This review was requested by reader James Frazier. For details on how you can request a review of a film of your choice, see the footnote that follows this review.
For many people, the age of British colonialism has become a controversial period. In our modern ideological climate, imperialism has practically become a dirty word among many historians, who object to the way the United Kingdom and other colonizing countries steamrolled less developed cultures in order to further their own. There are a number of interesting movies that explore this idea, but Cy Endfield’s Zulu is not one of them, and it doesn’t try to be. It’s a rousing war picture in the classic tradition, made before the unpopularity of the Vietnam War made it almost impossible to make a war movie that wasn’t in some way or other about ideology.
Zulu is, first and foremost, a painstaking recreation of the 1879 Battle of Rorke’s Drift, a skirmish that pitted roughly 100 British soldiers against over 4,000 Zulu warriors. The first few reels of Zulu are devoted to introducing the characters and establishing the context for the battle, but the remainder of the film focuses solely on the progress of the battle itself. Not being a student of military history, I can’t speak to how accurate the film is. I only know that it’s completely convincing and satisfying in a dramatic sense, showing in great detail the way the outnumbered and overmatched British repelled the attacks by the Zulus and held their ground.
Rorke’s Drift was in the African colony of Natal, situated in the middle of what was traditionally Zulu territory. In the film, three men hold some measure of power over the outpost: young Lt. Gonnville Bromhead (played by Michael Caine in his first major role), engineering officer Lt. John Chard (Stanley Baker), and Rev. Otto Witt (Jack Hawkins), a missionary who along with his daughter presides over the church. But rather than simply focusing on these three men and allowing the others to
fade into the background, Endfield takes the time to introduce us to many of their subordinates at the outpost: the medical corps, the quartermasters and cooks, and the various regiments, which hail from all over the United Kingdom.
On first glance, the first third of the film feels bogged down with character introductions, but Endfield’s efforts pay off once the battle itself begins. If the pre-battle scenes are leisurely, the battle is a model of efficiency. Having established the characters and their relationships, Zulu is now able to concentrate on the military aspects of the battle without being slowed by the demands of plot resolution. If there film provides any conventional setup-and-payoff, it’s in the small character touches that come as each major character behaves according to his nature. Consider the way Lt. Chard and Lt. Bromhead decide who is in command- Bromhead, who is of noble birth, resents an engineering officer trying to take command, but once Chard informs him of his greater experience (a matter of months, as it turns out), Bromhead backs down and the issue is never raised again.
As the battle continues, the theme that comes through most clearly is the idea of honor through duty. By most people’s standards, it was crazy for the British not to retreat from Rorke’s Drift when faced with an army of Zulu warriors, especially when a much larger contingent of British soldiers had just been massacred by the Zulus earlier that day. But for Lt. Chard and Lt. Bromhead, there’s never a question of whether they’ll stay and fight. They’ve sworn their allegiance to the Crown, and if the Crown wants to keep a presence at Rorke’s Drift, then their honor, and that of Britain, rests on them standing their ground. That’s what most of the civilians in the film don’t understand- a band of Boer mercenaries on horseback retreats when they discover what they’re up against, and Rev. Witt is eventually sent away by Chard, both for railing against the battle and simply because his presence isn’t doing any damn good.
Meanwhile, the soldiers have no choice but to fight. As Tennyson wrote, “theirs was not to reason why/ theirs was but to do and die.” Yet in the face of almost certain death, they stand their ground and repel the Zulu attacks again and again. Some of the most fascinating scenes in the film deal with the strategies employed by the British to defend their post, most of which appear to be improvised. I especially liked the way Chard set a trap for the Zulus by pulling soldiers away from the walls to lure them in, only to spring a trap on them once they’re inside. Little wonder than Zulu is one of Ridley Scott’s favorite movies, or that both Black Hawk Down and Kingdom of Heaven owe a great deal to Endfield’s film. 
After the battle is over, the Zulus appear once more on the hills around Rorke’s Drift, but not for the reason the British think. Rather than attacking again, they chant for their worthy opponents, in celebration for their skill on the battlefield. Yet in the aftermath of their victory, Lt. Chard and Lt. Bromhead are more conflicted. Bromhead, still young and inexperienced, turns to his elder officer and says, “I feel afraid and there's something more- I feel ashamed.” Chard, ever the pragmatist, can only respond, “I came here to build a bridge.”
Previous Reviews by Request:
Baxter (1989, Jérôme Boivin)
Now, it’s your turn. What movie would you like me to review for the next installment of Reviews by Request? Let me know in the comments section below. To refresh your memory, here are the rules for requesting a movie to be reviewed: (1) it has to be a movie I haven’t seen, (2) it has to be available through Netflix, and (3) please only request one film. Other than that, anything is fair game (except for Fair Game which, alas, I’ve already seen). First to suggest a movie that qualifies gets their requested review. See you in two weeks!