Zulu (film)
Awards and homages
In 2004,
the magazine Total Film named Zulu the 37th greatest British movie of all time.
"Zulu" was voted eighth in the British television programme "The
100 Greatest War Films".
The "Battle of Helm's Deep" sequence
in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was filmed in a manner
deliberately reminiscent of Zulu, according to Jackson's comments in supplemental
material included in the special extended DVD edition of The Two Towers.
The
Germanic war chant in the battle scene at the beginning of Ridley Scott's film
Gladiator is the Zulu war chant from Zulu. In the video commentary, Scott revealed
that Zulu was one of his favourite movies.
The Battle of O'Rourke's Ford in
S.M. Stirling's science fiction novel On the Oceans of Eternity is a recreation
of the movie premise, right down to a malingering Private Hook.
Plot
In 1879, a communiqué from British South Africa to the government in London, narrated by Richard Burton, details the crushing defeat of a British army at the hands of the Zulus at the Battle of Isandhlwana. The first scene shows a grassy landscape with many dead British soldiers, while victorious Zulus gather their weapons.
A mass Zulu marriage ceremony witnessed by missionary Otto Witt (Jack Hawkins), his daughter (Ulla Jacobsson) and Zulu King Cetshwayo (Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi) is interrupted by a messenger who informs Cetshwayo of the great victory earlier in the day.
The movie then shifts to the missionary station of Rorke's Drift in Natal, being used by the British army as a supply dump and hospital for their now-defeated invasion force across the border in Zululand. The commanders of the depot, Lieutenants John Chard (Stanley Baker) and Gonville Bromhead (Michael Caine), receive news of Isandhlwana and that a large enemy force is advancing their way. Realising that they cannot outrun the Zulu army, especially with wagonloads of wounded soldiers, the commanders decide to fortify the station, using wagons, sacks of mealie, and crates of ship's biscuit, and await the assault.
As the Zulu impis approach, soldiers of the Natal Native Contingent and British settlers flee the site. Zulu sharpshooters open fire on the station from a neighbouring hill. Over the next few hours, the main Zulu body launches wave after wave of attacks, which are repulsed, though the attackers succeed in setting fire to the hospital, leading to intense fighting between British patients and Zulu warriors as the former try to escape the flames. Attacks continue into the night, finally forcing the British to withdraw into a tiny redoubt built from supply crates.
The
next morning, having sustained horrific casualties, the Zulus withdraw several
hundred yards and begin singing a war chant; the British respond by singing "Men
of Harlech". After a last failed assault, the Zulus withdraw and sing a song
to honour the bravery of the British defenders, and leave. The film ends with
a narration by Richard Burton, listing defenders who received the Victoria Cross--
including Private Hook. (Eleven were awarded for the actual fighting at Rorke's
Drift, the most ever for a regiment in a single battle in British military history.)
Cast
Stanley
Baker - Lt. John Chard
Jack Hawkins - Rev. Otto Witt
Ulla Jacobsson
- Margareta Witt
James Booth - Pte. Henry Hook
Michael
Caine - Lt. Gonville Bromhead
Nigel Green - Colour Sgt. Frank Bourne
Ivor Emmanuel - Pte. Owen
Paul Daneman - Sgt. Robert Maxfield
Glynn
Edwards - Cpl. William Allen
Neil McCarthy - Pte. John Thomas
David
Kernan - Pte. Fred Hitch
Gary Bond - Pte. Thomas Cole
Peter Gill - Pte.
John (612) Williams
Tom Gerrard - Lance Corporal
Patrick Magee - Surgeon
Maj. James Henry Reynolds
Richard Davies - Pte. William (593) Jones
Denys Graham - Pte. Robert (716) Jones
Dafydd Havard - Gunner Howarth
Dickie Owen - Cpl. Frederic Schiess, NNC
Larry Taylor - Hughes
Joe Powell - Sgt. Joseph Windridge
John Sullivan - Capt. Stephenson, Durnford's
Horse
Harvey Hall - Sick man
Gert Van den Bergh - Lt. Josef Adendorff,
NNC
Dennis Folbigge - Commissary James Langley Dalton
Kerry Jordan -
Company cook
Ronald Hill - Bugler
Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi - King
Cetshwayo kaMpande (as Chief Buthelezi)
Daniel Tshabalala - Jacob
Ephraim
Mbhele - Red Garters
Simon Sabela - Zulu dance leader
Richard Burton - Narrator (voice)
factual errors
The
Swedish missionaries (the Witts) were not at the Battle of Rorke's Drift. Witt,
his wife and infant daughter (Witt is depicted as a widower with an adult daughter
in the film) were 30 km away. They had put Rorke's Drift at Lord Chelmsford's
disposal.
The 24th Regiment of Foot is described as a Welsh regiment: in fact,
although based in Brecon in south Wales, its designation was the 24th (The 2nd
Warwickshire) Regiment of Foot. It did not become the South Wales Borderers until
1881. Of the soldiers present, 49 were English, 32 Welsh (18 of whom were from
the county of Monmouthshire - not then classed as a "Welsh" county),
16 Irish and 22 others of indeterminate nationality.
The song "Men of
Harlech" features prominently as the regimental song; it did not become so
until later. At the time of the battle, the regimental song was "The Warwickshire
Lad". There was no "battlefield singing contest" between the British
and the Zulus.
The actors have a more modern appearance than the originals
did. Michael Caine, for example, with his shiny teeth and groomed blonde hair,
bore little resemblance to the real Gonville Bromhead. Bromhead was partially
deaf, a disability not mentioned in the film.
