Kick-Back Friday: #46

Zulu

(1964), with a very blond and relatively young Michael Caine, depicts the lopsided battle between 139 British soldiers, some hospitalized, and roughly 4000 Zulu warriors at a South African mission station in 1879. The movie forecasts a bloody outcome for the British by opening with the Zulu victory over a much larger British force in the Battle of Islandlwana and by taking a respectful, almost documentary-like view of Zulu warrior culture.

Close attention to smart dialogue among the British infantrymen will compensate for the dramatically rough, often amateurish scenes of hand-to-hand combat.