Black Hawk Down is a good film

[grinker]

From: James Heartfield <Jim at heartfield.demon.co.uk>
> Incidentally, Max admires the mien of the actors playing the Zulus in
> the film Zulu. That is not so surprising since they were played by their
> Zulu descendants. The sad part is that the once noble Zulus under Chief
> Gatsha Buthulezi had by that time been brought on board by the South
> Africans to split the national movement.

James has the chronology slightly wrong.  Inkatha (as government stooge) was
very much a movement of the '80s whereas the original Zulu was filmed in the
early '60s.  I happened to be on holiday as a child in the area (Royal Natal
National Park) and actually watched some of the filming. James is right
about the impis being genuine and in fact King Ceteshwayo, as portrayed in
the film, was Buthelezi himself - in those days still a fairly cynical
pro-ANC chief and quite critical of apartheid's abuse of tribalism. That was
before he started taking his leopard skin gear - and himself - a little too
seriously. Many of the extras on the "Brit" side were in fact South African
soldiers.

Russell