Many of the men, including Bromhead
and Chard, wore full beards at the time of the battle. The film depicts them as
largely clean shaven, with some sporting carefully-tended mustaches or sideburns.
The British infantrymen of the Anglo-Zulu War did not wear sparkling white
pith helmets. They were stained a tan color (with tea or coffee) without helmet
plates, and the bright scarlet uniforms were always covered in dust making them
appear brown.
The seniority of Chard over Bromhead (measured by their dates
of commission) was three years, not three months as in the film.
There was
no dispute over command. Lieutenant Chard had been left in command, due to seniority,
by Major Henry Spalding, well before the battle. Spalding had ridden off to get
reinforcements but his motives have been questioned. Spalding claimed that he
did not anticipate an imminent attack.
Private Henry Hook VC is depicted as
a rogue; in fact he was a model soldier who later became a sergeant; he was also
a teetotaller. While the film has him in the hospital "malingering, under
arrest", he had actually been assigned there specifically to guard the hospital
building.
Conversely, Corporal William Allen is depicted as a model soldier;
in fact, he had recently been demoted from sergeant back a rank for drunkenness.
Colour Sergeant Bourne is depicted as a big, hardened, middle-aged veteran;
in fact, he was of smaller stature and, aged 23, the youngest colour sergeant
in the British Army. He was called 'The Kid' by his men. Sergeant Bourne would
not have worn medals on his duty uniform, and the medals used in the film appear
to be of World War I issue. Moreover, Green's costume has the chevrons on the
wrong arm.
The role of Padre George Smith ["Ammunition" Smith] is
completely overlooked.
The building of defensive ramparts and initial defence
of Rorke's Drift was in fact organised by Acting Assistant Commissary James Langley
Dalton. His distinction was rewarded with the VC presented a year after the battle.
The film gives most of the credit to Lieutenants Chard and Bromhead. The real
Dalton had retired as a Quartermaster Sergeant after 22 years of service in the
British Army before joining the Commissariat and Transport Department. The film,
however, portrays Dalton as something of an effete character, who does little
that might be called heroic. This makes his award of a VC, as recounted at the
end of the film, something of a mystery.
The column of British irregular cavalry
seen briefly in the film was actually at Rorke's Drift. However, Chard ordered
them to leave after finding that they had little ammunition of their own.
The
uniforms of the Natal Native Contingent are inaccurate;
NNC troops were not
issued with European-style clothes.
The real Sergeant Maxfield, as in the
film, was delirious with fever. However, he was too weak to leave his bed and
was stabbed to death by Zulus while the other sick and injured were being evacuated
from the room.
Private Cole was assigned to defend the hospital, not the perimeter.
He was killed when he ran out of the hospital alone, possibly due to claustrophobia.
Since he was killed by a bullet to the head, his last words in the film are unlikely
to be authentic.
Corporal Christian Ferdinand Schiess was significantly
younger than the actor who portrayed him. At the time of his death in 1884 –
five years after the battle – he was 28 years of age.
Private Hitch was
shot through the shoulder, not the leg.
None of the rifles used by the Zulus
were taken from dead British soldiers after the Isandlwana, as NNC Lieutenant
Adendorff in the film suggests. In truth, most of the firearms used by Zulu troops
were obsolete Brown Bess muskets, purchased decades earlier from German traders.
In addition, the Zulu impis that attacked Rorke's Drift had not participated in
the Battle of Isandlwana, and so had not had the opportunity to glean rifles from
the battlefield.
The ending is somewhat fictitious. There was no Zulu attack
at dawn on January 23, 1879, which in the film led to the singing of "Men
of Harlech". There was only sparse fighting with a few remaining Zulus. The
Zulus did not sing a song saluting fellow warriors, and they did not depart peacefully.
They departed at the approach of a British relief column[citation needed].
The
story of the black Natal Native Contingent troops' desertion is true. However,
as Witt was 30 km away at the time, he was not responsible for their departure.
They left of their own will[citation needed], with Stephenson and his European
NCOs. These deserters were shot at and one of the NCOs, Corporal Bill Anderson,
was killed.
The film omits the killing of wounded Zulus by British soldiers
after the battle. There has been speculation that several hundred may have been
bayonetted, clubbed or shot in the battle's aftermath. (This was common practise
if a small force prevailed over a much larger one, as it would have been unable
to guard all the prisoners.)
The officers are shown using Webley Mk VI .455
revolvers which were not introduced until 1915 (36 years after the events depicted
in the film) instead of the Beaumont-Adams revolvers that Bromhead and Chard actually
used. However, the British officer of the time was allowed to use any sort of
sidearm he wished, as long as it fired .455 ammunition. Officers often privately
purchased Webley top-break revolvers (in 1879 not yet officially adopted for service)
somewhat similar in appearance to the Mk VI Webley. These Webley models had been
put on the market during the 1870s - such as the Webley-Green army model 1879
or the Webley-Pryse model. So the Webley model Mk VI was not yet developed when
the film was set, but the design is typical of Webley revolvers of the period
and can be seen as an example of artistic licence.
Several men can be seen
using Lee-Enfield Mk. I bolt-action rifles instead of the historically correct
Martini-Henry. Apparently, they ran out of .450/577 blanks during filming - close
observation shows that, in many cases, the actors are simply dry-shooting the
empty Martini-Henrys and simulating the recoil, with the gunshot sound effect
dubbed in later.
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