A bit of dramatic license was taken by the scriptwriters. Though portrayed in the film as a skiving drunkard, in real life Private Hook was considered a model soldier who was a lifetime teetotaller. See more...
Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, who played King Cetewayo in the film is actually a real-life distant descendant of the very same Zulu king he was playing. Small wonder the producers decided to choose him to play Cetewayo. See more...
Directed by Cy Endfield, starring Jack Hawkins, James Booth, Stanley Baker, Ulla Jacobsson (add more)
Genres: Action, Drama, History, War
Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. As such, any aggressive/abusive corrections (and I get quite a few) written as if they're comments I've made myself will be ignored. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click the edit icon under an entry, then choose "correct entry". Some entries have "duplicated entry" after them - these are entries which were already listed on the main page, but were submitted again. I occasionally leave these online for a while, just in case they were moved in error, so don't worry about pointing them out to me.
It's very unlikely that the red coats the British wore would have been so red in the dusty and sandy conditions of South Africa, yet they always seem to be so clean. Also, the white helmets were often dyed with tea so troop movements were harder for enemies to spot. ["Unlikely" doesn't mean impossible. "Often" doesn't mean always. These men were military, maintenance of their kit was drilled into them day and night.]
Before the first attack when the camp outside of the missionary station is dismantled, a group of soldiers double time it down the dirt track. As they go past a tent, one of them trips on one of the tent guide ropes and nearly falls flat on his face. [People trip in real life. Not an error.]
Corrected by John W Rosa
On several occasions, troopers are seen breaking open ammunition boxes. After the lid is removed, it is clear the rounds of ammunition are covered in a layer of aluminium foil. In one scene, the trooper handing out the ammunition even tears the foil open. I doubt aluminium foil existed in those days. [I believe that was lead (not aluminium) foil, which did exist at the time and was used for sealing purposes. Tin foil also existed at this time.]
Hook calls a character "you long range sniper you." This specific term was coined in WWII as a derogatory term for artillery well behind the lines. [The word sniper dates from 1824 and the verb from 1782 both derived from the bird of the same name which was first recorded in about 1325. Snipe was even used as an abusive term in Shakespeare's Othello. Further, the verb took on a figurative sense by the late 19th century: to verbally rebuke or criticize (to "shoot" at with words).]
Instead of leaning out the window to fire at the Zulus when they were attacking under cover of darkness, why didn't those two hospital guards stand aside and bayonet the Zulus one by one as they climbed in through the window? They could have saved their own lives by doing so. [Because that's what they did in real life. They were hospital orderlies, not trained infantrymen. Frightened people don't think with logic and calm precision while under fire.]
The soldiers wear parade dress uniforms, including white helmets displaying the regimental crest. On active service, they would have worn a more basic uniform with plain cork helmets, as correctly depicted in ZULU DAWN. [The white helmets were worn during the Rorke's Drift battle per Private Henry Hook's personal account: http://www.rorkesdriftvc.com/vc/hook_account.htm. It does seem unlikely, though that the rest of the parade dress uniform would have been worn in a remote post in South Africa.]
Some of the Zulu generals were standing out on hilltops in open view when shouting commands to the Zulu armies. Strange that none of the British riflemen thought of getting a good, clean shot at them from afar... [The Martini-Henry .45 caliber rifles used by the British could shoot through a man at 200 yards. Despite this the generals on the hill are out of range.]
Why are the engineers building a bridge when Michael Caine's character fords the river at about ankle depth 20 yards downstream? [Why indeed - but that's not the film's mistake - they are simply showing a historical event as it happened. Strange as it may seem, Liuetenant Chard's mission was to build a bridge across the river near Rourke's Drift, and he was in the middle of it when events overtook him and his men.]
Chard was in the Royal Engineers. Their tunics were blue, not red. [The blue tunic for the Engineers was not introduced until later on in the century. Chard did indeed wear red that day. Note: All British officers at this time did have a blue "patrol jacket" that was worn usually off duty.]
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