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Amazon.co.uk Review
Cy Endfield co-wrote the epic prequel Zulu Dawn 15 years after his enormously popular Zulu. Set in 1879, this film depicts the catastrophic Battle of Isandhlwana, which remains the worst defeat of the British army by natives, with the British contingent outnumbered 16-to-1 by the Zulu tribesmen. The film's opinion of events is made immediately clear in its title sequence: ebullient African village life presided over by King Cetshwayo is contrasted with aristocratic artifice under the arrogant eye of General Lord Chelmsford (Peter O'Toole). Chelmsford is at the heart of all that goes wrong, initiating the catastrophic battle with an ultimatum made seemingly for the sake of giving his troops something to do. His detached manner leads to one mistake after another and this is wryly illustrated in a moment when neither he nor his officers can be bothered to pronounce the name of the land they're in (Isandhlwana). It is a beautiful land nonetheless--superb cinematography drinks in the massive open spaces that shrink the British army to a line of red ants. Splendidly stiff-upper-lipped support comes from a heroic Burt Lancaster and a fluffy, yet gruff, Bob Hoskins. Although the story is less focused and inevitably more diffuse than the concentrated events of Rorke's Drift which followed soon after, Zulu Dawn is about the most honest depiction of British Imperial diplomacy ever seen on screen. --Paul Tonks
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
34 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I've just compared this dvd briefly to the perfect edition in France by a label called Opening. On this UK dvd by Arrow Films, there is poor sound with crackling right through the film. A bit like being at a cinema back in the 70's! On the dvd by Opening in France, the sound and picture are perfect, no crackling and a slightly sharper picture with English audio (and optional French audio too). I'm returning this dvd to amazon shortly. Buy the dvd from France, the best in the world!
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I have to agree with Mr Wilkinson, it is a disgrace that this decent and epic British classic with an outstanding cast including Burt Lancaster, Peter O'Toole, John Mills, Denholm Elliot and Bob Hoskins, is again only released in bad quality. The first time I bought this film on VHS I had to call distributor Mosaic to complain about the wrong 1,85 format and they sent me a VHS copy with a correct 2,35 ratio. When they released it on dvd they only used the wrong format again. (and it looked awful too)
Don't get your hope up that this is a big improvement.
What does one have to do to get a British classic in the best possible version ? Buy it in France...
Don't get your hope up that this is a big improvement.
What does one have to do to get a British classic in the best possible version ? Buy it in France...
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Prequel to the epic Zulu starring Stanley Baxter, Michael Caine and Jack Hawkins, Zulu Dawn became a staple of Boxing Day viewing for me as a kid in the UK. Not quite as good as Zulu, but an entertaining film nonetheless. Magnificent wide vistas of the African landscape are memorable as a cast of thousands representing the Zulu impis overwhelm the severely outnumbered British troops at Isandwhalna. The results lead to the events at Rorke's Drift represented earlier in Zulu. Fine performances by Burt Lancaster (despite an appalling Irish accent) and Simon Ward make the film very watchable, despite confusing scene setting during the early part of the plot.
But the DVD is another matter. By far the worst DVD that I have ever seen, the image presented is grainy and full of dust and scratches and the mono sound track undermines the magnificent battle scenes. But worst still, the "anamorphic" transfer has been a real hatchet job with parts of the image reduced to a fraction of the original. This is most obvious in scenes in which the Zulu dialogue is subtitled in English, where the Zulus' heads are chopped off to accommodate the subtitles. Other scenes have parts of actors' faces talking at the edges of the image with huge empty spaces in between. It goes without saying that such treatement does little to show off the magnificent battle scenes later on in the film.
A complete aberration of a DVD. If this had been the first DVD that I had ever seen, I would have gone vack to my old VHS. Avoid like the plague and hope that if and when Zulu is released on DVD it is given more respect than this effort.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Um, and a damn close thing it was too.
Filmed exactly 100 years after the event it portrays, this film forms a prequel to the 1964 film ZULU. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Throda tzen
Great looking movie
Great looking movie with a great cast. Bob Hoskins, Peter Vaughan, et al in great form. Great final battle sequence, even if the last stand death scenes are a little melodramatic. Read more
Published 4 months ago by swearinglyhonest
ZULU DAWN
ALTHOUGH NOT A DVD BUT A VIDEO IT IS A VERY GOOD AND I THINK REALISTIC ACCOUNT OF WHAT HAPPENED AT ISANDLHWANA. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Dw Mallett
"Zulu Dawn" - the beginning
This is an excellent film with a superb cast of high-quality actors who give their all and, although the DVD is not the highest quality, it is good. Read more
Published 9 months ago by RR Waller
Zulu Dawn
Excellent addition to "Zulu", although it is actually a historical prequel to that film, as the annihilation of the British garrison at Isandhlwana took place before several hours... Read more
Published 15 months ago by H. Wilson
Excellent Film Terrible DVD
This film - the prequel to Zulu - charts a spectacular disaster in Queen Victoria's period of little wars. Read more
Published 21 months ago by peter upton
What a waste
Wish I'd read some of these reviews before buying this rubbish. The date on the box is 2009 but it's 4:3 letterbox and very grainy. Read more
Published 23 months ago by T. Kelly
Superb
Watch this excellent film before you go on to watch the brilliant
Michael Caine film "ZULU"
Zulu Dawn [DVD] [1979]
Michael Caine film "ZULU"
Zulu Dawn [DVD] [1979]
Published on 4 Oct 2009 by John E. Halldearn
At last a letter box copy.
Another movie that has suffered from awful copies here is a nice letter box copy not available here in Canada. Great performances by all. Read more
Published on 23 Sep 2009 by Andy B
Disappointing release
I initially thought, at last a DVD release in 1:2.35 aspect ratio instead of the previous releases which have had the sides of the picture cut off, but as the previous reviewer has... Read more
Published on 1 May 2009 by K. Wilkinson
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