Zulu

ZULU (PG)

D: Cy Endfield

Paramount/Diamond (Stanley Baker & Cy Endfield)

UK 1964

135 mins

War

W: John Prebble & Cy Endfield

DP: Stephen Dade

Ed: John Jympson

Mus: John Barry

Stanley Baker (Lt. John Chard), Jack Hawkins (Rev. Otto Witt), Michael Caine (Lt. Gonville Bromhead), Ulla Jacobsson (Margareta Witt), James Booth (Pvt. Henry Hook), Nigel Green (Sgt. Frank Bourne)

In the UK, Zulu is as big a staple of public holiday TV scheduling as The Great Escape or a Bond movie, with a tale of heroics at the Battle of Rorke's Drift which is to the Brits what The Alamo or Custer's Last Stand would be to Americans.

Set at a time during British colonial rule in Africa, a small platoon of soldiers must protect a fort from the attack of thousands of warriors from a Zulu tribe.

For the time of production, the reconstruction of the battle is excellent and the performances are all very good.

Overall, it's a film which will be better appreciated by those revisiting it for nostalgic reasons rather than those who are only just discovering it.

7/10