Seeing Burt Lancaster and Peter O’Toole interact is my version of DeNiro and Pacino meeting in Heat.
In fact, this is almost a dream cast for me: Burt Lancaster, Peter O’Toole, Denholm Elliot, Peter Vaughan, Nigel Davenport. What a lineup, and they almost cloud my vision.
Same problems, previous day. This half-heartedly attempts to solve the criticisms of the first film but only partway succeeds through the demonstration of the colonist’s hubristic stupidity, not by reframing the conflict or humanising the Zulu. We do get subtitles this time and, in all fairness most of the characters are thinly drawn on both sides, but it’s no excuse.
Still, it’s filmed and staged stunningly, the landscape is exploited beautifully and the final battle is technically remarkable. My dream cast all perform stoically, especially Lancaster. I can’t say I wasn’t enjoying what I was watching, even if the bitter taste of Zulu remains.
What you can glean- and try and think on after the credits roll- from this film is the damn-near visual perfection. Some of those shots man: a bugler heralding the dawn that will eventually kill them all, looming over the rising sun; the split diopter of O’Toole and Lancaster, the latter in profile casting a look that defines ennui; O’Toole lit infernally by the aflame vestiges of the front.
That’s what I’m going to take away.
Seeing Burt Lancaster and Peter O’Toole interact is my version of DeNiro and Pacino meeting in Heat.
In fact, this is almost a dream cast for me: Burt Lancaster, Peter O’Toole, Denholm Elliot, Peter Vaughan, Nigel Davenport. What a lineup, and they almost cloud my vision.
Same problems, previous day. This half-heartedly attempts to solve the criticisms of the first film but only partway succeeds through the demonstration of the colonist’s hubristic stupidity, not by reframing the conflict or humanising the Zulu. We do get subtitles this time and, in all fairness most of the characters are thinly drawn on both sides, but it’s no excuse.
Still, it’s filmed and staged stunningly, the landscape is exploited beautifully and the final battle is technically remarkable. My dream cast all perform stoically, especially Lancaster. I can’t say I wasn’t enjoying what I was watching, even if the bitter taste of Zulu remains.
What you can glean- and try and think on after the credits roll- from this film is the damn-near visual perfection. Some of those shots man: a bugler heralding the dawn that will eventually kill them all, looming over the rising sun; the split diopter of O’Toole and Lancaster, the latter in profile casting a look that defines ennui; O’Toole lit infernally by the aflame vestiges of the front.
That’s what I’m going to take away.
