YMMV / Zulu

• Awesome Music: Men of Harlech and the main theme by John Barry.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Colour Sergeant Bourne. Mostly for his Someone Has to Do It attitude and being a Sergeant Rock. Not to mention the fact that he shows Hidden Depths by his bonding with Witt over Psalm 46, proving that Real Men Love Jesus
  • Corporal Schiesse is nineteenth in the credits but is easily one of the five best characters in the film due to his respect for the Zulus' abilities and positively epic Handicapped Badass Moment of Awesome.
• Fair for Its Day: The Zulus, despite being obviously primitive, are depicted as Worthy Opponent types to the British and crafty in their own right (their ambush at Isandlwana is shown at the beginning of the movie, and they try both envelopment and making use of captured European weapons against the enemy—albeit to no success). The South African extras portraying the Zulu soldiers were also all bused in and paid in full despite Apartheid being in effect at the time. In the face of (British) criticism of the movie for racism, one of the actors from the movie (namely a current chief of the Zulu tribe and great-grandson of Cetshwayo) defended the film:
  Mangosuthu Buthelezi: Even if the past is uncomfortable, and perhaps especially when the past is uncomfortable, it needs to be examined and unpacked rather than hidden away... There was no fuss about race, no discrimination, no bigotry. It was simply a community of people working together to recreate a part of history that held tremendous meaning for them all... But something more emerges from the film. The deep respect that develops between the warring armies, and the nobility of King Cetshwayo's warriors as they salute the enemy, demanded a different way of thinking from the average viewer at the time of the film's release. Indeed, it remains a film that demands a thoughtful response.^note  Buthelezi's take on this matter should still be taken with a tablespoon of salt, as he was an ardent supporter of the National Party regime and a bitter opponent of universal suffrage right up to the first free election in 1994. He had considerable power within the apartheid system thanks to his status as a tribal chief, which is why he was fiercely opposed to the ANC and other activists who wished to dismantle apartheid. With the support and approval of the South African military, militias associated with his Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) extra-judicially terrorized and murdered innumerable political dissidents during the civil unrest of the 1980's.
• First Instalment Wins: You may have noticed from the page description that this film actually had a prequel called Zulu Dawn. It's fair to say that not many people have seen it despite having some amazing battle scenes.
• Retroactive Recognition: In Zulu Dawn, there's Bob Hoskins!
• Rooting for the Empire: Or rather, rooting against the British Empire, as many Black American and South African audiences identified with the Zulu opponents. For instance, Afrika Bambaataa formed the Universal Zulu Nation, a group of Conscious Hip Hop artists, in honour of them, which he viewed as powerful images of Black solidarity standing against an oppressor. It's worth noting that in reality, the British Empire instigated the Anglo-Zulu War and was technologically superior to its Zulu opponents.