Zulu The Movie and The Battle

UK Cinema Release Poster (Wikipedia)

Basic Information

Zulu is a 1964 United Kingdom movie about the Battle of Rorke’s Drift. It was filmed in South Africa and had many Zulus as extras. This included Zulu Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi who played his great-grandfather King Cetewayo.[i] The movie’s budget was over $1.7 million. It has a runtime of 2 hours and 18 minutes.[ii]

There is a tribal dance with partial nudity at the movie’s beginning. In 1964 the Hays Code was still in force in America. The movie got an Approved Certificate.[iii] At the time movies and TV documentaries permitted showing indigenous people in ways that were normally forbidden.

[i] Zulu (1964) — Trivia — IMDb

[ii] Zulu (1964) — IMDb

[iii] Zulu (1964) — IMDb

Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead (Michael Caine) ordering troops to open fire. (Wikipedia)

The Movie — Spoilers

Richard Burton speaks the opening narration. The narration tells the British started the war by sending troops into Zulu territory. Reverend Otto Witt (Jack Hawkins) is attempting to talk peace with King Cetewayo during a mass wedding ceremony. Witt learns war has started. Witt and his daughter Margareta (Ulla Jacobsson) leave in a rush. There is a battle aftermath scene where a large, well equipped, British force was wiped out.

A small contingent of British soldiers, led by Lieutenant John Chard of the Royal Engineers (Stanley Baker), is building a bridge. Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead (Michael Caine), an infantry officer arrives. The contingent has about 150 British soldiers and some native troops. The British troops include Colour-Sergeant Bourne (Nigel Green) and Private Henry Hook (James Booth), a troublesome soldier. Reverend Witt and his daughter arrive at the fort. There is also Commissary Dalton (Dennis Folbigge) and Lieutenant Gert Adendorff (Gert van den Bergh) a Boer constable.

Reverend Witt tries to convince the British to abandon Rorke’s Drift. The British stay but the native troops run away. The British send the drunk Reverend and his daughter away. The Zulus arrive. Initially, some Zulu warriors make themselves targets. Adendorff explains the Zulus are doing this so they can count how many guns are in the fort. Zulus make a series of attacks, which the British repel. Zulus chant before they attack. Before the climactic battle the British counter the Zulu chants by singing “Men of Harlech”.

The climactic scene is a slaughter. The attacking Zulus are seen dead or dying. In the aftermath the British believe they have won. They see Zulus lining the hilltops, the British don’t stand a chance. The Zulus chant their praise for their opponents, then leave. Lieutenant Chard takes a Zulu shield and stands it up, apparently a monument to the fallen Zulu warriors.

Zulu Warriors circa 1880 (Wikipedia)

Men of Harlech stop your dreaming.

Can’t you see their spearpoints gleaming?

See their warrior pennants streaming,

To this battlefield.

Men of Harlech stand ye steady,

It cannot be ever said ye,

For the battle were not ready,

Welshmen never yield!

Lieutenant Colonel Frank Edward Bourne, photo 1905. (Wikipedia)

The Reality — Spoilers

Reverend Otto Witt’s wife and children left with other women about three weeks before the battle and Witt left on January 6th. The Battle started on January 22nd. Reverend Witt left August Hammar behind to look after his property. Hammar was Swedish and didn’t speak English and none of the British troops spoke Swedish. It’s possible the British mistook Hammar for Reverend Witt. Hammar left on foot before the battle.[i]

Major Spalding left Rorke’s Drift to find the reinforcement troops, who were overdue. He left Lieutenant Chard in charge because he had been a Lieutenant longer than Bromhead.

Captain Stephenson, Lieutenant Vause, and their NCOs (Noncommissioned Officers) fled with their Natal Native troops. Some British troops fired on the fleeing troops, killing Corporal Bill Anderson.[ii] Eleven colonial irregulars stayed with the British troops defending Rorke’s Drift.[iii] A Natal Native cavalry contingent engaged the Zulu briefly then fled. This reduced the Roark’s Drift force from about 500 to no more than 156, over 30 of them were hospitalized.

The initial plan was to abandon the compound. Commissary James Langley Dalton, a retired Staff Sergeant, explained if they traveled with the hospital patients the Zulus would overtake them out in the open and overwhelm them. Lieutenant Chard, thinking like an engineer, set up a series of barricades. Private Henry Hook was a teetotaler, a model soldier, and a devout Methodist. Other soldiers teased him because of his devoutness. He was sent to the hospital to protect the patients because of his reliability. Colour-Sergeant Frank Edward Bourne was 24 years old and the youngest colour-sergeant in the British Army. He was of small stature and had the nickname “The Kid”.[iv]

The Zulu Impi Warriors marching on Rorke’s Drift were held in reserve during the Battle of Isandlwana, “loins of the buffalo.” They didn’t participate in the Battle of Isandlwana and didn’t have any of the captured Martini Henry rifles. The Impis had some muskets.[v]

The Battle of Rorke’s Drift started about 4 PM and lasted for about 12 hours. The battle consisted of a series of charges for about 10 hours with defenders retreating to more defensible positions when conditions called for it. The last two hours was sporadic gunfire by the Zulus.[vi] There wasn’t a decisive mass attack and the British didn’t sing Men of Harlech or anything else.

At dawn, with the British reinforcements in sight, the Zulus withdrew. The British bayonetted the Zulu wounded left behind. Defender casualties were 17 killed, including Corporal Anderson, and 15 wounded. Zulu casualties were 351 dead and about 500 wounded.[vii]

[i] Anglo Zulu War, Journal 26, Pastor Peter Otto Holgar Witt. 1840–1923. Microsoft Word — Reverend Otto Witt.doc, last accessed 4/28/26.

[ii] Information Britain, Battle of Rorke’s Drift, The 23rd of January 1879 AD, Battle of Rorke’s Drift, last accessed 5/13/26.

[iii] Battle of Rorke’s Drift, Battle of Rorke’s Drift, last accessed 4/28/26.

[iv] Zulu: Masterpiece in Mythmaking: History Prof Reacts, Zulu: Masterpiece in Mythmaking | History Prof Reacts, last accessed 5/16/26.

[v] Battle of Rorke’s Drift — The Real Story of Zulu, Battle of Rorke’s Drift — The Real Story of Zulu, last accessed 5/16/16.

[vi] Information Britain, Battle of Rorke’s Drift, The 23rd of January 1879 AD, Battle of Rorke’s Drift, last accessed 5/13/26.

[vii] History.net, At Rorke’s Drift, 150 Men Were Left Behind to Face Thousands of Warriors, by Mark Simner, 11/29/23, At Rorke’s Drift, 150 Men Were Left Behind To Face Thousands Of Warriors, last accessed 5/27/26.

The Defense of Rorke’s Drift, by Alphonse de Neuville (1880) (Wikipedia)