Professor David Peimer
The Film ‘Zulu’: How History Becomes Myth in National Identity
Professor David Peimer - Film: Zulu
- Okay, given that we’re on obviously South Africa and looking at various aspects of South Africa in history, and culture, and literature, I’m going to dive in with the 1964, the very famous, and what became extremely well-known Michael Caine movie, “Zulu”. And I want to, I chose to look at this because I think it throws up a whole lot of really important questions for our times, and you know in terms of looking back, with the benefit of hindsight of course, at events of 1879, of you know towards the end of the 19th century in terms of South Africa. And in particular, not only obviously the obvious colonialism, and imperialism, all the rest of it, but I think what is perhaps more resonant today is how history, it becomes a mythology, an event in history becomes a mythical event in a culture’s collective imagination, and a cultures collective memory. And how that forges, or is so important, in forging national identity. Not only a sort of obvious nationalism, but a sense of national identity, what to identify with. Certainly in terms of the British, and how it worked I think at the time, and then how it’s taken up you know many years later obviously in 1964 with the making of the, I’m going to call it just the Michael Caine movie. Although of course he’s one of the main actors, but just so well-known from it. So it’s this question of how actual events from history become so deeply embedded in a culture’s memory that they become real and mythical, and take on an extra charge of intensity in that collective memory of a group, and forge very strong identity.
And the stories become added to the other stories of courage, and bravery, and adversity, and suffering, and trauma, and horror. Of all these things when great moments of history throw it out. And I think that resonates very powerfully for us today, which moves at a bit of a segue from the more obvious colonial debate in a way. And I think it locates it in a more interesting way, part of the colonial discussion of course. So we need to remember that it’s happening in 1879, the Anglo-Zulu war. And what is going on in Britain at the time, it’s at the height of empire, it’s almost at the height of great empire, but it’s certainly the conquest, the adventurism, the going out there, the wealth, the trade, the collisions with cultures from all over the world, and building the biggest empire the world had ever seen. At the backdrop to this, and I want to suggest how war in particular in relation to this movie, how war actually is so crucial in forging cultural and national identity, and how those stories continue, events happening in wartime and battles, and how they continue throughout as a culture evolves over history and mythologically. And how this particular experience in 1879 became so deeply rooted in British cultural memory to today. This film is shown so much in on British TV, it’s an extraordinary amount, not only on the history channel but on many channels in Britain certainly. And it is probably one of the most well-known or famous films, certainly in Britain and the Commonwealth. So I think it’s important to ask why, why is it making such an impact still, given that it was made in 1964?
The backdrop is of course Waterloo, the early 1800’s, Napoleon. And a massive event in British national identity. The threat of invasion from Napoleon, or the French, the Battle of Trafalgar, Nelson, Nelson’s Column, let’s never forget, such an enormous statue there, they put actually the first statue after Nelson was put up in Dublin. Because of course it was the time of before nations had become together to forge the if you like the four nations of the British identity, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, English. The Irish was the second biggest in terms of population. So it’s this idea of union, but of course underneath it is class division, but on top of it is this dream and reality of union, United Kingdom. Nationalism is being forged so strongly through war. I’m not coming yet to the first, and of course the Second World War was something else entirely. It’s partly broken, with the First World War of course with the horror, but then a Second World War helps to revive the British, sense of British nationalism, and a certain respect. What’s also important at 1870 was the Elementary Education Act passed by parliament, which meant that an education for children between five and 13 was made compulsory as much as realistic. 1870’s, so it’s nine years before this Anglo-Zulu war. School leaving age was made around to be 10-years-old before kids could be sent out to work, 10, 11 maximum in 1880. The other huge event that had happened was of course up to the late 1840’s. 4,000 miles of railway track had been laid in Britain. So this extraordinary sense of change, progressive enlightened change, education, children, travelled the railways, you know going from little villages to even to London. Of course culminating in the Crystal Palace and the massive event there of the exhibition. But on the other hand, 1846, 1847 is the Potato Famine in Ireland, really important, which has such a devastating effect and leads to such immigration.
So this, all of this has been going on as a preamble to building up a British nationalism, a mythology based on historical, partly based on historical fact. What does it do? And then of course the threat and fear of invasion, we cannot underestimate Nelson, Napoleon, Waterloo, Trafalgar, we can’t underestimate the fear and the threat, and what that does to a nation’s psyche. Of course at the time Britain and later of course with the Second World War, where it comes out again. You know so these things I think are so crucial in forging a sense of identity in a culture, a sense of survival, national survival, and of course built through a national mythology based on history. Waterloo, Trafalgar, Battle of Britain, D-Day, we can go on. It not only is important in how nations forge an identity through mythology, it’s also a time where nations reimagine themselves in relation to those inherited cultural memories from the past. And it’s a time of re imagining. It can be shock and anxiety, it may be threat of invasion, it may be fear, it may be massive conquest, overwhelming you know huge conquest, it may be a time of wealth creation and enormous riches, gold coming in or whatever coming trading from all over the world. All these things are part of what forges, the big events that forge the identity. And what’s also interesting, if we look back to when these soldiers were fighting, and it goes way back to the early 1800’s was Nelson and Wellington, Waterloo, Trafalgar, et cetera, but going all the way through, most the reason I mention the Elementary Education Act is because very little education had happened until this period around this Anglo-Zulu War.
