One of the great battle movies: Zulu

[billc]

Over at bighollywood.com they are remembering the composer who did the james bond movies. Apparently, he also did the music to one of the great battle movies ever made, the movie Zulu. I loved this movie as a kid. the battle scenes were awesome, and I have yet to see many other movies recreate the atmosphere of a tightly fought battle the way this movie did. For those interested:

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/b...composer-john-barrys-finest-hour/#more-442060

 

[perceive]

I cannot remember the soundtrack to this movie but I will have to hunt it down now.
John Barry was an amazing composer.

 

[Sukerkin]

And Zulu was an amazing movie. One of my all time favourites.

As a youngster (yes, we watched films like that and were not scarred by them; a shock I know ) it defined for me what courage was i.e. not being immune to fear but conquering it.

Plus, the Colour Sergeant opitomises what a British NCO should be to me, moustache and all .

Some favourite quotes:

Colour Sergeant Bourne - "Do your tunic up man! Where do you think you are?!" {that ones a paraphrase of a two way conversation}


Colour Sergeant Bourne- "It’s a miracle….."
Lieutenant John Chard- "If it’s a miracle, Colour Sergeant, it’s a short chamber Boxer Henry point 45 caliber miracle….."
Colour Sergeant Bourne - "And a bayonet, sir, with some guts behind it."

Colour Sergeant Bourne - "Mister Witt, be quiet now, will you? There's a good gentleman. You'll upset the lads."

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Lieutenant John Chard: The army doesn't like more than one disaster in a day.
Bromhead: Looks bad in the newspapers and upsets civilians at their breakfast.

Great movie, even with a few historical inaccuracies.

 

[MA-Caver]

I remember watching said movie a LONG time ago when I (too) was a kid... it's been a while since I've seen it and I'll probably look for it next time I'm at the used DVD store.

 

[Tez3]

I don't know whether it's a good thing or not but the army still talks like that.

 

[billc]

Another interesting battle movie is Zulu Dawn, about the battle that came before Roarkes drift. This battle went the other way.

the memorble line for me in the movie is when Burt Lancaster, as the one armed, officer in charge of the native contingent dismounts from his horse, gives it to his native aide, and then tells him something like, " when you get back, please tell the ministers daughter that I was obliged to remain with my infantry," and then he slaps the horses flank sendint the aide off. He then jumps on a wagon and meets his end. Great scenes.

Have you read any accounts of the actual battles? I remember reading, I think it was Washing the Spears, about the Zulu wars. At Islandwhana, the Zulus were at the point of breaking, according to their accounts, when all of a sudden the rate of fire from the British dropped drastically. This gave the Zulus the opening to close with the British and win the encounter. The whole historical debate about wether or not the supply officers had enough of the box openers for the ammo cans was an interesting point. What little things can turn battles from victory to defeat.

 

[Sukerkin]

I believe from what I recall of my study of this battle a number of years ago that the most accepted tactical/environmental reasons for the defeat sit, like the Zulu attack, upon two prongs.

The first is that the line was set too far out and was too dispersed to give proper overlapping coverage at points of contact.

The clincher was that the sustained fire in high temperatures lead to a huge number of jams and mis-fires. The lack of enough men close by to cover a soldier who was dealing with a jam was just sufficient to allow the Zulu's to break through.

Physical evidence at the site show that the soldiers had no shortage of ammunition for, as soldiers ever do in such circumstances they circumvented 'procedure'; if they didn't have the 'key' to undo the screws on the ammo boxes they just bashed the lids in. However, a personal account of the day does insist that tho' there was sufficient ammunition for the unit, not enough was brought quickly enough to the firing line from the quartermasters wagons - hence, I assume, the infamous scene from the film with the quartermaster refusing to release ammo boxes because the runner did not have the right chit.

I saw a documentary on this a few years ago and it was strangely moving as the archaeologists found the point where they believed the last man fell that day. They marked the places where they could identify where men fell with little cairns of stones - it was, as I said, an emotional sight to see the field marked so. You could read the dispositions of the unit from the lines of cairns and the cluster around the hill where they stood so valiantly to the last brought a tear to the eye.

For those interested in reading a first hand account of that battle, bearing in mind that sometimes those that are there in the thick of it are not always the best witnesses, I recommend:

http://www.richthofen.com/smith-dorrien/dorrien01a.htm

And a good site for starting to investigate Rorke's Drift http://www.rorkesdriftvc.com/battle/battle.htm

 

[Tez3]

Modern connections...
In the first hand account posted by Sukerkin several regiments are mentioned, they still exist albeit in different froms but the battle honours are still paraded from the South African campaign.
Some regiments have been through a few amalgamations but this is where they ended up today.
The writer's father is mentioned as being in the 16th Lancers, this regiment was amalgamated with others into the Queen's Royal Lancers, based here at Catterick, they lost two soldiers a few months ago in Afghanistan. One was 20 year old Andrew Howarth.

The Royal Artillery and the Royal Engineers are the same

1st Foot got taken into the Royal Scots now the Royal Regiment of Scotland.

2nd Foot are in the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment

22nd Foot were the Cheshire Regt now the Mercians, they are here at Catterick too and lost 12 soldiers and over 30 wounded, some triple amputees in Afghan on last tour.

24th Foot was the South Wales Borderers now the Royal Welsh Regiment. One of their soldiers was the 50th British serviceman to be killed in Afghan. His name was Chris Harker.


Bravery is never outdated and always to be respected.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Zulu - Movie Trailer

Zulu Battle of Rorke's drift

Zulu final attack

 

[Sukerkin]

To show that you can always learn something new about an event you have studied, I learned today that Colour Sergeant Bourne, as well as being the last surviving defender of Rorke's Drift, actually died on May 8th, 1945, at the age of 91. For those whose history might be a bit less focussed than mine, that's VE Day!

It's as if he waited to be sure that the Empire he served with such courage saw victory once more.

 

[Tez3]

To show that you can always learn something new about an event you have studied, I learned today that Colour Sergeant Bourne, as well as being the last surviving defender of Rorke's Drift, actually died on May 8th, 1945, at the age of 91. For those whose history might be a bit less focussed than mine, that's VE Day!

It's as if he waited to be sure that the Empire he served with such courage saw victory once more.

I can imagine he spent the war telling the Home Guard how it should be done!

 

[Xue Sheng]

From here

Colour Sergeant Bourne DCM, (2459 B Co. 24th. Regiment)

Colour Sergeant Bourne as played by Nigel Green in the movie Zulu

 

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

About 6 months ago I ordered both Zulu and Zulu Dawn from Best Buy.

I got Zulu but Zulu Dawn was out of print.

My 8 year old loves Zulu and he enjoyed the history lesson I gave him while watching it.

A great example of "ritish steel in the hour of chaos", of fighting side by side for the lives of your brothers, of never giving up and how by using your enviroment and setting up defensive positions and controlling your fire you can extract enough blood and pain to make the enemy go elsewhere.

Micheal Cain was great in one of his first roles as well.

It's interesting to note that this battle happend around the same time as Custer's last stand.

I have wanted a Martini-Henry ever since I saw this film first at 19.

 

[Mark Jordan]

One thing that is amazing about this film is that it is accurate in its depiction of the Rorke's Drift action. It is extensively well-researched and the battle scenes are terrifying and amazingly done. Not to mention that is was superbly directed by Cy Endfield.