How to Pick Sides?

Rating: 6/10 (18 July 2017)

Zululand, South Africa, 1879. The British are fighting the Zulus and one of their columns has just been wiped out at Isandlwana. The Zulus next fix their sights on the small British outpost at Rorke's Drift.
This is an interesting film in that it puts the viewer in an awkward position. On the one hand, you want to root for the underdog, right? A couple hundred soldiers against thousands... you want to see them win. But this is now 1964 (or 2017 if you're me) and we have different ideas about colonialism. This land belongs to the locals -- why should we encourage the British? Regardless, this is a great early film from Michael Caine and he is almost unrecognizable to us who know him as the elderly (or at least distinguished) gentleman he became.