Wednesday 22 January 2014

50th Anniversary of the premier of Zulu




Even if I haven't painted anything Zulu Wars for a while I can't let the 50th Anniversary of the release of Zulu (1964) pass me by.  This was, by a considerable margin, my father's favourite film and is probably one of my top three too. 




There is a 12 page feature on the making of the film in the current issue of Cinema Retro magazine by Sheldon Hall, author of the excellent Zulu: with some guts behind it - The Making of the Epic Movie and news that an expanded version of this book is being released later this year.








The film received its premier, on the 85th anniversary of the battle, at the Plaza cinema in Piccadilly Circus complete with the band of the Welsh Guards, soldiers in period uniform and three VC holders.




Not coincidentally, of course, today is also the anniversary of Isandlwana and the first day of Rorke's Drift.  Like many others, I will be spinning the really quite exceptional Blu-ray of the film later.   

"Front rank fire! Rear rank fire, reload!"

8 comments:

  1. Awesome film! Hard to believe it's 50 years!!!

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  2. Cool Blog mate, link added

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  3. They don't make them like that anymore!

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  4. Thinking about it, I have probably watched this film more than any other film and I have to agree with you in being in the top three favourite films of all time.

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  5. I think that I read somewhere that a studio somewhere was considering a remake of the film? Can anyone validate this? Or was i dreaming..... lol

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    1. A lot of people got confused as regards the Orlando Bloom starring Zulu (2013) when it was in production even though it has nothing to do with the Zulu War. Colonial conflicts would be difficult to film these days, I suspect,

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  6. I shall be at the 50th Anniversary showing in a few days time with my father - his favourite film as well !

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