Zulu

A film which comes with two heavy strikes against it: it was made during the '60s boom for epic adventures in exotic climes (which now look like a breed of cinematic dinosaur), and it recounts one of those heroic tales of the thin red line holding out against hordes of fuzzy-wuzzies that endlessly fuelled Boy's Own. In fact, Zulu is a fairly tough-minded and interesting account of a company of Welsh soldiers doing their bit for somebody else's Queen and Country in an alien land (the script was co-written by the chronicler of the Highland Troubles, John Prebble), and is a more honest account of imperialism than the belated follow-up, Zulu Dawn, supposedly telling the Zulus' side of things. In his first starring role, Cockney wide boy Caine actually assumes an upper crust, but is finally one-upped by Baker's officer of Engineers.