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ZULU
'Zulu' was probably the Welsh movie. With Richard Burton's rich tones narrating, Stanley Baker's smouldering Chief Engineer Chard, and a plethora of Welsh accents and voices, including Ivor Emmanuel's riposte to a moving Zulu chant, stirring the troops into singing 'Men of Harlech' - as the hordes charged them yet again. Stanley ("Do you think I could stand this butcher's yard more than once?") Baker is almost matched in stiffupperlippedness by Michael ("I feel ashamed") Caine as Lt. Bromhead. Rorke's Drift, 1879, is indeed a long way from 'Alfie' and the Swinging Sixties. This was Iron Mike's first biggie. James Booth as the wastrel Hook, Nigel Green as the bristling, totally unfazed Colour Sergeant Bourne, and Jack Hawkins as a drunken priest, all make notable impressions. The British won, but it's not a pro-colonial/imperialist movie. It doesn't show war for anything it isn't. Death and mayhem affects both sides. A young soldier enquires why they're there to Colour Sergeant Bourne, who replies: "Because we're here, lad..." It sums up the futility of it all. - Paul Rance. Originally published in Eastern Rainbow No. 6, 2000. |
The Angry Silence Babe Bambi The Birds The Blue Max Casablanca Coming Home Cry Freedom The Defiant Ones Double Indemnity The Elephant Man Escape From Alcatraz Falling Down Gladiator Goldfinger Hell Drivers The Italian Job King Kong Legally Blonde 2 The Mark Of Zorro The Matrix Midnight Cowboy Moulin Rouge On The Waterfront Paths Of Glory Planet Of The Apes Psycho The Rebel Shark Tale Silent Running Sleeper Spartacus Spider-Man 2 Stuart Little Theatre Of Blood The Third Man The Vikings The War Of The Worlds Watership Down West Side Story When The Wind Blows Where Eagles Dare The Wicker Man Yellow Submarine You've Got Mail Zulu Directed by Cy Endfield |
