| Date | Original Topic |
| 28th December 2001 | Zulu Chant in the Movie "Gladiator"
By Peter Thaler
Did anyone else notice that in the scene at the beginning of the movie "Gladiator" when the Roman army is about to fight the barbarian hordes, that the unseen barbarians off in the woods are chanting the chant used in the movie ZULU! It sounded like it was directly lifted from the ZULU soundtrack! How unoriginal can you get! Needless to say, I was appalled. I was even more appalled that the movie won the Oscar for best picture. It was NOT that good, I much preferred the movie FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE with Sir Alex Guinness & Sophie Loren; which GLADIATOR was just a poor remake of. |
| Date | Replies |
| 29th December 2001 | Glenn Wade
Hi Peter! Yes, I've noticed the chant from 'ZULU' in the background, it's the chant when the Zulus make their first rush at Rorkes' Drift and don't actually get at the barricades isn't it? I think thats' bloomin awful, a 10 million dollar film and they have to take sound from the 'ZULU' soundtrack made in 1964, 37 years earlier! Glad you spotted or 'heard' that Peter. Glenn |
| 29th December 2001 | Peter Critchley
Hi Peter,
If you copy and paste the following URL into your browser you will see a discussion from a year ago about this same subject..
http://www.rorkesdriftvc.com/discussion.php?action=viewtopic&topicid=7
Hope this helps!
All the best,
Peter
Webmaster |
| 29th December 2001 | Diana Blackwell
Hi, Peter and Glenn. Why does the use of the Zulu chant in "Gladiators" make you so indignant? I enjoyed hearing my favorite movie "quoted" in a modern blockbuster.
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| 29th December 2001 | Arthur Bainbridge
please remember movies are not made for art but for the box office,and what worked well in an old movie can sometimes work in a new one,and it may work out cheaper.Perhaps its the new directors own personal tribute to the movie Zulu just a thought |
| 29th December 2001 | Dale
I like the movie Gladiator |
| 30th December 2001 | Peter Critchley
Arthur would seem to have a point if you listen to the directors commentary on the DVD of Gladiator. Ridley Scott uses the Zulu chanting to evoke the same sort of emotion that the chanting evoked in 'Zulu'. I certainly thought it was an interesting homage!
Peter |
| 31st December 2001 | Stephen McDonald
So Peter, are you saying that Scott did this intentionally? |
| 1st January 2002 | Peter Critchley
It would certainly seem as if he used the chanting intentionally.. I certainly didn't mind - It added something to the scene. |
| 1st January 2002 | Eddie Saunders
I also posted the following message on the end of the discussion from last year about an hour ago before I noticed the topic had started again.
I noticed the Zulu chants in Gladiator too and was "shhh'd" in the cinema by my GF and those surrounding me when I vociferously pointed out the fact. I was quite dismayed by the idea that many filmgoers wouldn't realise the true source of the soundtrack, a bit like when one of these boy bands does a cover of an old classic song and the kids all think it's the boy band's song. |
| 3rd January 2002 | Stephen McDonald
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? But lets verify that that is what Ridley did. |
| 3rd January 2002 | Greg
Hope a boy band doesnt do a cover version of Zulu,Ill be chearing for the Zulu`s in that one!! |
| 3rd January 2002 | Eddie Saunders
I don't know, in the scene when the Zulus make their first attack to "count the guns" there's something about the rhythm they beat out on the shields that really grooves. They all sort of start out of time and then it suddenly all locks into place and gets really solid... there's got to be a hit with that as a beat to it!
How about Westlife doing "Men of Harlech"? |
| 3rd January 2002 | Eddie Saunders
Oh yes, just one other thing that sprung to my mind about the use of Zulu chants in Gladiator. In Gladiator, I believe that a lot of the barbarian hordes (or whoever the Romans were beating up at the time)were in fact computer generated images whereas in Zulu, all the Zulus were real people. The way I see it, getting the 15 or so people that were rehashed over and over by computer to shout "aaaarrrrggghhh!!! Die Roman ratbag" or similar would not have sounded too impressive. On the other hand the thousands of real Zulus made a very impressive sound indeed. Short of going to a football match and getting the crowd to shout from a script "Romans you're $*&" Ha Ha!!!" (we all know that chant), perhaps using the Zulu soundtrack was the only way they could get thousands of voices chanting in unison. |
| 4th January 2002 | john owen
eddie, i hope westlife doesn't do men of harlech im a welsh man lol lol |
| 4th January 2002 | Greg
I would`nt mind seeing Kylie do men of Harlech, well the video anyway. |
