By Lee Pfeiffer
Since its initial release fifty years ago, director Cy Endfield's British war epic Zulu has grown in stature. The film was understandably a hit in England but was deemed a boxoffice disappointment in the United States perhaps due to the fact that, like Khartoum (1966), the story relates to a historic battle that is well known by Brits by is virtually unknown to American audiences. What no one can dispute is that the film represents masterful movie making. Again, like Khartoum, it is a thinking man's war epic. The film relates the story of the Battle of Rorke's Drift, a tiny British outpost in southern Africa directly in the heart of the Zulu kingdom. A haunting pre-titles sequence shows the bloody aftermath of the Battle of Isandlwana, in which a British expeditionary force was massacred by Zulus in a sophisticated attack that stunned the government in London. Rorke's Drift is lightly defended by a relatively small group of British soldiers who know the Zulus are moving toward them. The officer is charge, Lt. John Chard (superbly played by Stanley Baker) is an engineer with no combat experience. His second in command is Lt. Bromhead (Michael Caine in a star-making performance) who doesn't inspire much confidence, either. He's a snobby dilettante who resents the fact that a sliver of military protocol has made Chard his superior officer. With the Zulu attack inevitable, Chard rises to the occasion and rallies his men by constructing crude fortifications and developing battle strategies. In the meantime, he must deal with a religious fanatic and his daughter (Jack Hawkins and Ula Jacobsson) who he must protect and a largely pessimistic company of soldiers who second-guess his ability to prevent them all from being slaughtered. The arrival of the Zulus is genuinely terrifying especially when Chard and his men realize how overwhelmingly they are outnumbered. Additionally, the Zulus have another unexpected edge: they have all the rifles and ammunition taken from the British soldiers they had defeated. Nevertheless, Chard manages to inspire his men and even Bromhead with his logic and courage. As with most war movies, the historical facts are considerably smudged in the interest of artistic license by that doesn't dilute the overall impact of the movie, which is thrilling.
Zulu deservedly ranks among the best British films of its era and it has lost none of its impact over the years. The battle sequences are impressively staged and, while the literate screenplay doesn't delve into the political reasons for the Zulu uprising (it was largely prompted by an arrogant English diplomat who broke treaties with the tribe), the film refreshingly doesn't present the natives as another case of "white man's burden". Instead, the Zulus and their chief are seen as noble figures who develop a mutual respect for the British, even as they are trying to kill them. The film features any number of wonderful supporting performances including Hawkins, Jacobbsson, Patrick Magee and Nigel Green and James Booth particularly impressive. Richard Burton provides the moving narration in the film's opening and closing sequences and John Barry provides what is undoubtedly one of his greatest film scores. As director, Endfield does a superb job, though he never got the acclaim he deserved. His long-delayed bu little-seen 1978 prequel to the film, Zulu Dawn, goes into much greater detail about the origins of the Zulu conflict and depicts the British defeat at Isandlwana, which rocked the entire British government.
The Twilight Time presentation is the best I've ever seen of this classic film and does full justice to the magnificent cinematography. An original trailer is included, an informative collector's booklet with notes by Julie Kirgo, an isolated track for John Barry's score and a very entertaining (and informative) commentary track by film historians Lem Dobbs and Nick Redman. There is still room for another deluxe collector's edition of Zulu (Cinema Retro's own Matthew Field produced an excellent documentary for the British release some years ago that one wishes was included on here), but for the moment, the Twilight Time Zulu is the edition of record.
The Blu-ray is region free and is limited to only 3,000 copies. We suggest you get a copy quickly as this is destined to be one of those titles you'll ultimately see on eBay selling for a small fortune.
Click here to order.
(The latest issue of Cinema Retro, #28, features in-depth coverage of the making of the film by Sheldon Hall, author of the book "With Some Guts Behind It" which documents the production of Zulu.)