A better than average period epic war movie. Basically, the story of a battle between British army soldiers trapped in a mission station in South Africa against a larger force of Zulu warriors. One things I think this movie does really well is taking real history and dramatizing it, but without painting either side as wrong/right. Most of the reception I saw from actual South African leaders and people was positive about the portrayal of the Zulu warriors in this movie. Neither side was treated as ignorant, conquering, good, or evil; the conflict felt motivated on both sides, and even though the British soldiers are the 'heroes' from the perspective of the movie, I never felt like the enemy were portrayed in a racist or unkind way. The characterizations are pretty good; Michael Caine was great, most of the others were decent, and one or two were pretty bland. Some of the pacing was weird; the missionary and his daughter didn't seem to matter much after the halfway point. I guess that's the movie trying to conform to real history, but for the purposes of a movie it was an odd dramatic beat. The movie did an amazing job with the battle; there were one or two strange cuts, but the number of extras was incredible, and the shots of huge struggles between the two armies felt realistic. Overall it's an entertaining war movie, with a few odd story beats, and okay acting.
Review of Zulu
