Overlong But Very Absorbing.

Rating: 8/10 (26 August 2002)

Zulu is perhaps one of Stanley Baker's greatest achievements in his relatively short movie career. So impressed was he with the real battle of Rorke's Drift between the indigenous Zulu warriors and the British Army during the reign of Queen Victoria, that he financed the entire movie project more or less on his own.
Baker not only produced but also starred alongside the young, fresh-faced Michael Caine. Baker plays Lt John Chard, Officer Of Engineers who marginally out ranks the rather pompous & arrogant Lt Gonville Bromhead (Caine).
Chard is very much a military man brought up through the ranks and therefore has plenty of military experience & tactical knowledge. However, his young rival, Bromhead is very much a blueblood, with a family tree full of colonels, captains & generals and therefore he assumes that he too will follow in their footsteps based purely on his standing & lineage.
The first 50 minutes of this film centres on this rivalry and as the film unravels further and the various battle sieges are played out under the command of Baker, we get to see Caine's gradual fall from grace as he comes to terms with the fact that he has no head for tactics or military command during battle conditions. And by the end of the film he more or less confesses that the battle of Rorke's Drift is in fact his first.
The battle scenes (and there are very many of them) are very well choreographed although the end result is less than satisfying. There are many shots of men being "stabbed" with spears under armpits or falling over covering bullet wounds even though there is no telltale holes visible on their tunics.
I also felt the presence of Jack Hawkins as a pacifist missionary pleading with Baker & Caine to hand over their sick & wounded before the attacks begin, was irritating. I don't doubt that there were missionaries during the real battle but somehow Hawkins didn't convince me at all, especially when it turns out they he is also an alcoholic and general trouble-maker (when the film was first premiered, Hawkins hated the final depiction of his character and didn't attend its opening).
The music is also exceptionally good, very much in keeping with the soul & vast presence of the Zulu army and their warrior-like chanting throughout the mountains encircling the small British Army at Rorke's Drift.
The film does seem to go on forever. There is a problem with the pacing from Cy Enfields assured direction. He develops the lead characters very well and the battle scenes are generally well done, but he also spends too much time identifying the support characters, which of course is always important but in this case he covers too much ground with too much talk and not enough action. And as a consequence the film out stays its welcome by about 20 minutes.
But for all that Zulu is a very good, film, totally absorbing at times, and both Caine & Baker do exceptionally well with their characters. Although to be honest Caine's rather snooty upper-class accent felt so awkward & grating because most of know that Caine has a trademark Cockney accent in most of his films.

***/*****