Almost a masterpiece

Rating: 7/10 (20 February 2010)

"Introducing Michael Caine" alone is worth the price of admission. The stunning landscape and cinematography is worth another ticket. The powerful musical score is your 3rd ticket. Suspense+tension+drama... oh yeah you'll get your money's worth.
In short, this is a powerful film that will entertain, excite and affect you. But it stops just shy of being an artistic masterpiece for one reason. Although it flirts with some deep philosophies, I didn't get the feeling that it wanted to go in that direction. So despite the stage being set for a profound epic like "Aguirre the Wrath of God", this film may leave your soul unfulfilled.
In particular, there were some intriguing themes introduced right at the beginning but not explored fully. Unlike the cartoonish cowboy & Indian films that Hollywood was cranking out in the 60s where whiteman=good & natives=evil, this film begins with a more objective angle showing the Zulu tribe to be human, intelligent, admirable and more honourable than any other warrior race while the British are (at first) shown to be arrogant, disrespectful and parasitic. The film lingers on this paradigm, but perhaps it would have been too progressive in 1964 to openly suggest that the native people deserved the land more (just as with cowboys & indians), so we never get fulfillment of this thought.
A second interesting theme is that war is glorified butchery and nothing good comes of it. Again, this film flirts with that progressive message; however by midway, the principal character who advocates that stance is reduced to insane, irritating rants. So again, a powerful philosophy is buried. We do return to it later, but it is somewhat watered down.
Instead of philosophy, we get some very suspenseful battle scenes, first class acting, and great cinematography showing a gorgeous landscape (with a magnificent soundtrack to go with it). So even though I'm a bit disappointed that the film dropped the ball on philosophy, I'm very impressed with the rest of the package.
Michael Caine is riveting in a role unlike any other I've seen. His character is cold, cocky, pretentious & a real arse. But dang it, you end up loving him by the end of the film.
I can't imagine that anyone would ever regret watching "Zulu", so if you have a chance to see it (or buy it used at Blockbuster for $4 like I did), go for it.