Zulu (Blu-ray)

Zulu was Michael Caine's first major screen role having played bit parts in TV dramas from everything as a Gestapo agent to a court orderly and policemen. The film recounts the now famous battle of Rourke's Drift from the Anglo-Zulu war in 1879 when 139 British soldiers defended a mission station from over 4,000 attacking Zulu warriors. Caine portrays lieutenant Gonville Bromhead alongside Stanley Baker who plays lieutenant John Chard, two recipients of the 11 Victoria Crosses awarded that day and the highest number ever awarded for a single British regiment in one engagement. The films drama sense of scale and epic battle scenes have never really been ...  Read the complete review

They're not proper soldiers really. Just engineers not geared up for battle. And they come across a slaughtered british contingent. Things are not looking good and the zulu are coming their way. And who can blame the zulu for wanting to explain to them that's it's time they cleared off. Michael Caine is the posh one here (appalling posh accent - this needs repeating - appalling posh accent) with Stanley Baker as the lower class type but with higher rank, even if it is a rank that is only in charge of men who dig holes. So we have some class battle stuff thrown in, which in a way is repeated with the difference between the sophisticated but weak British troops and ...  Read the complete review