Zulu Dawn Reviews

Fifteen years after the release of ZULU, the British film industry offered this prequel. ZULU DAWN documents the circumstances leading up to the confrontation depicted in the earlier film, focusing on the increasing tensions between British colonial officials and the Zulus, and culminates with the extermination of 1,500 British soldiers at the battle of Isandhlwana. Peter O'Toole commands the British forces in Natal, and Burt Lancaster is the one-armed hero who leads his men to their deaths when their column is attacked and annihilated by Zulu forces that outnumber them sixteen to one. That attack, as well as the scenes of the Zulus preparing to descend upon the marching British, are impressively staged and shot. While ZULU DAWN succeeds in painting these events on a broad canvas, it lacks the interpersonal conflicts that made ZULU so fascinating, and ultimately this film, penned by Endfield but directed by Douglas Hickox, is a far cry from that classic war film.