Zulu Dawn

1879. The British administration in South Africa issues an ultimatum to the Zulu kingdom. The terms are drawn so they cannot be accepted; the aim is a war. Lord Chelmsford gathers the army. Nobody expects serious resistance; the soldiers think they will be met with spears and the preparations are made accordingly. The column crosses the border. Camp is made below the hill at Isandlwana. No trenches are dug, the wagons are not drawn into a circle, and the ammunition boxes are kept locked. The Zulus come, and there are far more of them than expected. Douglas Hickox directs. Burt Lancaster, Peter O'Toole, John Mills, Denholm Elliott and Bob Hoskins are in the cast. It is a British and Dutch co-production, made in 1979. The film tells what came before the 1964 Zulu; the same writer worked on both and the events join on the same day. It was shot in South Africa with a large number of extras. The narrative does not make heroes of the British side; the defeat is described as arrogance and mismanagement. The matter it treats is the pretext for a colonial war; the film shows plainly how the war was invented. The scene in which the ammunition boxes cannot be opened is among its best known passages. The Zulu side is inside the narrative but not present as characters, and that was criticised. The ending closes on a defeat and builds no heroism. Its limit is structure; the first half is slow, there are many characters, and the battle runs long. Who it is for: viewers who like historical war films and period productions. Who it is not for: it is long, slow in the first half, and the ending heavy.