Wednesday Double Feature
For this weeks selection I watched the 1964 epic, Zulu, and it’s 1979 prequel, Zulu Dawn
I first ever heard of Zulu in a documetnery on Micheal Caine’s carreer telling how it was his breakout roll. The clip included caine describing how he had worked out his character. Oter than that all I knew about it other than it was about the Anglo-Zulu War and since I had read quite a bit about Shakka and the nature of his army I doubted it was particualrly flattering to the Zulu.
When I watched Zulu I found I actually knew quite a bit more about it since one of my favorite science fiction novels, “On The Oceans of Eternity” cribbed it nearly in it’s entirety cribbed the whole thing for a subplot. The movie itself is a gripping ensemble piece about a small unit of soldiers trapped against overwhelming odds in the the Battle of Rorke’s Drift . Michael Caine is fantastic as the fastidious, fussy and aristocratic Lt. Gonville Bromhead whose stiff upper lip resolve gradually crumbles as the stress of the seige continues. It’s interesting to see him playing aggainst type even though this was done at a time before he even had a type.
Watching Zulu today is very interesting. I think it holds up very well. Of course on a 1967 budget it’s nearly impossible to show the true carnage of the event making the bare chested Zulu’s falling to gunfire seem like more of a pantomine than actual violence. But despite this the movie does a very good job showing the anticipation of the eventual siege and then the stress of the actual 12 hour long battle and the uncertainty whether anyone will survive.
Despite all of this there are two elephants in the room that have to be addressed with films like this. The first is since this is from the point of view of the British army there is no way whether intentional or not for this not to come off as a piece of colonialist propaganda. The other is due to the extreme differences in societies I can’t think of any way for the portrayal of the Zulus to come off in anyway that is at best patronizing and at worst racist. We are only given a chance to look at the Zulu as a people a number of times but even then these views are from the point of views of first a pair of Swedish missionary’s and then a Boer, hardly objective individuals. I suppose the less we are shown the more the invading army can come off as a force of nature but even that rationalization comes off as problematic to me.
The second film on my list was it’s sequel, Zulu Dawn or more accurately the prequel as it deals with the massacre that was the Battle of Isandlwana which happens directly before the events of Zulu (and the main reason nobody in Zulu thinks that their force of a hundred stands a chance. Filmed ten years after Zulu, Zulu Dawn has a much larger budget and it shows throughout the film. Unlike Zulu it looks more on the big picture and British hubris which leads to one of the must humiliating losses in the history of British Army. The other advantage that Zulu Dawn is we get to see more of the Zulu’s point of view. All in all a very enjoyable experience though I still think I enjoy the first film more. I would guess the best reason is that in giving us more of the context and showing us more it ends up having less focus. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNV2M-WOgMM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu8usgmMzDQ
You must be logged in to post a comment.