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The end for 'Zulu'
Phil Read


Joined: 07 Oct 2005
Posts: 38
Location: Epsom, Surrey.
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In light of the recent Black Lives Matter protests, we�ve seen TV companies falling over themselves banning old TV shows that might cause offense and �Gone With The Wind� has also been withdrawn. I can�t help thinking that it means curtains for �Zulu� as far as any future showings are concerned.

Although it has been discussed on this forum that there is a total lack of racism in the film, I don�t think that will make any difference. I shall just have to get the DVD out every Christmas. What does everybody else think?
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Alan
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Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 1530
Location: Wales
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Any objections will be aimed at the Empire. We'll have to have a black market of these films.
As soon as I wrote that I stopped and thought.... I don't know of another way to describe
that sort of market.

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Phil Read


Joined: 07 Oct 2005
Posts: 38
Location: Epsom, Surrey.
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Unfortunately, if it's not shown again on terrestrial television, the film will be completely missed by any younger generations. I'm old enough (just about!) to have seen it at the cinema first time around but I'm sure there are many people who saw the film on TV at Christmas or Easter years ago and wanted to find out more about the true story. Such a shame.
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Alan
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Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 1530
Location: Wales
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The upcoming generations are going to make judgments on subjects based on issues which
draw in other things which are in some way related, however tenuous.

If this blocks things like the film Zulu, I think it will be their loss as I have never thought of it
in the way it is now being labelled. It will be their loss along with so much else they will miss
out on.

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Alan
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Joined: 30 Aug 2005
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Location: Wales
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Phil Read


Joined: 07 Oct 2005
Posts: 38
Location: Epsom, Surrey.
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Colin
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Before the time of video and dvd, plus things for your tv that allow you to watch it anytime, that might�ve been disheartening, but today it doesn�t need to be on tv to enjoy.

I no longer watch Zulu, I guess because it has been put under a kind of forensic analysis for years, every mistake, lack of attention to detail, etc., I find it very hard to watch without thinking of the overwhelming study and discussion of it, on forums, books, etc.

Unlike many or most others, and I guess being the age I am and the vast amount of times I�ve watched it, it no longer appeals to me personally.

In a way I look at it like the over studying of the Titanic, in my opinion I wish the latter had never been found, remaining a mystery, instead of being picked clean both in books, documentaries and physically.

ZULU should have been left as a film to be enjoyed for what it is, but the availability of the net, has allowed for it to be picked apart piece by piece, rather than leaving the film as is, kept apart from the proper study of the real event.

So, I guess in my case it doesn�t affect me the same as others, if the continued showing of it now on tv is stopped, due to the politics of today, because I had lost interest beforehand.

Once politics enter the film world, it kills the very thing that was enjoyed, that the arguments for or against become the subject instead, leading to heated debates and ugly arguments, the very film itself lost in the mix.

In my mind I�m looking for a new film about Rorke�s Drift, instead of one that is the same age as myself, Isandhlwana too, as Zulu Dawn has passed the age of 40 now, yet even this starts similar debates to the above, about how they�ll never be made, etc., etc., moving into politics again, using words for each other that I had to look up, not knowing what they meant.

Maybe I�m just a young old man, who says bah humbug at Xmas as it is no longer how I remember it, nor New Year, even without the pandemic

Anyway, Thats my opinion for the end of 2020, for what it�s worth
Alan
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Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 1530
Location: Wales
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Most of us here have their interest in the subject from seeing the film. Learning more about the
actual facts of the subject will obviously affect how we then view the film. When we watch it, we
can't help spotting the inaccuracies. It is still possible to just view it as entertainment which
is what many people do.

In 2017 a poll of 150 actors, directors, writers, producers and critics for Time Out magazine
ranked it the 93rd best British film ever. They would have based their vote on completely different
aspects to you or I.

I think we now take a different route of judging the film to those watching it for simple entertainment.
Many will take it further and look to the facts behind it and then may well alter their opinions.

When history has judged the film on the history of the time and their slant on it, I hope the fact that
the film was more about the individuals than history and politics.[img][/img]

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johnk


Joined: 18 Oct 2010
Posts: 64
Location: St.Helens, Merseyside
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Both Zulu and Zulu Dawn are available on Amazon prime.
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Colin
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Yes. Both are more easily available than ever before, so I don�t think the younger generation will miss out on them, as they can be readily found, without needing it on a tv channel, seeing in cinema or even buying dvds.

So whatever is decided politics wise, on whether to show it on tv or not, it really doesn�t matter, so I think it is more the fact that people will be upset at the reasoning behind any blocking of showing it, more than it not being shown as an Xmas favourite on television.

That�s why I try to avoid the �chats� about the politics, as the film itself disappears in the scrum, a few posts down in each of the debates, it is likely not even mentioned often, more the venting of opinions.

As I said earlier, if it had been back in the day before dvds, video, etc., etc., and we literally depended on it being shown at Xmas so we could see it again, then I could understand the outrage, but in reality it doesn�t really affect us today, the watching it whenever we want, without waiting for it to show up in tv listings.
Phil Read


Joined: 07 Oct 2005
Posts: 38
Location: Epsom, Surrey.
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If the film happened to be on terrestrial television today, the question isn�t really �Would I watch it?�. I�ve got the DVD and a whole shelfful of books on the Anglo-Zulu War. The question would be �Would someone who knows nothing about the Anglo-Zulu War or Rorke�s Drift or Isandhlwana watch it?�. Would it spark an interest in the subject and encourage them to look into the subject later on?

