Zulu (1964)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Cy Endfield

Writers:

John Prebble (screenplay) and
Cy Endfield (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

17 June 1964 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama | History | War

Tagline:

Dwarfing The Mightiest! Towering Over The Greatest!

Plot:

Outnumbered British soldiers do battle with Zulu warriors at Rorke's Drift.

Plot Keywords:

Zulu | Battle | Warrior | British Army | Soldier

Awards:

Nominated for BAFTA Film Award.

Cast

Stanley Baker	...	Lieutenant John Chard R.E.
Jack Hawkins	...	Otto Witt
Ulla Jacobsson	...	Margareta Witt
James Booth	...	Private Henry Hook
Michael Caine	...	Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead
Nigel Green	...	Colour-Sergeant Bourne
Ivor Emmanuel	...	Private Owen
Paul Daneman	...	Sergeant Maxfield
Glynn Edwards	...	Corporal Allen
Neil McCarthy	...	Private Thomas
David Kernan	...	Private Hitch
Gary Bond	...	Private Cole
Peter Gill	...	Private 612 Williams
Tom Gerrard	...	Lance / Corporal
Patrick Magee	...	Surgeon Reynolds

Also Known As:

The Battle of Rorke's Drift (UK) (working title)

Runtime:

138 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | Zulu

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (35 mm magnetic prints) | 70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Mono (35 mm optical prints)

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Portugal:M/12 | New Zealand:PG | Australia:M (alternate rating) | Australia:PG (original rating) | Finland:K-8 | Singapore:PG (DVD rating) | Sweden:15 | UK:PG (video rating) (1989) | UK:U (original rating) | USA:Unrated | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Drakensburg Mountains, South Africa

Company:

Diamond Films

Trivia:

Because the film was shot in South Africa, the cast and crew were lectured on the need to refrain from fraternizing with the topless tribal dancers since the penalty for interracial sex in the country at the time was seven years hard labor.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Neither Bromhead or Chard received their commissions in 1872 as the film states, in fact Bromhead received his in 1871 whilst Chard got his in 1868

Quotes:

Reverend Otto Witt: Death waits you! You have made a covenant with death, and with Hell you are in agreement. You're all going to die! Don't you realize? Can't you see? You're all going to die! Death awaits you all!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Notre musique (2004)

Best film ever...

simply my favourite film. A true story well told.

I wanted to clarify some points from recent reviwers which I hope help exlain some questions. Mainly from Geofbob.

The two Lts. Chard and Bromhead - were new to battle. The reason Chard performed so well may be largely due to the fact that he was an engineer who knew about building defences. The mealie bag wall they build in the film was vital in order to slow up the thousands of zulus.

The victory was not a sure thing because they had guns. The zulus had hundreds of guns capture that morning from the other 1700 British troops that had been killed by the zulus armed with spears.

As to where the Hawkins character went to ? In reality he legged it away from his mission before the battle - later submitting a bill for damages to the British government.

No explanation into the reasons for the battle. No bad thing as the true story of men against men is a worthy tail on its own and any explanation would be open to interpretation - read the history yourself!

One last point everyone enjoys the Men of Harlech scene. Whilst this is poetic license - a very similar incident happened in the Afghan war at the same time. A Btirish regiment cut off and fighting to the end, sang God Save The Queen just before the final Afghan attack - they survived - remember these were very different men from today, no political correctness here and possibly a lot more courage. 10/10

Oh, and by the way Colour Sgt Bourne - very much existed in real life. He was awared the DCM and lived until 1945, the last survivor of Rorkes Drift.