Zulu Dawn – Die letzte Offensive (1979)

Zulu Dawn – Die letzte Offensive: Directed by Douglas Hickox. With Burt Lancaster, Simon Ward, Denholm Elliott, Peter Vaughan. A dramatization of the Battle of Isandlwana, where the British Army met its match against the Zulu nation.

“In fact, a prequel to u0026#39;Zuluu0026#39; (1964) directed by Cy Endfield who was also a major collaborator on ZD. As u0026#39;Zuluu0026#39; is about the battle of Ou0026#39;rourkeu0026#39;s drift, one of the most celebrated victories in British military history, ZD deals with one of the biggest defeats of the British army by an indigenous force. It happened just a few days before the events in u0026#39;Zuluu0026#39;.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eZD is sheer heaven for history buffs : everything is recreated into the tiniest detail : the uniforms, entirely filmed on location in South-Africa Natal province , the famous Martini Henry rifles, even including some kind of prehistoric rocket launchers, so no cost or effort were spared to recreate the conditions of the battle.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe Brits are represented by the cream of English actorsgild : Peter Ou0026#39;Toole as the too self-confident general, Simon Ward as the green lieutenant, Bob Hoskins (just before his breakthrough role in u0026quot;the Long Good Fridayu0026quot;) as a hardasnails sergeant and Denholm Elliot as one of the ignorant troop commanders.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAlso a large Boer party ( settlers mostly from Holland as u0026#39;Boeru0026#39; is the Dutch word for farmer) took part in the battle, lead here by none other then Burt Lancaster ! In 1879 the Boers still sided with The British against the Zulus. Twenty years later, after having defeated the Zulus, the Brits and Boers turned against each other and became involved in a struggle for the diamond-rich Natal province. A very bloody three-year war followed, simply known as u0026#39;the Boer waru0026#39;, where the British army was nearly defeated by the much smaller number of unprofessional Boers soldiers.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDirector Douglas Hickox ( Entertaining Mr Sloane, Sitting Target, Sky Devils,etc..)does an excellent job and turns in a classic-style, immaculate and spectacular epic. Sadly ZD was a big flop at the box-office and marked the end of the old-style colonial epics, up until the recent remake of u0026#39;The Four Feathersu0026#39;.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt also marked the end of the career of director Hickox in feature-length movies and he was forced to work for TV, condemned to churning out superior u0026#39;schmalzyu0026#39; series as u0026#39;Mistralu0026#39;s Daughteru0026#39;, u0026#39;Sinsu0026#39;, etc…u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut as historical epics go, they do not come any better than this. I rate it 8/10.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIf you like this try also u0026#39;Khartoumu0026#39; (1966).”