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

Colour:

Colour (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:

The then Minister of Native Affairs banned the film for screenings to black South Africans as "it might incite them to rise up in revolt".

Goofs:

Continuity: The scene with the messenger approaching the king, the sun is shining on the king's left shoulder. The following scene, messenger facing the king, the sun is shining from behind the camera position casting a different angle of shadow.

Quotes:

Lieutenant John Chard: What's our strength?
Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead: Seven officers including surgeon, commissaries and so on; Adendorff now I suppose; wounded and sick 36, fit for duty 97 and about 40 native levies. Not much of an army for you.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Dog Soldiers (2002)

Courage, Honor, Humanity .... War

There can be no "War Movie" which is not at the same time an "Anti-war Movie". The nearly unique aspect of this movie is that it depicts that rare event in human conflict; a battle in which both sides may be said to have won. And both sides lost, of course. Lives, hopes, aspirations. Incredible performances by Stanley Baker, a very YOUNG Michael Caine. Jack Hawkins plays a credible drunken minister, and Nigel Greene delivers the eternally memorable line; when asked by a frightened soldier "why us?" Color Sergeant Bourne implacably replies "Because we're here, lad. Because we're here." It's as impossible to ignore the fine, sensitive scripting as the surprisingly lucid depiction of The Battle of Roark's Drift. Historical inaccuracies are in petty details only; the sense of simultaneous exaltation and shame that a soldier feels after surviving his first battle has never been more accurately portrayed. Where else can you watch the making of heroes from such obviously human material? Stanley Baker's determination to make this film has earned him a place in theater history.