I�ve got the books and have been to Rorke�s Drift and Isandhlwana and the reason that I have that interest is because my Grandad took me to see the film at the cinema when it came out (see the �Your Stories� section of this website). This country isn�t short of heroic tales and famous battles and last stands throughout the last thousand years or so. However, those other battles, if they were dramatized at all, were almost certainly not dramatized so wonderfully well as the events at Rorke�s Drift on 22nd & 23rd of January 1879 were by Zulu in 1964.

I�m sure there are many men (and I would guess that it is almost exclusively men), probably now, like me in their sixties or older, who would tell a similar story. Once the film disappears from our television screens for good, the story of the battle will fade from the public consciousness for anyone under the age of sixty. There will be fewer books read or written on it and fewer visits to the sites and museums. Fewer people will be doing terrible Michael Caine impressions � Oi! Stop chucking those bloody spears! � although maybe that won�t be such a bad thing.

Does any of this really matter? Probably not, but for someone for whom the film sparked an interest that still exists 56 years later, it just seems a shame.
Happy New Year to you all. Let�s hope 2021 is an improvement on 2020.
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Colin
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It will be discovered by the younger generation who are interested in military history to begin with, or perhaps like myself �discovering� ZULU when seeking a British military campaign to study. or even through older family members that brought their attention to it.

I�m sure many watch films when they previously have no knowledge of the subject, as I do today, when looking Movies On Demand and such like, that look interesting or exciting enough to pursue further in books.

It really is my concern that proper historical films fade away in the cinema based on real people and events.

Recently I watched The Professor And The Madman, looking forward to watching Minamata when released, amongst others, also the vast amount of documentaries that cover a huge variety of areas, which may not be covered in movies, in fact can be superior in many ways, when the latter on specific subjects don�t exist to begin with.

In fact, documentaries are visual historical archives in a way, that can�t be messed in the same way as in the film world.

If we can get past the saturation of sci fi and modern tech-based films, and get back to real heroes and real events, instead of creating an unrealistic view of the world for the young, pushing the study of history into dusty attics to be neglected and forgotten about, which is sad, as the present was built on it, and I don�t mean the politics, but everything we as humans experienced and have passed on to new generations.

In a way, that is my approach to the Anglo-Zulu War 1879, to pursue and challenge points of interest, or lacking coverage, to hopefully improve in a small way, the study of it for those who come after us, to try to fill the voids that still exist, by doing this I feel personally involved instead of just being a passive observer and student of it who says or questions nothing.

We will be history ourselves one day, we have a duty to do what we can, no matter how small, while we are alive in the world of today, to make a better understanding tomorrow, in whatever the areas we study

Sorry, that was a bit deep for the start of 2021.

Happy New Year to you
Alan
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Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 1530
Location: Wales
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Much will depend on how the film is viewed and presented to the audiences. If people think
only of it being a display of Imperialism and invasion of a province of black people, or as a
record of the exploits of people and their role as soldiers, doing their job.

People will never accept it as just a documentary film if their views are only of one direction.
As far as my views and everyone I have come across in connection with the war, none condone
the politics but all respect and admire the actions and courage of the defenders.

No one will ever change my viewpoint and hopefully, newcomers to the film will have an
open mind.

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End of Zulu...and other films
Colin Fielding


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 126
Location: Billericay, Essex
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Happy New Year all.

Watched King Kong at the weekend. Anyone kicking off about the big monkey refusing to munch the white girl yet? Not even utilised as a tooth-pick!

Regs, Col.
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Colin
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Never watched King Kong, but did watch Ulzana�s Raid on blu-ray, uncut, as the scenes of horses falling, etc., were removed in my last dvd.

It did make me wonder if the American expansion West in films, at the time of Little Bighorn, etc., may also be affected at some stage by politics.

I find myself getting wearied with this, plus the almost daily apologies by actors for how they portrayed a character, or even having participated in the film to begin with, because of the subject matter.

I�m not sure where it�ll stop, because if they cease showing ZULU amongst others on television, it sets a precedent to continue through all films with censorship, does it continue with books next on the banning list ?

I�m glad I�m the age I am now, as I no longer recognise the world as it is now, and a feeling of not fitting in, like I�ve become some sort of relic of the past like history...

What I have found interesting (for want of a better word) in my 20+ years of studying the AZW, more especially since joining the internet, that even amongst the AZW Community, there are areas of the subject bypassed or ignored, almost like they are not worth talking about, or more so that�s just the way it is, not of any importance to the majority, therefore excluded or not discussed in depth.

I�ve felt it doesn�t need to go outside of the subject itself, to see there is an unsettling aversion to specific areas, to save upsetting or angering others, both authors in the field and enthusiasts themselves.

To me that is more of a concern than what the wider public who don�t study the subject itself, or know it only by the well-known film, believing that was what actually happened.

You can�t do anything or change people�s perception whose interests are in other areas, however, it can or should be rectified from within, by more challenging and questioning, rejecting almost scripted replies, then left at that.

I�ve tried this on several points without success, so my time in doing so is done, but do hope others new members appear on AZW forums, to continue this, but in a much better, and less aggressive way.
The end for 'Zulu'
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