Zulu

Zulu feels like a trip to the countryside to an old house of deceased grandparents, which has been abandoned for years in solitude and is waiting for someone to visit it. Open the door and you will discover preserved furnishings that smell musty and look somewhat quaintly old-fashioned. You wouldn't want to live in it, but it can be enchanting to lovers of antiques. Open the wardrobe and you see clothes long out of fashion. Zulu could once have seemed like an epic blockbuster, but today it can only evoke an indulgent smile. In a sense, it reminds me of old westerns or movies about Native Americans, where settlers traveling westward on the prairie fend off attacks from wild Comanches. The film pays homage to the peak of the colonial era in Victorian Britain when white men took their share of colonial conquests as a civilizing mission of European culture into the wilderness. It features not so much living characters as human types, and the behavior of the officers reminded me of one of Michael Palin's Ripping Yarns episodes, which satirized the stiff British army. The film can be criticized from today's perspective for many things, from choreography to pathos. However, those who appreciate beautifully colorful uniforms and a world that was simple and had a black-and-white dimension can still enjoy Zulu today. Overall impression: 40%. (06/06/2016)

What to highlight first? The actors with the excellent duo of Stanley Baker and Michael Caine in the lead? John Barry's flawless music? The amazing cinematography and (on DVD) the digitally restored, new-looking image? Breathtaking battle scenes, which make you catch your breath, and from which adrenaline literally oozes, especially in the moments when the overwhelmed British deploy the tactic of line shooting a few meters away from the breached wall? A script that makes every character (except the pastor) sympathetic, and shows the Zulus not just as brutal apes coming down from trees, but also as remarkable strategists? Well... There's a lot. The film lasts two and a quarter hours and I wasn't bored for even a second. Strong stuff, this. (02/06/2012)

“The army doesn't like more than one disaster in a day. Looks bad in the newspapers and upsets civilians at their breakfast...” A British Alamo with a touch of Victorian superiority and without the ramblings of John Wayne. With a lengthy exposition of characters, naivety, and moments of warfare marred by the ravages of time and historical inaccuracies, some of which undermined potential anti-imperial messages (e.g., Zulu chants after the battle). And those hordes with sharpened machetes should be glad that, during the siege of Helm’s Deep - I mean, the mission station - Gandalf the White didn’t show up with the Riders of Rohan at dawn on the fifth day. (06/04/2024)