rorkesdriftvc.com Forum Index


rorkesdriftvc.com
Discussions related to the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879
Reply to topic
Quotes from 'Zulu'
Alan
Site Admin

Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 1530
Location: Wales
Reply with quote
A few quotes from 'Zulu', as if we needed reminding.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058777/quotes

_________________
View user's profileSend private messageSend e-mailVisit poster's website
Barbara Grant
Guest

Reply with quote
The link didn't contain one of my favourites, namely

"Are you sure you're on the right side of the river, Mr. Witt?" Wink

Barbara
rich


Joined: 01 May 2008
Posts: 897
Location: Long Island NY USA
Reply with quote
"Well, chin, chin. Do carry on with your mud pies".

I love that "chin-chin" quip ...now where did that come from or is it just a quip simply "chin-chinned" for the film???...

_________________
Rich
View user's profileSend private message
HARMAN
Guest

Reply with quote
If 1200 men couldn't hold a defensive position this morning, what chance have we with 100?

"He had a point"
Barbara Grant
Guest

Reply with quote
Rich,

I'd always assumed that "chin-chin" meant "ta ta." Is that right? Maybe someone knowledgeable about British English can enlighten me...

Barbara

(From My Fair Lady, "There are even places where English completely disappears...well in America, they haven't used it for years!") Laughing
Paul Bryant-Quinn


Joined: 14 Oct 2007
Posts: 551
Reply with quote
One of my favourites:

[Chard]: "They had names, they had faces: they were our men."
View user's profileSend private message
Alan
Site Admin

Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 1530
Location: Wales
Reply with quote
Barbara,
I always thought chin-chin was to do with chin up, twice.

_________________
View user's profileSend private messageSend e-mailVisit poster's website
Martin Everett


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 786
Location: Brecon
Reply with quote
Alan

It was a phrase used in WW1 - so was probably not in use in 1879. I always find it difficult - because many would wish to believe that 'Zulu' was actually real - but it was a 1960s creation of John Prebble - he created dialogue that he thought was acceptable to 1960s audiences. It would be equally difficult for a modern scriptwriter to devise a lively script true to the Victorian age - such is the development of language.

What many are seeking, Coll in particular, is the H G Wells' Time Machine to be able to transport themselves back to 1879 - to witness the actual key players in AZW, and importantly understand the some of the mistakes that there were made. The downside would be it might be too horrific spectacle - certainly not an entertainment.

_________________
Martin Everett
Brecon, Powys
View user's profileSend private messageSend e-mailVisit poster's website
Sawubona


Joined: 09 Nov 2005
Posts: 1179
Reply with quote
When Baker asks who was left behind in the hospital, what has he just picked up and dusted off? Is it a helmet plate?
View user's profileSend private message
chin-chin
Simon Rosbottom


Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 287
Location: London, UK
Reply with quote
Another view - 'a salutation' which is correct for the context of Caine's character in Zulu - (note I didn't say "Bromhead").

In use long before WW1.

CHIN-CHIN. In the "pigeon English" of Chinese ports this signifies 'salutation, compliments,' or 'to salute,' and is much used by Englishmen as slang in such senses. It is a corruption of the Chinese phrase ts'ingts'ing, Pekingese ch'ing-ch'ing, a term of salutation answering to 'thank-you,' 'adieu.'

Hobson-Jobson is often a good source for solving the origins of such phrases.

http://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/search3advanced?dbname=hobson&query=chin-chin&matchtype=exact&display=utf8

Regards

_________________
Simon
View user's profileSend private message
rich


Joined: 01 May 2008
Posts: 897
Location: Long Island NY USA
Reply with quote
Thanks Simon for the reference.....fascinating from the source..and I finally got a great definition of "coolie" as well.

Martin: regarding scriptwriters and the Victorian period

I always thought that if Robert Bolt got a hand in developing the Zulu film scripts those films he would certainly have had the wherewithal to have the characters speak the language of the period on the screen. If there was anyone who had a feel for language and the written word it was him. He did write "Dr Zhivago", "Lawrence of Arabia" and "A Man for All Seasons", three great classic films.

_________________
Rich
View user's profileSend private message
Paul Bryant-Quinn


Joined: 14 Oct 2007
Posts: 551
Reply with quote
Sawubona wrote:
When Baker asks who was left behind in the hospital, what has he just picked up and dusted off? Is it a helmet plate?

That has always interested me too, Sawubona. I see 'Chard' as holding a lump of soil, and had taken it to be a visual reference to the line spoken by Neil McCarthy's character, Pte John Thomas ('Tommy'), who similarly bends to pick up a handful of earth: "... And the soil ... there's no moisture in it. Nothing to hold a man in his grave."

Could be wrong, of course ...

Crying or Very sad

_________________
View user's profileSend private message
Sawubona


Joined: 09 Nov 2005
Posts: 1179
Reply with quote
The quest for the answer to the handful-of-dirt/helmet plate conundrum led me down a tortuous path beset with incompatibilities of region coded DVD's in region specific DVD players and worse. But I've returned bearing the news that, viewed at a magnification of 4X on a paused frame, Sir Stanley Baker is incontrovertibly holding a scorched helmet plate, albeit what appears to be that of the Royal Artillery. A clump of dirt would have been good too.

Still no wristwatches in sight however, so Sheldon's reward is yet unclaimed.
View user's profileSend private message
Paul Bryant-Quinn


Joined: 14 Oct 2007
Posts: 551
Reply with quote
Sawubona wrote:
Sir Stanley Baker is incontrovertibly holding a scorched helmet plate, albeit what appears to be that of the Royal Artillery.

... and another fond theory bites the dust!

Laughing

_________________
View user's profileSend private message
Sawubona


Joined: 09 Nov 2005
Posts: 1179
Reply with quote
Some soil being discernible on the helmet plate, I'm thinking that Baker might be using it simply as a handy utensil with which to scoop up some dirt and that the dirt itself is the focus rather than the plate. Sadly, I'm afraid that only Cy Enfield could ever have layed this provoking mystery to rest and with his passing we lesser men were doomed to forever wonder.
View user's profileSend private message
Quotes from 'Zulu'
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
All times are GMT  
Page 1 of 2  

  
  
 Reply to topic