Review of Zulu Dawn

Introduction

The prequel to the epic Michael Caine/Stanley Baxter Zulu, Zulu Dawn tells the story of the start of the Zulu war and events leading upto the massacre at Rorkes Drift.

An all star cast including Burt Lancaster and Peter O`Toole lift this film to near epic proportions, although it never quite reaches the dizzy heights of the original.

Video

An anamorphic print that is impressively clear of blemishes and artifacts, although some of the background colours are a little washed out.

Despite the lack of vibrancy in the majority of the colours the image is extremely watchable with some very nice contrasts between the British soldiers uniforms and the background scenery, while the womens dresses really light up the image.

Audio

A DD2.0 soundtrack that never really lives up to expectations although does give a good feel for the genre.

Features

A nice set of extras are included on this disc. Although not quite upto the standards of some R1 releases, it does show that some studios are listening.

The main menus are animated as usual but also included are filmographies for the main stars, fact files for important periods covered by the film as well as set of photographs from filming and three prints that are available to buy from a web site.

Conclusion

I enjoyed this film but couldn`t help but draw comparisons to Zulu, which I think is the better movie. The film is nicely presented and has obviously been the subject of some quite detailed work in the mastering process.

The sound could have been given the full DD5.1 treatment, but the 2.0 track copes to an acceptable level.

Overall a good way to spend a couple of hours, reliving the majesty(!) of the British Empire.