If you look at interestingly, how did the soldiers sign on the census? You get Irish names, Welsh, English, Scottish, all the rest, and by far the majority have just got an X next to their name. When you look at the richest of all the soldiers that the British empire sent out, so they’re obviously illiterate, they might have a basic bit of ability to read and write and it’s increasing more and more, but it’s quite minimal, and particular in the army. Now that’s important. So all of this is part of if you like, what happens in the natural course of human history, and captured in mythology, and the literature, and of course films that evoke it or refer to it. And of course we have the hero and the victim, the persecuted and the tormentor. We have so many of all of these, you know the courage, the courageous, and the coward, all of these archetypes played out in the moments of great traumatic or celebratory historical times in a culture. So it’s not by chance, that’s interesting to me that this was one of the main posters for the movie. Dwarfing the mightiest, towering over the greatest, “Zulu”. So it’s the mightiest army the world had seen, almost since Roman times perhaps, and yet this small. We if imagine ourselves 1879, you know the Zulu people who were hardly much, weren’t really known that much at the time before these battles, towering over the greatest. So even this small group of Zulu’s with all this you know exotic colouring here in the poster, you know able to conquer the mightiest army. And fascinatingly how it’s turned by the empire into a celebratory moment of the great Zulu warrior and the great British warrior who was defeated but also then in the Battle of Rorke’s Drift captured in the film, came to overcome them. And I’m going to talk about the two battles that feed into this which are really important.
Okay if we can go onto the next slide please. And this was the more obvious things, thanks Emily, the more obvious things are you know does it sensationalise empire? Does it romanticise empire? Yeah of course it does, of course it does to a degree, but it also critiques it, and that’s the sign in a way of a fairly mature empire. I don’t want to romanticise the British at all, but I’m trying to look quite coldly at how literature and film represent moments of history of in this case you know an empire. So it’s this is the Battle of Isandlwana, that’s the statue of it at the moment, that’s the I suppose hill slash mountain, the backdrop. Bring it on to the next slide please. Now this is the same image taken obviously in the 19th century. Obviously all the waggons, the carts et cetera, this is a more dramatic image for me. And we can see, it’s actually pretty big, and for those of us, oh I grew up in Durban, so I know this area only so well the back of my hand. But we can see, this was right near the Battle of Isandlwana. Now this happens a couple of days before the Battle of Rorke’s Drift. And the context is crucial, because here the British forces had crossed the Tugela River and the Chelmsford to invade Zulu land in 1879. After the expiry of a British ultimatum which demanded that the Zulu’s dismantle their military strength, basically you know give up the army, give up their spears, and hand over to the British with their Martini Henry guns and bullets, and accept British rule. And this is inside Zulu land, they’ve gone from the colony of detail inside Zulu land here and to invade. And some contemporary British military historians argue that it was a cynical, I’m quoting, “A cynical proposal "which was devised to be refused "so that Britain could cement its control of South Africa.” Of course diamonds had already been discovered in 1867, which is you know what 10, 12 years before this, this is obviously though before gold is discovered in 1886. So whether we you know, some scholars argue that was an attempt to consolidate control, others say it wasn’t.
Others say that Chelmsford who led this invasion was doing it to just extend the control of the British empire and basically smash the Zulu’s. So this is where they were camping at Isandlwana which happens before the film which is the Battle of Rorke’s Drift which is a couple of days later. And what’s important is this was one of the biggest if not the biggest defeat of the British army in colonial times against an Indigenous army. Now I’m not, the American war of independence is very very different, obviously it’s guns versus guns and so on, but against an Indigenous army you know with spears and shields, up against Martini Henry riffles, cannons, et cetera. So not only a well drilled, efficient, and really highly organised army of empire, but also you know having obviously huge technological advantage. So this happens at Isandlwana. Chelmsford hears about something going on you know some miles away, so he takes quite a large section of his army, horseback of course, off to investigate find out. He thinks, “Eh not such a big thing. "They can defeat the Zulu’s anyway, "the Zulu just got spears, and who are these, "inadvertent commas, primitive, savage, stupid people? "Just another tribe to be conquered.” And the arrogance when you read Chelmsford’s, when you read the historians about Chelmsford it’s quite it’s fascinating. So what’s happening is that they are, so he takes off part of the army and he leaves a force of about 1,800 or so, 1,900. And he, the officers he leaves in charge are not really bothered about setting up proper defences, lookout, you know as an army would do, they’re very pretty neglectful. They think, “Eh even if the Zulu’s come, "what’s going to really happen?” They’ve got guns anyway, they can see what’s going to, you know they have a fair amount of complacency, arrogance, let’s call it overconfidence perhaps. And Chelmsford sets it up so that he can ride off with his group, large group, and leave the 17, 1,800 soldiers there. And the officers being what today we might call incompetent or arrogant in fact.
