In defence of my top 12 - part 2

2 Zulu
500 British soldiers attempt to defend a hospital outpost from THOUSANDS of angry Zulus.
Yeh, and that's it, and the bad guys don't even turn up for the first half of the film. It's all about the suspense. The location is fantastic - big and empty. The first time we see the Zulu army, they're arranged at the top of the hill and the camera just keeps panning and panning - it still surprises me quite how many there are. And when the reverend shouts "You're all going to die!", it just echoes and echoes.

I’ve always loved characters with a definite moral direction, whether it be Michael incarnation-of-pure-evil Corleone, or someone more like Jack pretty-good-but-still-a-bit-grey Vincennes. This film has a cast of heroes. Take the guy on the crutch, whose name I forget, who’s excused duty but still goes out to fight anyway. Or the injured men who crawl across the ground despite their wounds to distribute ammunition and do their bit. It even has a nice word to put in for the Zulus – in a film which could just have been outrageously imperialistic non-correctness.
It’s not perfect by any means. Some will scoff at the heroics (there’s a reason why I’ve never made my friends see it), or at the awfulness of the actual hand to hand combat, but that’s not the point. This is the way gentlemen should fight their wars.

Sum up the film in a moment: Men of Harlech...
Best scene: Bromhead and Chard's conversation in the burnt house near the end.
Best line: there are lots, but I'm gonna have to go with "If it's a miracle, Colour Sergeant, it's a short chamber Boxer Henry point 45 caliber miracle." (and yes, before you ask, I did have to check imdb to get the wording right)
Favourite character: First time I saw it, Bromhead (that's when I started liking Michael Caine) , but nowadays it's actually Chard.
Special mention: of the Britishness! It’s very Boy’s Own, back in the days when men were real men, who looked Death proudly in the eye and faced it with a stiff upper lip. As seen when a despairing junior officer exclaims, "Why us?!", and the redoubtable colour sergeant simply replies "Because we're here, lad."
Best watched: when England have just lost a major sporting event