Rating: 
Summary: widescreen version
Review: This is another of those great films, like One-Eyed Jacks, to have fallen into the clutches of cheesy DVD producers. Most produce full-screen discs from lousy, TV prints. But they are inexpensive. I was very pleasantly surprised to find a wide-screen version of Zulu from Diamond that was of very high quality. It isn't MGM level, but it isn't a bad tv print either. I A-B'd it with a widescreen version taped from a DSS premium channel, and the image was intact, uncensored, and as good as the tape. I'm very happy to finally get this movie on DVD, but be forewarned, there are numerous poor transfers out there, and even the Diamond copy has cheap artwork on the cover. However, it clearly says widescreen across the top. It cost [money] in a store, but I don't think Amazon has it in stock yet. Check the further information screens to be sure.
Rating:
Summary: Good Movie Mediocre DVD
Review: Sound quality is none too good. And, there are spots where the movie fragments (fault of the disc I think). The story itself is still great; though, if the book _Washing of the Spears_ is accurate history, then the movie takes quite a few liberties with the facts.
Rating: 
Summary: Great movie; bad audio
Review: Zulu is one of my favorite films of all time, so I was eager to get hold of a DVD that would display it in all its wide-screen glory. Unfortunately, the soundtrack to this version is so faint that even when I turn the volume on my TV up all the way, I still have trouble hearing all the dialog is anyone else is making any noise in the room. I may try the Platinum Disc Corp. version and see if it's any better.
Rating: 
Summary: Singing Zulus: The Bloody Gore of Zulu
Review: There are several reasons that mark Zulu as the greatest action movie of all time. Many critics point to the realistic battle scenes, the cinematic comraderie of the Brits at Rorke's Drift, and the fine acting of Michael Caine and Stanley Baker. If Zulu had only these, it would still be a magnificent battle movie. Yet what sets Zulu apart from other action movies is that a face and a voice are attached to the swarming Zulus. Even in the midst of the most ferocious battling, none of the Zulus is permitted to blend into the faceless blackness that so often fills movies that present Africans fighting Europeans. See, for instance, any Tarzan movie in which the ugga-mugga blacks who attack the white caravans are indistinguishable from one another. In Zulu, each black warrior is shown as a fierce and proud individual who has chosen to sublimate his individuality into the formidable discipline of the "Horns of the Bull." The grizzled chieftain controls his men with the same iron control as the British officers do their own red-coated men. And then there is the singing, which forms a cultural subtext to the movie. The Zulus had different songs for attacking the enemy before battle and praising the enemy after battle. I could sense the cohesive Zulu culture from their songs, even if I could not understand the words. When the Brits responded with their own songs, I felt their bravery in the face of impossible odds. The only other movie that I have seen that could sway a listener with battle songs like this was "The Battle of the Bulge" when Nazi tank commanders led each other in a rousing, foot-stomping rendition of 'Der Panzerleid.' Thus, Zulu is the rarest of all action movies. It shows the viewer that in war the enemy often has a face and a voice.
Rating: 
Summary: ZULU A DVD DISASTER
Review: I have seen some pretty cruddy tapes and dvds in my time but for sheer waste of time and money this is the top. The picture is totally pox with colours changing, blacks being anything from charcoal to brown and a degradation of picture that makes the movie unpleasent to watch. I have retrieved my VHS tape from the friend I gave it to (he was good enough to give it back) and the DVD is now in a landfill somewhere, or better yet burried at a cross-roads with a wooden stake driven through it's heart!
Rating:
Summary: Get the widescreen version
Review: Great movie. It was photographed in 70mm and needs to be viewed in widescreen. Don't even consider watching it in a 4:3 format. Look for the WIDESCREEN DVD version.