So they didn’t even set up proper waggons as proper defence, they didn’t set up proper organisation, or even a proper lookout. They just assumed you know, “Chelmsford’s obviously right, "and anyway even if some Zulu’s come "they can handle the situation.” Well what happens pretty soon after is as I said, the biggest defeat suffered by the British army during colonial times of Britain by an Indigenous army. So the Zulu’s attack with thousands of Zulu soldiers and they kill about 1,700 British soldiers. And it’s an enormous embarrassment, it’s an enormous shock to the British psyche, obviously in South Africa but back home in the seat of London in empire. It’s an enormous shock, and horror, and fear, to the self image that the British had set up for themselves. And this is so important, this bit of history before the Battle of Rorke’s Drift. Because and it’s been written about extensively, historically looked at. And this film tries to capture something of that quality you know when the empire, when the troops of 1879 got too arrogant, too confident they could handle anything, boom. It’s precisely the moment. And the Zulu’s under the King Cetshwayo, of course you know other ones who come and do the attack. Okay if we can go onto the next. Just one little detail, even down to the details that the boxes of ammunition could not be opened properly, they hadn’t even checked that the boxes with the bullets inside could it was hard to open. So try to do it in a hurry, forget about it. I mean we can go on with the level of military detail. Okay if we go onto the next slide please. This on the left is Lieutenant John Chard. So what happens after this is that Zulu, which the film “Zulu” is based on the Battle of Rorke’s Drift which happens a couple of days as I said after the Isandlwana disaster. And on the left is the real lieutenant John Chard, and on the right Stanley Baker, the actor 1964 who plays him.
And I think it’s interesting to look, to see how the contemporary actor is showing anxiety, question, ambivalence not sure. You know this is enacted way after empire, and this is the real soldier proud, strong, confident, settled in his sense of identity and self esteem, and belief in being a lieutenant in the great British army. This is quite a different image from Stanley Baker. There was a part of the role engineers, so he’s an engineer, not only a military man, and he’s actually there to build a bridge at Rorke’s Drift, he’s not there to lead or defend, help defend an army. So we get the difference in the look between the two, which for me is fascinating historically, and how theatre, and in this case film, is taking the mythology from the past and giving it very contemporary eyes. So what happens in the Battle of Rorke’s Drift? There were about 150 British soldiers and at least 30, maybe 35 of them were wounded, some quite seriously, in this tiny little, pardon me, tiny little bungalow house which is actually an old mission station but was used to store some supplies in the colony of Natal at the time. 150 British soldiers, 30 of whom were pretty sick and wounded, they were patients in a field hospital. And 4,000 Zulu warriors come from Isandlwana over a day or two towards Rorke’s Drift. Now interestingly Cetshwayo had said to them. This was a group that his half brother kaMpande, Cetshwayo had said, “Don’t go there, "don’t cross the border from Zulu land "into the Colony of Natal, and don’t attack the British "if they have defences, if they don’t then attack them, "but if they do be cleverer, move on.” But his, they were so imbued ironically like Chelmsford, with arrogance by themselves and overconfidence, the Zulu’s, that they had crossed the border, ignored what the king said, and decide, “What the hell, we’re going to wipe out Rorke’s Drift.” So fascinating, this sense of arrogance how it seesaws from the British to the Zulu’s.
And then of course over a course of a day and a night historically they attack again and again and again, but Chard together with Bromhead who’s the Michael Caine character, they organise proper defence, they organise very simple you know mini bags and maize bags, and biscotins and other things as a proper defence, and they’ve go the little house building if you like of the mission station. Organise proper defence, and have the rifles, and they beat off and they kill probably about 400 and wound another 400 Zulu’s. It takes a day and a night, and then the Zulu’s retreat in defeat. And this has become known as one of the great courageous celebratory events in British military history and empire. And it forged itself so profoundly in the Battle of Rorke’s Drift in not only the British army but in British national identity, and that’s the fascinating thing for me. Actually if you look coldly at it it’s a small battle in a small colonial outpost at the time, not really significant in any major way, nothing like the American war of revolution or you know some of the other big battles in the Crimea and elsewhere that the British army is fighting to conquer to create the empire. And yet, from that small ish battle comes such a big impact in terms of identity of a nation, of a people. So the film is interestingly produced by Joseph Levine who of course is Jewish . The movie is produced by Joseph Levine. He also made “The Graduate”, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”, he hired who was the first time director at the time, Mel Brooks for the producers. He produced “The Lion in Winter”, “A Bridge Too Far”, pretty brilliant career.
