I won't go through the details of the movie, as that has been adequately covered in previous reviews. I found this movie very "Hollywood," with little substance. It cannot hold a candle to the earlier "Zulu."
A side note, from an earlier review: "The main cause for the British disaster is fairly clear in the movie, and that's the method of giving out bullets. Peter Vaughan gives a crafty performance as the quarrelsome quartermaster who demands that each bullet be accounted for at the head office. The niggardly way the bullets were dispersed to the men, who were holding the Zulu back until they ran out of ammunition on the front lines while crates of bullets were held back in the wagons, was the primary cause of the disaster."
That may be the "theatrical" reason for the defeat. However, later research has shown that the Martini-Enfield will seize in relatively short order due to the heat generated by rapid firing. The "held back" ammunition theory, and the "un-openable cartridge crate" theory were both debunked after extensive digging at the site.
A side note, from an earlier review: "The main cause for the British disaster is fairly clear in the movie, and that's the method of giving out bullets. Peter Vaughan gives a crafty performance as the quarrelsome quartermaster who demands that each bullet be accounted for at the head office. The niggardly way the bullets were dispersed to the men, who were holding the Zulu back until they ran out of ammunition on the front lines while crates of bullets were held back in the wagons, was the primary cause of the disaster."
That may be the "theatrical" reason for the defeat. However, later research has shown that the Martini-Enfield will seize in relatively short order due to the heat generated by rapid firing. The "held back" ammunition theory, and the "un-openable cartridge crate" theory were both debunked after extensive digging at the site.