Review by Gary Tooze

Production:

Disc:

Video:

Audio:

• The History of the Zulu Wars (25:34 in 1080P)

• Recreating the War (20:19 in 480i)

• A Visit to the Battlefield (16:47 in 480i)

• Theatrical Trailer (3:00 in 480i)

• Outtakes (12:14 in 480i)

DVD of the Feature

Bitrate:

 

Description: Burt Lancaster, Peter O'Toole, Simon Ward, Bob Hoskins and Sir John Mills lead an all-star cast in the shocking true story of The Battle of Isandhlwana: In January 1879, arrogant officials of the British colony of Natal, Africa issued a list of unauthorized ultimatums to the Zulu Nation. When the Zulu King refused their demands, the Empire declared war. And in a series of grave tactical blunders, a garrison of 1,500 British soldiers faced an army of 25,000 enraged Zulu warriors in what would become the most horrifying disaster in British military history. Nigel Davenport (CHARIOTS OF FIRE), Denholm Elliott (RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK), Phil Daniels (QUADROPHENIA) and 13,000 actual Zulus co-star in this acclaimed prequel to the classic ZULU, now packed with exclusive Bonus Features, fully restored to its correct aspect ratio, and re-mastered in stunning HD for the first time ever in America.

***

This film depicts the events prior to the devastating conflict that occurred in 1879 when British soldiers were held siege by thousands of Zulu warriors. Fifteen hundred soldiers were killed in the epic battle. This film portrays the tensions existing between the tribal factions and the British invaders.

 

 

The Film:

Excerpt from the NY Times located HERE

Image :    NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

Zulu Dawn has been transferred to 1080P Blu-ray by Severin Films.  I suspect that the image quality would benefit from a more robust rendering.  This is only single-layered and artefacts sneak in here and there. Colors seem brighter and truer than SD could relate although it can tend to look blocky at times. It frequently looks like the print but colors are rich (reds) and and reasonably tight. This Blu-ray showcases some depth but contrast may not be up to its highest standards and background detail can be a shade muddy at times.  It is hard to be sure if there was some digital manipulation but I tend to believe this is the source print and that the 2-hour film probably could have benefited from a higher bitrate.

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No boost going on here - audio gives the option of a standard Dolby Digital 2.0 channel track or a DTS-HD Master 1.0 channel mono at 1067 kbps. Of course, there is plenty of action in the audio and the, more authentic, lossless sound exports some of the aggression depth with a notable high-end in the score by Elmer Bernstein. This isn't the most robust uncompressed transfer but it seems to support the film without major flaws. There are no subtitles and my Momitsu has identified it as being a region FREE.

Extras :

 

 

BOTTOM LINE:
Made 15-years post Cy Endfield's classic Zulu from 1964 - Zulu Dawn doesn't hold up quite as well as its predecessor although I, certainly, found it watchable. It has the strong performances but lacked in the realization of the narrative. The Blu-ray a/v is imperfect but the added supplements are a nice touch that really brought home some of the history of the conflict. If you appreciated Zulu, you will probably find appeal in both the feature and the extras. 

Gary Tooze

March 5th, 2013