A Jewish American guy has in I love that, you know the of national identities you know that it’s a Jewish-American guy who actually understands it from the outside how to make this movie and how to make it so successful. Okay, and of course it’s the film that makes Michael Caine’s name, it’s his first main gig that he’s so big. It’s got some narration with Richard Burton. Michael Caine was terrified because he was asked to play the upper class Lieutenant Bromhead, not one of the Cockney working class that he thought, ‘cause of course that’s his background. Okay, so I’ve said what that background was, and it’s Chard and another guy Delton who was really the brilliant defensive mind, military mind, who organised the defence. 11 Victoria Crosses were awarded after this battle which is the most ever awarded in any British military campaign or in any British, in any event of the British army, including the Second World War you know and the first. 11 from one day and one night event. Some historians, some very contemporary British historians argue it was done intentionally so as to help overcome the disastrous defeat of Isandlwana two days before and had to pump up the image of the army. Whether it’s true or not we don’t know, it doesn’t really matter, either way it’s gone down in history as this. Because only I think 1,300 or so Victoria Crosses were awarded in or have been awarded in over in coming on for two centuries, so 11 in one event. And most of them to the working class soldiers of the kind I described. Okay if we go onto the next slide please.
This is the picture taken shortly after the time of Rorke’s Drift, this is the actual building that they were defending. It’s a field hospital and it’s a storage depot for ammunition and other things in the Colony of Natal. And you can see, I mean it’s absolutely tiny, why should it have such a big resonance in the cultural memory, and mythology, and history of the British empire, not just the British Nation but all over you know, this particular battle? And when you combine that with a really well told story and a movie, then it helps to further the mythology and the reality even more. This is you know fairly soon after, the photo taken. Fascinating to see. And in fact one of the Victoria Cross winners afterwards, he said that actually the real reason they won the battle was because the Zulu’s managed to get on top of the building at night which was thatched, set it on fire, but the irony, the great ironies of history and life, the irony was that by setting it on fire the soldiers inside who had of course bayonets and bullets and guns, could see almost as if it was the light of day but they could see all the way through the night, every attack of the Zulu’s coming in around them and from the top and from the side. One of the great ironies of course that we have in life and history. And probably was that it was not only having guns and bullets, but that the Zulu’s hadn’t thought it through to set fire to the building on top as a way in. The Zulu’s got inside this building and there were battles inside the different rooms, very sick room and other rooms, you know very heavy fighting, you know physical fighting with bayonets and fists and hands, and then going from room to room, and how they managed to defend and continue. Okay if we can show the next slide please.
This is a picture of the soldiers of the times. And I want to show it because it’s an interesting image because these are mostly these working class boys, young, 19, 20, 18, 17, 21, 22, 23, 150 of them and a sense of just trying to make it come a bit more alive from the actual history of the times. Okay we can go on please. This is then a lot of paintings were commissioned afterwards, 'cause of course they’re red coats, so they’re wearing red. And why are they red? Some argue, no one really knows, but of course it can be seen you know who is on your side who isn’t, if they’ve got red coats, so it was developed way way before. Also the red dye was the cheapest dye of the times for wool and for their coats, so it was done you know as many things because it was done on the cheap, many many years before. And perhaps you know there’s also one myth or story that it doesn’t show the blood so much, so you know carry on fighting, especially be an officer. So this is the heroic, look at the heroic image. After the disaster of Isandlwana we can imagine, now the heroic, the courageous, suffering, dying, fighting. And there’s the hoards of a primitive, savage, stupid Zulu’s all inverted commas, out there, 4,000 of these you know barbaric savages out there, and these are the heroic soldiers of the empire who will get the Victoria Cross who will defend even a tiny little house, an old mission station in the middle of absolutely nowhere at the time, Colony of Natal. We get that sense of heroism and courage, which it is, it’s 150 versus 4,000, compared to the disastrous defeat through arrogance and incompetence of Chelmsford two days before, Isandlwana. Okay if we can go on please. Another one, so this is all paintings commissioned later.
And you can see how it’s been mixed with Isandlwana at the back. You know the high mountain there, that’s actually from Isandlwana, it’s not from Rorke’s Drift, but this is again trying to show, you know there’s one Zulu with a spear, and here’s the soldiers exhausted, you know a few soldiers. And you can imagine you know the thousands of Zulu warriors coming to attack, you know and how they are dressed which is similar to what they were, pardon me, at the times. So we have this sense of empire, and discipline, and rigour, and organisation, and technology, versus primitive savagery, brutality, and inverted comma stupidity, because they’re just a colonial people’s to be you know just kept there basically. So you know it’s a fascinating picture which others that were painted at the time. And it gets forged in the sense of how the empire becomes the small David against the big Goliath of this large Zulu empire attacking. Two days before it’s been the other way around and now it’s flipped. The archetype of David and Goliath goes endlessly through fascinating histories of many cultures and certainly of the British empire and in South Africa. If we can go on please. This is today, more fairly recently. You can see again, you know they tried to reconstruct it more or less as it was. It’s a little museum, it’s a tiny little field station I said in the middle of nowhere. Look at this old you know rusting iron and other things. But it attracts so many people and is so big in the collective imaginative memory of the national identity of Britain and empire.
