pm on Saturday 6th.

And the Youtube link

Horrible premature mistake. The 5 minutes are indeed terrible, but the action picks up halfway through the first episode, then oodles of philosophy, violence, great acting, and tits. The bland first half episode makes the rest of the miniseries that much more meaningful and stimulating. Shaka Zulu is one of the greatest miniseries ever (though, the end, like the beginning, is meh).

ok, will give it another go. I had heard it was good, but assumed the person who had told me this had very low standards.

"It's fear dries the mouth, isn't it? When a man's as thirsty as this."
"I could have drunk a river."

Watched this yesterday. I'll wait to discuss but noticed something in the opening credits.

and introducing
Michael Caine

Does anyone know if this kid was ever in any other mpvies?

Tried to get the heathens in the Netflix recommendation thread in OOT to watch this movie a couple years ago now, but good luck getting them to watch anything older than 10 years.

Reminder: We will be starting the Zulu talk in one week.

I only have one week left to learn Zulu!? Man, I really need to starting craming now.

Welcome to Bizzaro Land aka OOT-Offshoot aka The Lounge, where getting anyone to watch anything less than 10 years old is a nearly impossible task. Hell, under 25 years old is an uphill battle.

I guess I'll watch the movie now.

Do do that Zulu that you do so well.

Men of Harlech, stop your dreaming
Can't you see their spearpoints gleaming
See their warrior pennants streaming
To this battle field

Men of Harlech stand ye steady
It can not 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 every be your story
Keep these burning words before ye
Welshmen will not yield!

On its way from Netflix. I'm in.

Reminder: We will be starting the Zulu discussion on Monday 15th

"The sentries report Zulus to the south-west. Thousands of em."

This discussion is now open.

I view this film as a classic, a masterpiece. It does take its time to start properly, with a leisurely look at the preacher and daughter in a zulu camp, and then the first halting conversation between Chard and Bromhead, but once Chard tells them to put the fires out with the soup and takes charge because he was commisioned a few months earlier than Bromhead, the tension and excitement start to grip, and never stop.

The big set pieces are terrific, the massed attacks, the drilling of the British soldiers using their guns to hold back the Zulu hordes, and the music, but like all truly great movies, there are also wonderful, often wordless, quiet moments that make it what it is.

When the zulus start chanting near the end, and Chard sees a man's chin drop, its clear he knows there isnt much fight left, for example. Or the rollcall at the end, where the Colour-Sergeant calls roll and silently crosses out the names of the fallen.

This is my favourite movie of all time. I know there are better movies, but this is my favourite.

I thought it was very good. I had seen it many years ago but remembered nothing about it. It is not a subject I have much interest in or knowledge of. I did wiki the battle and the war right after watching. The biggest question is what the hell are the British doing there in the first place and fighting with the Zulus on their own home turf?

I thought the performances were very good especially some of the minor ones like Hook and the sgt but Caine and the guy who played Chard were good too. Didn't really care for the preacher and daughter. I thought the action sequences were lacking too. A lot of the punches and spear/bayonet thrusts were definitely lacking. Likely a victim of early 60's filmmaking but I found it to be a distraction. But the scenes like the Zulus cresting the hills were great.

My favorite thing about this was the cinematography. Just excellent. I thought the action scenes were not very good either, mrbaseball. Kind of took me out of the moment. Other than that, though, I enjoyed this very much. Holy **** at a young Michael Caine!

I must be biased, but I really enjoyed the action scenes, in particular when the well-drilled riflemen used their training to devastating effect, coming forward line-by-line.

Yeah, that was well done but the hand to hand combat was not.

Agreed. That scene was great and really showed off the tactics of the times, but the close in combat not so much.

I hadn't seen this for many years, but it still holds up quite well.

Stanley Baker and Michael Caine both give amazing performances. It was beautifully shot, and the music by John Barry is outstanding.

However, the direction by Cy Enfield is not great. He's very good with the dialog scenes, but the action seems to be beyond his capabilities. When the Zulus attack, it all seems rather theatrical and unreal - which is fine, if that's what you're going for, but the rest of the film is quite captivating and so I was disappointed to see how badly the action scenes were shot. The only part of the battle that got me stirred up was when the Brits fell back and used the classic "three-row line," one above the other, to repel the horde.

I also hated Jack Hawkins as the Priest. Horrible over-acting and didn't care one bit about him. Of course, that could be Enfield's direction - he certainly wasn't shy about letting the rest of his cast over-act, either. Somehow, Caine and Hawkins wasn't affected, though.

But a great movie for the weekend. I even watched Zulu Dawn after it! And Michael Caine - wow - you just knew he was going to be a star after this.

I also enjoyed the "overrun by zulus" fighting, but I'll give you it didn't quite work when spear or bayonet was going into someone.


I also didn't like the preacher (Hawkins really wasn't please with his performance) and even less the daughter, but I did like the rest of the cast, especially the Colour-Sergeant. He showed humanity and understanding to his men in almost every quiet scene he was in.