Happy 50th Anniversary to 'ZULU'

As most of us knowm today is the 5oth anniversary of the film 'ZULU', arguably the best war film produced (closely followed IMO by 'Waterloo') and the film that appears to have inspired the wargaming interests of a generation. I had intended to mark the fact by illustrating the cover of a book on the making of the film, but my machine seems to have taken exeption to putting up pictures at the moment, so I'll stick to a brief description.

'ZULU with some guts behind it, the making of the epic movie' by Sheldon Hall and published by Tomahawk Press in 2005.

Some 409 pages with black and white illustrations on many of them, and a colour section, the book covers the initial idea from a magazine article by John Prebble through research and developement, the actual problems of casting, finding locations, extras and props, and the difficulties of filming under apartheid South Africa. Getting the film edited, past the censor, the publicity and reviews, and a section on 'myths,gaffes and spoofs'. There is information on how the filming affected the Zulu participants (something I think tends to get forgotten, after all, it's their history too), their opinions on the story, and the way it helped bring back some of the old pride..

I like all the little snippets included, almost as asides. One that amuses me shows that soldiers are the same world-wide, where part of one of the songs is interpreted as "stick it up his a**e witch-doctor".

Well worth reading, if you can get hold of a copy. Sorry about the picture.