Again it’s the inversion of the David and Goliath, the courage and adversity, and how so much of identity I think can be forged in war, and at times of real adversity. Because it’s times of ultimate courage, and ultimate adversity can give birth to ultimate courage. And intelligence, this small group of 150 up against 4,000. Go onto the next slide please. This is just to give you an idea, photo taken more or less after the times. You can see, you know there’s all the waggons, and bringing the tents and the other things down to Rorke’s Drift. That’s the bridge that Lieutenant Chard was meant to properly build over the Tugela River which for those of us you know runs from the stunning beautiful Drakensberg mountains all the way down through to the coast. And he’s there to build a bridge. You know you get a sense of this very rural, this can we imagine 1879, this godforsaken little outpost in the middle of absolutely nowhere of the times. Okay if we can go on please. This is an image of one of the Zulu chiefs taken around this time. And we get this contrast, but I think it what I find interesting is that on the one hand it’s portraying the so called, inverted commas, primitive savage, you know stupid, sort of locals, in this case in South Africa, it could be anywhere, you know up against the one individual who’s the representative of civilization, empire, intelligence, all that. But they’ve got guns, he’s on a horse, who’s really outwitting who? Who’s really smarter? Who isn’t? And I think it’s quite interesting the photo, because he’s up on a horse you know, whereas the, this is John Dunn who’s famous in colonial history in Durban anyway, to try and negotiate trade and other things.
Okay if we can go on please. Okay so this is again the Michael Caine, this is from the film now, I’m going to show a few clips. And Stanley Baker played, these are playing the two lieutenants. I’m not going to go into their relationship really, but it’s how organised, how in the end British organisation, British intelligence, British education, knowledge, all the attributes of inverted comma civilization, come back, and how they have to, but they have to come with their own intelligence. And these two who are at logger heads because they are you know, the Michael Caine character’s a very arrogant Eaton boy. And the other one is a bit less, he’s an engineer. He’s got the more of the ambivalence and the uncertainty. It’s the Michael Caine character that goes from huge arrogance and fear to recognising, whoa something has fundamentally changed in British empire history, some trauma, something major has happened. Whereas before, being from Eaton and all the other things, he could assume he was entitled to rule the world, but it’s been forced to change. And he goes on a journey in the movie, through the Stanley Baker character, Lieutenant Chard, and through the experience of the battle itself, and the understanding that he comes to in the film. Okay. I want to, if we can go onto the next one please. This is a picture that we all know very very well, and what do we really remember from the invasion of Iraq? And I want to suggest that for many, I’ve tried to do some very informal surveys, what do many people remember? Not soldiers, but many others? It’s the falling and the pulling down of the statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad at the end of the Iraq War. It’s the image actually as replaced the actual soldiers even, which is a fascinating thing in our media driven times, where we have to deal with the image and how it creates mythology and national identity as well as the reality. And we have to really navigate between the two in a very complicated but intriguing way in our modern times.
This image is what burned so often. You know not all the tanks in the thousands, this and that, all the rest of it, it’s an abstract image of an abstract statue, it’s not life even. Interesting, can go on please. And interestingly The New York Times, look at the open, look at the main article has got that exact image. U.S. Forces Take Control of Baghdad. It’s the image of the statue, it’s not images of soldiers, or the soldier, or anything, the unknown, so whatever, it’s the statue image. And that’s a fascinating change in the forging of national mythology and identity for me, and how technology and what has to. There’s a battle, the cliche, you know the media battle as well as the real battle, in our times without a doubt. So we have to take on both as part of the overall idea of forging a sense of strong memory in a culture. It has to take on the media positions as well. Okay I’m going to show the first clip from the film, and this is of the final battle with the stunning Drakensberg mountains behind it, the amphitheatre for those of you who know, which I love that, I’m sure everybody loves so much. And which of course not the real location of Rorke’s Drift, about 100 miles away, but it’s the location of the movie, which sticks mostly to the real facts, but it builds it the story. And this is building up to the final battle. So they’ve fought the day and the night, and this is the next day where the final attack is coming from the Zulu’s. And look how it builds up. This look for me of that anxiety that ambivalence.
Not only are they going to survive the battle but it’s a moment in British colonial history, a small group up against this massive huge group. And they’ve gone through a day and a night of battle already. The anxiety amongst these soldiers, obviously for their own lives. They’re exhausted. Suddenly the Zulu’s are showing, it’s quite it’s organised and almost individualist as the camera pans. If we can hold it there please Emily and freeze it there, yeah. I wanted to show this because it’s the beginning of that last battle as I mentioned, but not only are they exhausted and will they survive one last assault? Probably not. But deeper than that, especially on Stanley Baker’s face and Michael Caine has gone on that inner journey to realise whoa what is actually going to happen? The greatness of empire or not, which he really represents more than the others. The others are the ordinary soldiers, you know the coming probably uneducated and you know out there to earn a buck and to get out into the world. And because there’s so many of these images of showing faces, the one and the other against this beautiful backdrop of obviously in different nature, which is beautiful but indifferent. And the one hand, the hint of the craziness of this kind of a battle, but the courage to come, that are going to build such courage in such adversity and the odds are so stacked against them. Okay we can go onto the next clip please. This is from the trailer which is much more sensationalist.
