Product description

Zulu Dawn / Ashanti [1979]

Price: £17.48
RRP: £19.99
Average customer rating: 2.5

Binding : DVD
EAN : 5016292401017
Label : Mosaic Movies
Manufacturer : Mosaic Movies
Publisher : Mosaic Movies
Release date : 2000-10-30
Title : Zulu Dawn / Ashanti [1979]
Actor : Array
Audience rating : Suitable for 15 years and over
Format : Array
Languages : Array
Original release date : 1979-01-01
Region code : 2
Running time : 226
Studio : Mosaic Movies
Theatrical releaseDate : 1979

Customer reviews

review by: date: 2007-11-08 rating:

A historic disaster on a disastrous DVD
"One Zulu is only one man, and I'm afeared of no one man. But the Zulu, they come in the thousands, like a black wave of death in the thousands."

Zulu Dawn isn't in the Zulu league, but if you're interested in the period and can overlook a few historical errors, it's a good addition to that curious subgenre of British epics celebrating their humiliating military defeats. In its determination to set some of the colonial myths straight it does tend to overlook the Zulus' own imperial ambitions, divided leadership and tactical stupidity, but it's well staged with an exceptionally strong cast of familiar British faces and a wildly miscast Burt Lancaster offering one of the screens worst Oirish accents. The battle's a long time coming, but is worth the wait, and the film is genuinely spectacular, with director Douglas Hickox pulling off a particularly impressive river crossing sequence to the accompaniment of Elmer Bernstein's stirring score. However, if you don't get off on troop deployments and crowd scenes of colourfully clad British soldiers on the veldt, you'll probably find it heavy going for the first hour.

Sadly, as others have noted, this is a very shoddy DVD - like the UK issue it's cropped from its original 2.35:1 widescreen ratio to 1.85:1 and with an inferior sound mix (the theatrical release prints had an excellent stereo soundtrack) and no real extras to speak of despite plenty being available. A very poor show indeed. It's worth noting, however, that the French PAL disc not only boasts a good transfer in the original 2.35:1 ratio with removeable French subtitles but also includes the theatrical trailer and is well worth seeking out if you have a multi-region player.

Supporting feature Ashanti suffers even worse. It's strange that a man with the likes of Jaws - The Revenge, The Jigsaw Man, Blue Ice, The Holcroft Covenant, On Deadly Ground and Bullseye, not to mention two Harry Alan Towers movies on his resume should dismiss Ashanti as his worst picture, because Michael Caine's done a LOT shoddier. Not that it's particularly good, but even though it comes from the late Richard Fleischer's I'll-do-anything days and features cameos from actors out to top-up their pension funds (Rex Harrison) or who just happened to be in Kenya anyway (William Holden), this somewhat pedestrian modern-day slavery picture that sees Caine's WHO Doctor (insert pun here) tracking down his kidnapped wife (model-turned-very-bad-actress Beverly Johnson) before comical slave-trader Peter Ustinov can sell her to Omar Sharif is at least watchable in a wallpaper kind of way, and always looks good thanks to Aldo Tonti's photography, though Don Black's cheesy lyrics for the end title song are typically laughable. Be warned that Mosaic's DVD is very shoddy - not only a poor panned-and-scanned transfer of a Scope film but one taken from a very heavily and visibly cut TV print.

review by: simonn10 date: 2003-10-08 rating:

As accurate as dramtic licence would allow - great stuff
You've probably seen the 1964 film 'Zulu' which famously introduced Michael Caine. Well, Zulu Dawn is less romanticised more modern look at the battle which happened a few hours before during which a British/native levy army was anihilated by the Zulus. The film has a discernable anti-imperialist message, but it's not a polemic and it allows for the recognition of individual heroism. It's well shot and features a host of well known British character actors and Burt Lancaster. It's not Burt's finest moment, but he does a reasonable job. There's some dramtic licence of course - it's a film not a documentary and if you like historical epics with a solid grounding in true events and authenticty, buy it!

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