Posted on 07/10/2022 9:28:05 AM PDT by Rummyfan
Zulu is the sort of film that it's become imprudent, even inadvisable, to write about. Nearly six decades since it was released, its subject matter – a battle between white colonial troops and an African army – would certainly never be attempted by a filmmaker today, and certainly not in the same manner as it was in 1964, which it's worth remembering is as far away from us today as the Civil War was from the first stirrings of the Roaring Twenties.
(These temporal comparisons are facile, to be sure, though we've certainly seen as radical a social transformation in the last six decades as the stunning technological changes that happened between the presidencies of Lincoln and Coolidge.)
When it was released, Zulu was billed as a spectacle, an epic action picture that delivered the sort of widescreen thrills that television was two generations from capably providing. Even then, it was made at probably the last plausible moment for this sort of unironic celebration of valour by British redcoats on a foreign field; Tony Richardson's The Charge of the Light Brigade, released just four years later, would cast a far more acerbic eye on another celebrated instance of Victorian military bravery, reflecting the cultural sea change that had happened on either side of the '6
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
True and thanks again.
This was probably my dad’s favorite movie. He was raised as a borderline IRA sympathizer (I think he supported their grievances but not their means) with a lot of disdain for British colonialism. This this movie was just such a ripping tale of men enduring impossible odds and prevailing by the skin of their teeth that none of that mattered.
Very good movie. I haven’t seen it in years.
“First rank, FIRE!’’
My favorite movie of all time and one of the best musical soundtracks of all time.
“Men of of Harloch stop your dreaming, can’t you see their spear points gleaming...’’
Colour Sergeant Bourne as the South African border troops ride away leaving the men speechless:
“Alright then, no one said to stop working!’’.
This movie is awesome. I use to show scenes from it in my history class.
Colour Sergeant Bourne : It’s a miracle.
Lieutenant John Chard : If it’s a miracle, Colour Sergeant, it’s a short chamber Boxer Henry point 45 caliber miracle.
Colour Sergeant Bourne : And a bayonet, sir, with some guts behind.
A great movie
Great flick. Has some glaring historical inaccuracies, but a great flick nonetheless.
It seems to me that Rorke’s Drift was more of just a footnote to the Isandlwana (Isandhlwana?) battle prior to the Rorke’s Drift action. My guess is that Isandlwana gets historically short changed because of the outcome. The Brit’s don’t like to be reminded of when they got their butt’s kicked.
You beat me to it. I have no idea how many versions of the lyrics have been written over the years, but the one you link is my favorite. I have recommended this for years to English teachers as a good challenge for kids if and when they teach diagramming sentences. Between inverted sentence structures and poetic phasing, it’s a solid test.
I’m not aware that any of the teachers have ever risen to the challenge. Diagramming sentences seems to have gone out of fashion, and a lot of the schools seem pretty sketchy about the whole idea of sentences to begin with. But that’s a lament for another day.
Another note. Viewers of the movie often ask why Color Sergeant Bourne wasn’t awarded a VC. This has been much discussed and I don’t know whether the question was ever definitively settled, because it would have turned on private discussions among men long dead. The dominant view, however, is that Bourne, a much younger man than depicted in the movie, liked the army and intended to make it a career. He preferred a commission. He seems to have been offered the choice; the army wasn’t going to give him both. He took the commission and went on to a long, creditable career.
Oops, that should be poetic PHRASING. Also, this version of the lyrics requires some pretty slick, professional level singing in a couple of places, as the words don’t naturally fit the tune. This occurs when the tune does that Welsh sidestep — I have no idea what it’s called in musical terms — and changes dramatically. Listen to: “Shall the voice of wailing now be unavailing” and “Mothers cease your weeping, calm may be your sleeping.” You and your barroom buddies couldn’t pull this off.
Thanks for posting - what a fantastic scene. Zulu is a great movie - I need to watch it again, it’s been a long while.
Can you imagine being faced with those Zulu warriors & their displays, shield beating, etc.? Terrifying.
Zulu Assault Part 2 (includes the clip you posted)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96M0hH4IRvk
On a side note: The Zulu war display reminds me of the Maori Haka dance ... also terrifying if you were an enemy.
The NZ Blacks Rugby team does the haka ... that first “roar” gives me goose bumps. The NZ women’s team does the Haka, too. There are other teams that do war dances/chants: Tonga (Sipi Tua), Samoa (Manu Siva Tau), Fiji (Cibi). Watching the other teams trying to look as brave/tough while in the face of the Haka is interesting.
HAKA TIME | Top 5 Hakas from New Zealand in Rugby
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BORnyN5n3CI
Super Sarcastic note:
Austin & Milley need to be watching this for an example of real men/leaders.
I have this on DVD. No canceling it.
That reminds me, we should ping LS to the thread.
I saw it when shown on TV back in the mid 1960s. Not long after, 1968, a book came out about a critic’s review of all the movies on TV. I believe it was by Rex Reed.
So I checked out what was said about ZULU.
Talk about an agonizing screed! Basically he weeped and wailed about how such a movie could be shown on TV in those bad times of the 1967-1968 race riots!
Got it on DVD! Great movie! and the later movie ZULU DAWN also is a great movie!
For more info on the battle read THE WASHING OF THE SPEARS by Donald R. Morris.
I had to watch it in World History class - but that was 50 years ago
Blocking trolls can be great sport.
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