[Narrator] Dwarfing the mightiest. Towering over the greatest. Joseph E Levine presents. “Zulu”. These are the days and nights of fury and honour, of courage and cowardice, that an entire century of empire making and filmmaking can never surpass. This is the day when 200 Zulu maidens and 200 Zulu warriors perform their incredible mask wedding dance. This is the day when a woman fights for her honour among men fighting for their lives.
You’re all going to die! Die!
Fire! Fire! Fire!
Fire! Fire! Fire!
A spot of medicinal brandy.
[Man] Brandy’s for heroes mister.
[Narrator] Zulu! This is a day and night of death and defiance, when 100 gallant men were outnumbered by the mightiest warrior nation on earth, but not outfought. “Zulu”!
Okay you can hold it there.
A day that made history.
Fire!
If you can hold it there Emily. Thank you. So I wanted to show the trailer because of course it’s showing, it’s glorifying violence and it’s sensationalist completely as a trailer, but it mentions you know empire, and it’s trying to build up interesting paradox or contradiction actually. Which is that on the one hand this is a small group of soldiers, David versus this huge Goliath of 4,000 Zulu warriors up against him, but they are going to with their technology, with their discipline, their coordination, everything, take on and win in the end through courage and organisation and planning. But we know from the beginning of the film, it’s happened just before the disaster of the of Battle of Isandlwana. So it’s that contrast, the David and Goliath shifting of course. And I think but it also shows the Zulu’s, 'cause you can’t only show Goliath as the stupid bad evil. You’ve got to show the opposition actually as worthy so that the small group of British soldiers are also worthy of defeating them. They’re not just mindless you know attack and you know run and run and get killed et cetera, you know they’ve been planning the use of how to use the military tactic of the horn and so on. So I think what’s interesting is that it’s trying to, in 1964 it’s trying to show aspects of the Zulu as coming up to the British and visa versa. You know and how are these two totally different cultures, and ideas of courage, and ideas of adversity going to actually forge, take on battle, and what’s it going to do? And then in the end of course how it gets taken up. Okay can show the next clip please. This is a short clip from the very first battle preparation. So having made the choice to stay and fight they’ve got two hours, which is historically fairly accurate once they got the news.
Company!
And the Michael Caine characters do–
Bayonets! Feet!
Come down Britain’s against.
Bayonets!
Enough to prepare. The discipline, the rigour.
Attention!
You slovenly soldier.
One little thing like that is so big and important.
But there they’re waiting and looking. See it’s this sense, suddenly they are prepared unlike Isandlwana. They’re organised, they’ve got the maize bags, they’ve got their defences, and then comes the threat slowly slowly slowly. The threat of invasion of Napoleon is the echo historically of Trafalgar with Nelson, of the ships of Waterloo even, this threat and terror. And the threat of the German’s, the Nazi’s, at the gates of France to cross over. It’s echoes in a British connective imagination, this image. Can they be heroic and courageous or not? Okay if we can hold there please and go onto the next clip please? I love that anxiety that Stanley Baker captures. And Michael Caine is forced to, as his character evolves, you see that ambivalence and anxiety, it’s about their own identity, and that’s what’s beginning to change. And what the impact in Britain at the time in 1879, that it has. Okay if we can show it please, the next clip. This is the ending, Richard Burton’s voice, off to the battle.
[Richard] In the 100 years since the be was created for valour and extreme courage, beyond that normally expected of a British soldier in face of the enemy. Only 1,344 have been awarded, 11 of these were won by the defenders of the Mission Station at Rorke’s Drift Natal, January 22nd to the 23rd 1879. Frederic Schiess, corporal, Natal native contingent. William Allen, corporal B company, second battalion 24 foot. Fred Hitch, private B company, second battalion, 24th foot. James Langley Dalton, acting assistant commissary, army commissary of department. 612 John Williams, Private B company, second battalion, 24th foot. 716, Robert Jones. 593, William Jones, Privates B Company, second battalion, 24th foot. Henry Hook, Private B Company second battalion, 24th foot. James Henry Reynold’s surgeon major, army hospital corps. Gonville Bromhead, left tenant B company, second battalion of the 24th regiment of foot, South Wales borderers. John Raus merry at Chard, left tenant, royal engineers, officer commanding Rorke’s Drift.