Rating:
Summary: Great film, lousy DVD
Review: Oh dear. Next time I promise to read the reviews before buying. There's a reason this film is so cheap - the transfer to DVD is the worst I have ever seen! It's widescreen, but not animorphic, so most of the resolution of DVD is lost reproducing black bars at the top and bottom. Worse still is the sound quality. And then there's the constant judder - as if someone re-recorded it with a hald-held video camera! Worst of all though is the source of this transfer. It's clearly not from a good print of the film. Instead, it looks like it was taken from videotape. The picture quality was significantly worse than my own VHS copy, recorded on a budget VHS machine off the BBC several years ago! One word synopsis - avoid. Sooner or later someone will get around to doing a proper animorphic transfer of this classic war film from a decent print - maybe even throw in a 5.1 soundtrack and do a bit of cleaning and restoring.
Rating:
Summary: 5 Star Film - No Star DVD
Review: This is my favourite film of all time. However if, like me, you are tempted to buy this DVD from the USA as it is unavailable in the UK - don't bother. The other negative reviews on this site are quite correct. The picture and sound quality compare to a cheap copy of an old VHS. If you love this film as I do, you'll be disappointed and frustrated. Save your money.
***Zulu now has a release date in the UK of June 2002****
Rating:
Summary: Don't Point that Dodgy DVD at Me!
Review: Zulu. One of the finest war films ever made. So what has gone wrong here? I suppose I should have realized when the photographs on the cover have Michael Caine dressed in a sports jacket and poor Jack Hawkins is dressed as a Roman. This low-quality DVD really is an insult. The colour is well below standard, and the image quality is truely awful. Save your money Zulu fans, and buy the VHS instead - the print is far superior. What a mistake...
Rating:
Summary: An Abosulute Knock out of an Epic!!!
Review: Based on a true story in British History in South Africa, this is aboslutely one of the best films of all times. The late Sir Stanley Baker (whose superb performaces are mostly lost to past few generations), same with the late Jack Hawkins (Ben Hur), James Booth and Nigel Green, it was the film that introduced Michael Caine to the world, showing what a natural actor he was from the start. (Caine, who originally tried out for the role of Hookie but lost to Booth, was almost fired from the film because the American backer, Joseph E. Levine, did not think Caine knew 'what to do with his hands'!! Caine was imitating Prince Albert!!). Fortunately, Baker ignored him. Produced by Baker and Cy Enfield (of the Hollywood Blacklist fame) and written by the great historian John Prebble (Lion of the North - he also did the screenplay for Mysterious Island, another of Enfield's productions), the main focus of the film tells the story of a small pocket of British soldiers at Rorke's Drift on the edge of ZuluLand in 1879. These soldiers were left there for two purposes: some were sick with fever so were in hospital, the posting commanded by Gonville Bromhead (Caine), and the rest to build a bridge across the Bufalo River commanded by royal engineer, John Chard. Just 10 miles down the road a force of over 4000 thousand British Solders camped on the hill of Islandlhwana were slaughtered by 10,000 Zulus. The worst defeat in British history of a modern army facing a native force. Over 4400 Zulu arrived too late for the attack, so they turned their attention to Rorke's drift and the little band of 100 men left there to defend it. Baker and Caine (though not close in real life) worked magnificiently together, giving powerhouse performances, with a great supporting cast of relative unknowns. The filming of South Africa is breathtaking, the enormity of what the soldier faced having 100 to 4400 odds, and how they held out until the main force of Chelmsford's army arrived, is an epic, but also a personal story of two men who stood resolute in the face of terror with a stiff upperlip and did what had to be done. Moving Scoring by John Barry (Bond films, Raise the Titanic), with a foreword from Sir Richard Burton (a friend of Baker's both being Welsh). In 1979, a prequel was filmed Zulu Dawn, nearly rising to this level, starring Burt Lancaster, Simon Ward and Nigel Davenport, that tells the story of the the massive defeat at Islandlhwana. It is a shame they are not presented as a set. Interesting note, at the start of the film showing King Chetewayo of the Zulus at Ulundi, Chetewayo is played by the real Zulu Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, who is involved in South African Politics today.
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