Zulu
CinemaScope and spectacle are not synonymous, as our month-long Celebration of ‘Scope confirms; on the other hand, they do seem to have been made for each other! Zulu is the ‘scope spectacle par excellence. In a story based on a real incident during the Zulu War of 1879, virtually half the film is devoted to the bloody battle that ensues when British troops try to defend a garrison against an attack by 4,000 Zulu warriors. But Zulu is quite unlike other films in the heathen-hordes genre in that it treats the Zulus as a cultural entity in their own right, and their warriors as brave and resourceful men. Meanwhile, the British (including Jack Hawkins and Michael Caine) are consumed with anti-heroics: the whole affair makes them dour, depressed, and eventually, of course, dead. Gordon Gow, writing in Films and Filming, notes that, “Filmically, (director Cy) Endfield would appear to have enjoyed himself quite a bit. Addicted to the panning shot...he gets in some splendid visuals on his African location, especially when the soldiers stand in a formal pattern awaiting the enemy.... From the mountains and the sky, nature is constantly reproaching the ugly deeds of men: the first wave of attacking Zulus is presented in a composition that includes, right in the foreground, a tree loaded with blossoms. Diverting details are plentiful, among them a shot of Zulu spears coming through a hospital door...and for extra measure a cattle stampede with the camera underhoof.”