Z is for ZULU

Here we are at the end of another round of ABC Wednesday (courtesy of Denise Nesbitt) and I think I did pretty well this time. I chose "Destinations" as my theme and I managed every week (except X) to post the name of a place where I have actually been. However, now at the letter Z, I have to detour a bit. I've never been to any place beginning with the last letter of the alphabet so I had to have a real hard think about what to do this week. I decided to do a post about the movie "Zulu," which happens to be one of my favourite old (from 1964) movies. Michael Caine landed one of the starring roles in this movie after having played only bit parts up to this point in his career.

The film depicts the Battle of Rorke's Drift between the British Army and the Zulus in January, 1879, during the Anglo-Zulu War. I'll never forget one night when I was in bed almost asleep when suddenly I heard a haunting and frightening chant: ZULU! ZULU! ZULU! It turned out my parents were watching the movie on TV and I heard the chanting of the Zulu warriors before they attacked the British.

It's almost unbelieveable that the few British soldiers were able to hold off the Zulu warriors for as long as they did, but it was because of their use of the redoubt system when the British formed into three ranks, shooting volley after volley into the stunned Zulus, who eventually withdrew after massive casualties.

Apparently, there were many historical inaccuracies in the film regarding characters, the regiment, weaponry, the Zulus, and the ending. However, in 2004, the magazine Total Film named "Zulu" the 37th greatest British films of all time and it was voted eighth in the British TV programme The One Hundred Greatest War Films. Take a look at this short section of the film and tell me you wouldn't have been scared sh**less had you been one of those soldiers!