ZULU 341
mission depot at Rorke’s Drift was constructed beneath the Amphitheatre (an
imposing crescent- shaped massif of sheer basalt cliffs in the Drakensberg Moun-
tains) while the set for the field hospital and supply depot at Rorke’s Drift was
built near the Tugela River with the Amphitheatre in the background. Interiors
and some other scenes were shot at Twickenham Film Studios near London.
South Africa’s Apartheid government assisted in the production by supplying 80
white South African National Defence Force (SANDF) soldiers as extras. The Zulu
nation also assisted by supplying hundreds of paid extras to portray their ances-
tors, but first Stanley Baker had to show the Zulu what a film was, as they had
never seen one. He showed them a Gene Autry Western, at which they laughed
hysterically. Baker also had to convince the Zulu that blank cartridges were harm-
less. Once they mastered the basics of acting (especially faking death in simulated
combat), they performed extremely well.
Plot Summary
Opening voice- over narration by Richard Burton recounts the Zulu rout of Lord
Chelmsford’s British forces at the Battle of Isandlwana. In the aftermath, the vic-
torious Zulus are shown walking among the scattered corpses of British soldiers
and expropriating their Martini- Henry rifles. Messengers interrupt a mass Zulu
marriage ceremony at Cetewayo witnessed by missionary Otto Witt ( Jack Hawkins)
Lt. Gonville Bromhead (Michael Caine, left) and fellow British soldiers fight off attacking
Zulu warriors in Cy Endfield’s Zulu (1964). (Photofest)