If we can freeze it there please Emily. So I wanted to show this because this obviously happening towards the end right towards the end of the film, not at Richard Burton’s beautifully profound serious and emotional voice there. But it’s showing the individual soldiers, and most of these, to go back to what I was starting with, might’ve had a little bit of education, probably most of these except with officers, were not able to read or write. Most of them you know probably were maybe were from the work houses in England, or hadn’t been able to do anything or you know, they’re ordinary I suppose they’re ordinary people of Britain at the beginning of the change of times of elementary education. Kids can only be sent to work at the age of 10 or 11, things are starting to change in terms of Britain at home, and then this comes in as well, obviously not with this beautiful stunning setting. The contrast between this and earlier of course, cause now dead bodies. But there’s a profound shift that the mightiest army in the world can be defeated arguably through its complacency and arrogance by you know a couple of thousand Zulu’s with spears. And it echoes throughout, and this constant shift between courage and definitions of courage in times of extreme threat and adversity in a nation’s history. And I think it’s what forwards this idea of the Zulu so deeply in British consciousness. And of course when pilots, or anybody all over the world, they’re trying to use you know use the word the Z in spelling out on the phone, you know, “Can you spell your name or your address?” Z is always the word Zulu, it’s not zebra or other things. So in fact, and yet it’s also shown, the Zulu’s are shown the scenes of them dancing, and the marriages, and other things.
And they’re show in a fairly sophisticated way but also in an exotic highly romanticised way. But he’s trying to show, at least the film director’s trying to show something of a recognition, especially through Stanley Baker, and as I said the Michael Caine character, that whoa, maybe we can’t just take these things for granted anymore of the deeply held beliefs from 1879, 1880, something has to adapt. And it’s starting to change in Britain itself even before that, what I mentioned about education, children, and other things. And of course the beginning of rights for women and so on. So it’s trying to, without being over academic about it, I think the film is trying to capture something of that in telling what’s really a small battle somewhere in a little colonial outpost like it has the resonance of the Alamo, it has the resonance of Custer you know put together in a way. It’s not necessarily only the massive battles of history, the Stalingrad’s of course, and many others, but it’s also the smaller ones that can be even more powerful, at least as powerful in forging national identity. But it goes through for me a process of it has to become mythology from history, and the story then takes over a life of its own. And it’s how cultures, I would argue, reimagine their own identity you know as history moves and changes. And film and literature can do that re imagining I think very very powerfully for us. Okay I just wanted to show the next clip, we’ve got a couple of minutes, and actually no, all right, yeah we can just show it a little bit. Just show at two minutes, thanks, thanks Emily.
[Man] Two.
Well.
This is–
We haven’t done.
Almost at the end.
Too badly.
[Man] 570. Oh my god.
They think they’ve won, they think the final attack is coming again. Here’s character who was there.
Oh no, why have they stopped?
Damn you.
I want a answer!
Haven’t you had enough, both of you? My god, can’t you see it’s all over? Your bloody egos don’t matter anymore, we’re dead.
What are you waiting for? Come on! Come on!
Those bastards, they’re taunting us.
You couldn’t be more wrong. They’re saluting you. They’re saluting fellow braves. They’re saluting you.
We can hold it there. So we got that tiny glimpse in the previous shot of the little mission station of Rorke’s Drift. We come back to nature right at the beginning, you know and human beings when war and nature, “They’re saluting you, they’re saluting fellow braves.” I mean a line that’s gone down in film folklore. Of course this never happened in reality, it’s a dream, it’s a complete fantasy by the filmmakers to show at the end this idea of mutual respect and kind of acceptance of each other, the difference in opposition. You know we’ve both been brave and courageous, and now we’ll call it a day, and you know et cetera. Never happened but it creates that totally romanticised and exotic image at the end of a film, which I guess many people by the end of watching all this horror, and slaughter, and killing, and gory, people would dream of and hoped for, that nature can reassert itself in this peaceful way of blue sky again and the green fields of Natal. So I think that although it never happened, of course it’s put on by the filmmakers to give a hint of well even if it’s a dream, not only worth putting in, but you know hope must be kept alive in some way. So I want to share this because for me it captures so many of these things which I think are important because war does forge identity in such a powerful way. And film and literature I think have not necessarily a duty, but I think they will inevitably be drawn to how to represent a century later, decades later, that event. And if we can do it with something of you know for 1964, contemporary eyes then looking back on British empire and history at the time. Okay, thanks very much and can take questions.
Q&A and Comments:
Susan, thank you very much and you as well.
“Absolutely devastating,” I agree completely. Horrific and, I don’t have words anymore, or tears.
Irv, “I wrote this while I waited, "I loved this movie the first time I saw it "as a kid in Toronto. "Got the DVD, have seen it umpteen times. "Saw it as a group under siege.
"Sandy Baker introducing Michael Caine with a posh accent, "not true to his Cockney heritage.” Absolutely, the John Barry score yes, it’s a fantastic score by John Barry. And the great, the character actors, Jack Hawkins and others, Burton. It’s a very high quality, for what could’ve been just another I suppose almost third rate version of a cowboy and Indian movie you know of for obvious reasons. Joseph Levine actually watched a lot of the old cowboy movies and tried to, when he was on the set, 'cause they filmed it obviously here in the Drakensberg area. And showed it to many of the actors, black and white, and said what he liked from some of the old cowboy movies and what he didn’t, trying to get a different sense of it in a way. And it is in the end courage. What Hemingway’s great phrase, “Courage is,” oh I’ll come to it, I’ll come back to it. “Grace under pressure.” And Schoenberg, “Courage is the act "that exceeds confidence.”
