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Documentaries
John Lundy


Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 36
Location: Vancouver
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You may already know about these, but I found them recently at Amazon.com. They are documentaries on the Anglo-Zulu War and they are excellent. They are about $15 each and run between 50 minutes and little over an hour.

Zulu Wars - The Road to Isandlwana
Zulu Wars - The Washing of the Spears
Zulu Wars - Twilight of the Zulu
Campaigns in History: Rorke's Drift

John
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The Scorer


Joined: 27 Nov 2006
Posts: 338
Location: Newport
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Can you post some more information on these, please? I'd be keen to get copies, but I've looked on Amazon and I can't find anything which looks the same - thanks!
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John Lundy


Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 36
Location: Vancouver
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Go to Amazon.com and search under DVD and type in Zulu. You will get the commercial movies as well. If you go to DVD and type in Zulu Wars you will get the documentaries only, but for some reason it leaves out the one about Rorke's Drift. Hope this helps.

John
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The Scorer


Joined: 27 Nov 2006
Posts: 338
Location: Newport
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Many thanks .... I now know why I couldn't find them - I was looking at Amazon.co.uk and not Amazon.com! I've got them now, though, and I'll have to see what I can afford!

Very Happy
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Rich
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Speaking of documentaries, I obtained a PBS documentary
entitled "Queen Victoria's Empire". I thought it was a serviceable overview of her reign. The thing that surprised me much was the fact that nowhere in it was there any reference or discussion on the "Zulu War". None whatsoever. I guess in a way I felt cheated. India was covered as well as Rhodes and the Boer War. I don't know. Maybe with the producers British-Zulu activities just didn't figure much in the overview of the Victorian era?
John Lundy


Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 36
Location: Vancouver
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I just acquired another documentary on the AZW. It is part of the History of Warfare series and titled "The Zulu Wars 1879". It is narrated by Robert Powell, so I assume it was part of a British series. In it, the narrator refers to Durnford as "colourful" and a "reckless adventurer". I have not seen him characterised this way before. They also have an expert from Sandhurst who illustrates the ammo boxes and talks about the lack of ammo. I think I have seen recent discussions where the ammo situation has been discussed and the concensus seems to be that lack of ammo was not a major factor at Isandlwana. Has anyone else seen this episode?

John
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Coll
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John

I'm sure I used to have the one you've described.

Does it show a few clips from 'Zulu Dawn' and is there a small book supplied with it ?

Although I no longer have it, I do seem to recall it wasn't bad.

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John Lundy


Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 36
Location: Vancouver
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Hi Coll,
Yes, it does have clips from Zulu Dawn, but mine didn't have a little booklet. It is a nice overall survey of the war, but I had not heard Durnford referred to as a reckless adventurer before.

John
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Peter Ewart


Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Posts: 1797
Location: Near Canterbury, Kent, England.
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Rich

Just picking up on your posting back in April which I'd probably not noticed at the time, regarding your surprise at the absence of anything on the AZW in the documentary you'd acquired.

It's probably worth mentioning that, if strictly balanced coverage in your documentary on "Queen Victoria's Empire" (of say around two hours) was being attempted, then we could hardly expect more than a brief remark or two on the AZW. If the documentary lasted for only an hour or so, then it would struggle to get a mention. It is easy for all of us to overlook, today, the fact that - despite all the modern attention with films, books and research, as well as all the earlier military memoirs, parliamentary rows and almost unlimited source material - the AZW was a comparatively small and relatively brief episode in the context of her reign and the imperial conflicts during that 60-odd years period.

Sandwiched between the two major military involvements of this country during her reign (the Crimean War and the South African War) were several dozen overseas wars, campaigns and bizarre military affairs, of which the AZW was just one. Add to this the genuine imperial trauma of the Mutiny (1857) and the earlier conflicts between her accession and the Crimea (in India, New Zealand and the Cape, for example) and you can see the context in which we must see the AZW. It is true that it grabbed the attention of the media and parliament at the time (and, to a limited extent, the general public) but so did most of the other conflicts to some degree.

It is also easy to forget that the imperial focus never left India. "The Empire" primarily meant India, and India was the Empire. It was only later (but not much) that "the sun never set." Too much involvement at the Cape was also unpopular at home, being considered unnecessary, expensive and troublesome by successive governments. The AZW was also only one of a long series of nasty scrapes in southern Africa in which British or colonial forces became involved during her reign. On the other hand, the AZW has surfaced in many military memoirs because men who began their careers in the Crimea also saw service in Zululand and many young officers in 1879 saw action in Egypt, the Sudan, the South African War and even the Great War.

Once the huge imperial effort of 1899-1902 was concluded (440,000 men eventually required) and, much worse, the holocaust of the Great War had been endured, the AZW must have seemed a distant pinprick of infinitesimally tiny proportions, especially amid the dozens (scores?) of Queen Victoria's other "little wars" of a distant age - even though it was only a generation or so before. For southern Africa's own history, of course, it is a different story and the AZW will be seen in a different context altogether.

Peter
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Michael Boyle


Joined: 12 Dec 2005
Posts: 595
Location: Bucks County,PA,US
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Peter is of course correct, here's an interesting animated Gif, that graphically shows the sun never setting on the British Empire as well as a complete breakdown on all British possessions during the Empire period -

http://www.friesian.com/British.htm

For a partial listing of Victorian wars that does not contain reference to Ashanti or the CFWs but somehow includes the Third Anglo-U.S. War (1859) (a.k.a. - "Pig War") see -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_military_history#19th_Century

[Click the link for "Pig War", it's a hoot and seems to be the last combat command of George Pickett (of 'Pickett's Charge' fame) while still wearing the Blue!]

Best

Michael
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