Zulu
...was one hell of a great movie. I wonder when and how I will see it again.The Big Hollywood guys, a little more attracted to polemics than I, but I think pretty sensible overall, post on this fine movie.
A word about the Zulus - they really are Zulus. The filmmakers showed them old cowboy movies to teach them how to act. Some of their death scenes are a bit, well, exaggerated, but when the camera shows them charging across the veldt at full speed, you get a good idea of what those redcoats felt. And make no mistake - Zulu properly honors and respects the courage of these African warriors. They were worthy and honorable opponents.
It is a great movie - the standoff at Rorke's Drift was one of those truly compelling battles.
And it brought one of the greatest actors of our time to the forefront:
Michael Caine made his starring debut as the second in command, the initially frivolous Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead, who resents the ranking Chard’s usurpation of his command but comes to respect and depend on him. Caine, a Korean War veteran, is fantastic - a nobleman at first more concerned with hunting and horsemanship than leading his men, but who also demonstrates bravery and aplomb under fire. And there’s a larger truth there about such men even today - for example, Prince Harry is a London party boy yet he pulled every one of his many strings to get himself sent into combat in Afghanistan.
posted by Alan Adamson @ 6:53 PM
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