Irv, “I had hoped for the prequel.” Yeah but no, it’s not nearly as much as for me the film “Zulu” is far better for me. I agree with you.
Catherine, “Saw this film at 12, made a colossal impression. "Infused my decision to immigrate "to South Africa after uni. "Travelling through Zulu land "up in the site was Rorke’s Drift, "visiting the historic battlefield I was moved "to hear the mournful singing,” absolutely. “Remarkable kids, and I’m married "and live in Pietermaritzburg "who’s distantly related to James Rorke.” That’s extraordinary Catherine. What an, Lockdown is amazing, Lockdown University you know that Wendy and Trudy have set up is amazing. All these connections we make and these extraordinary discoveries through connections. Yes and also what you’re saying here, it’s one of the big tourist attractions so many British and others you know love to go and see the.
Okay it’s Catherine, “Written by my husband.” Great, thank you to both of you.
Rita. “The film was available in the,” oh that’s great, thanks very much Rita. “Happy to see the vintage photos, "the movie a lot of it is made of the Welsh soldiers,” yes, you’re right, I mean there’s a whole debate. In fact, the way they showed the private Hook who won the Victoria Cross, he’s shown as a dissolute drunkard, but then he changes and he becomes one of the great, the heroes of the battle, and helps protect and defend some of the seriously very seriously wounded soldiers in that tiny little mission station. And but he’s shown as a drunken dissolute who kind of comes good. At the premiere in London in '64 or '65, his daughters walked out of the premier because in fact, their father Henry Hook was an immaculate , he was nothing like the character portrayed, and they were furious. And the filmmakers said, “Well you know we had to show "different characters in the defenders at the time.” So you know, poetic licence, yes or no.
Q: Paula, “Can the John Chard and Baker photos be compared? "The setting seemed very different.”
A: Yeah, “One looks like a studio portrait,” absolutely. “Other appears in the battlefield.” I agree with you, and maybe I’m pushing it too far Paula as you say, but the fact that Chard is showing, he’s showing what I really wanted to show was the sense of entitlement. You know Churchill said, “An Englishman in the empire "is entitled to go anywhere and rule,” I’m paraphrasing from Churchill, but he’s entitled to go anywhere. So it’s this sense of entitled to go anywhere, to be whoever, because you’re part of the British empire. And for me what Stanley Baker captures, and of course it’s nearly 90 years later, but it shows for me the fault line in British empire history of that ambivalence, that anxiety, that uncertainty, that questioning of who are these people that we are killing and that we are fighting anyway? Not that Chard or the Baker character’s going to change, but at least just a questioning. And I think it is fascinating from that point of view. And that’s what’s made up the conflict between him and the Michael Caine, 'cause Michael Caine’s very sort of upper class Eaton, descendant of aristocracy, you know absolutely overconfident arrogant, whereas Chard isn’t. And I suppose in the, and that’s an important distinction in the film, it’s a class distinction. And I think what that is a studio portrait of the real Chard, but you do get that sense of simple of pride, entitlement.
Okay Monica, “In the movie were the Zulu’s portrayed,” yes they were in 1964 I think they had four or 500 Zulu people who were acted as the extras, and except for the main actors, the other British soldiers are, they got 80 soldiers from the white South African army at the time into play some of those other parts, not the main parts obviously. Interestingly the film was banned in South Africa afterwards for a while because the apartheid government said they didn’t want to see blacks rising up and killing whites in case it inspired blacks in South Africa to do the same. Of course this is in the mid '60’s in apartheid South Africa. Interesting that one film can have such a threatening impact.
Josie, thank you. “I’ve only seen bits and military dress, the costumes yeah. "Such as why they’re saying, 'Kill the men in red,’ "so the engineers in blue survived.” Yep exactly. “Also the blue is being told "the citing of the gold buttons,” exactly. “Two VC’s awarded,” exactly, spot on. And it was after this battle they started to question this sort of red coat and the red you know was it did it really, did it work as opposed to having an impressive impact?
Yanna, “Historical reminder, the original "World War Two phonetic alphabet was Z was zebra not Zulu,” oh okay, “Zulu became the word for the letter in 1956. "The adoption of the native phonetic alphabet.” Oh fantastic, Yanna thank you very much, I appreciate that, I didn’t know that.
Great, so similar to the Inca Spanish, 150 Spanish with guns wiped out 5,000 natives, yeah in South America, the Aztec’s, but in reverse to the Zulu situation, yeah.
Okay Michael, “My mother’s family grew up in South Wales. "The beginning of the 20th century "South Wales borders were the heroes. "Veterans who won the Victoria Cross metals "wore them proudly.” Absolutely, I mean it’s held up as the high point, one of the high points of the British army in a way for obvious reasons. And that context of the previous Battle of Isandlwana is also held up. And I think that that British army learned so much actually from those two battles. And well maybe not in the first World War so much, but after that certainly.
Okay thank you very much, and thanks so much to everybody, hope you have a great rest of the weekend. And Emily, thank you.