Zulu plonked us down in the heat of battle and didn't have the time to tell us why Britain and the Zulus were arguing so violently. But because the 1963 epic was such a big hit, star Stanley Baker and writer/director Cy Endfield conceived this prequel, although by the time it came out in 1979 Baker had died and Endfield was sidelined. There's spectacle in abundance here but little of the characterisation that made Zulu so memorable. American Burt Lancaster doesn't quite fit his uniform or have the required stiff upper lip, though the assembled British stalwarts certainly do as they blunder on towards the massacre of Isandhlwana, the bloody aftermath of which opened this film's illustrious predecessor.

In 1879, the British suffer a great loss at the Battle of Isandlwana due to incompetent leadership.