Well-remembered Saturday matinée adventure that holds up.

Rating: 8/10 (22 October 2001)

Expert mix of elements: exotic locale, strong storyline based on fact, polished acting by a troupe of British stalwarts. What impressed me upon first viewing (as a boy of 10 or so) was the respect with which the Zulus were portrayed. What could have been just a hackneyed actioner about heroes battling impossible odds is instead a sober and intelligent drama of the wastefulness of armed conflict. Although told from the British point of view, the Zulus are depicted as valorous, clever and wholly dedicated to the rightness of their cause. Director Cy Endfield and his assistants stage the siege with both clarity and eye-filling spectacle. The cast is excellent, with Stanley Baker a standout as the reluctant engineer-soldier, Jack Hawkins an all-too-human man of the cloth, and Nigel Green as a sergeant with the stiffest upper lip in the Empire. Stephen Dade's deep-focus photography and a rousing score by John Barry help make this one of the manliest of all manly movies.