Got to be a top tenner!

Rating: 10/10 (22 April 2006)

A truly great film! The heroism on both sides is heightened by the stirring music and the singing of both armies; the specially written "Men Of Harlech" and the Zulu chants make the hair on the back of your neck stand at both the awesome courage and tragic waste of life given in attack and defence!
The cinematography goes a long way to portray the defending garrison as an inconsequentially small blip on a massive landscape; a pathetically small band of men in the wrong place at the wrong time, being set upon by a well-organised, determined and gallant foe, who out-numbered them hundreds to one!
As said, the film does take some license. Although it contained a high proportion of Welsh soldiers the battalion was actually English but subsequently became Welsh after the war! As to singing any version of "Men Of Harlech", well there is no historical evidence of this. Like me you can see Hook's VC at the South Wales Borderers Museum at Brecon. Incidentally he was a long serving soldier!
On the other side, the Zulu kings' descendant plays the part of the Zulu King! You can't get much more authentic than that!
If the rifles had worked (where have we heard that before?) or there had not been a huge tactical mistake, the action at Rorke's Drift would never have taken place! But then we would never have had this spectacular film and Rorke's Drift would never have entered the consciousness synonymous with bravery beyond the call of duty!
Ignore the license and the gaudy strap lines, this is a film that you can sit back and watch over and over again and it never looses the impact of its first viewing!