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DateOriginal Topic
9th April 2003how authentic is the film
By darren
i am doing a project and wanted to know if any one could tell me how true to life the film zulu is does it potray a realistic version of event or does dipict a romantic ideal of the british impeariel fighting machine
DateReplies
9th April 2003Diana Blackwell
Darren,
That's an ongoing source of controversy, both in this very forum and elsewhere. It's generally agreed that "Zulu" contains a lot of inaccuracies. An article called "Observations on the film "Zulu"" by John MacAdam, from the Journal of the Anglo-Zulu War Research Society, goes into these in detail. The film's politics are discussed in a couple of other articles. "Zulu: The Limits of Liberalism" by Christopher Sharrett (Cineast, Vol. XXV, #4) finds imperialist biases in the film, while "Monkey Feathers: Defending Zulu" by Sheldon Hall (British Historical Cinema, Mark & Sargent, Rutledge, 2002) convincingly argues to the contrary.
( I think "Zulu" does quite a good job of balancing romanticism and realism. The scenery, music, costumes, etc., are made as beautiful as humanly possible, but war is still shown to be a horrible carnage of which even the victors feel "ashamed.")
10th April 2003Clive Dickens
Darren
If you join us on this site you will soon realise even we argue over the what are considered to be the actual facts of the Anglo/Zulu war so what hope did the film makers have, one thing I think we all agree on it roused one hell of an interest in events of that war.
Clive
10th April 2003John Young
Diana,

Just to pick you up on your above comment, we've never published anything by John McAdam, in our society's Journal - you're actually confusing us with the Anglo Zulu War Historical Society, which did publish the piece. However, most of the factual detail did come from me for the article.

John Y.
10th April 2003Diana Blackwell
John,
My apologies for the mistake.
12th April 2003james
hi diana thanks for the informaton but where would i go about getting some reading material and what would you best suggest. and how did you become so informed about the subject and why?
13th April 2003darren
many thanks to you all you have been so helpful. i would also like to ask where i could best find the politcal journal's Diana was talking about.
13th April 2003Diana Blackwell
Darren,
Have you tried a library?
14th April 2003darren
Diana
no never thought of that!