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Film · Paramount · 1964

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Zulu

56Watch it awake.

Watch it awake. The defense is specific. The war around the defense is not a clean debt.

The review

The morning after a British column is destroyed, a small post with a hospital has to decide whether to run or to hold against a Zulu army. They hold. The film is famous for the singing and for the defense, and the defense is filmed as a job: walls, rifles, the wounded who cannot be moved. The Zulu soldiers are an army with tactics, not a noise. That much the film gets right, and it is more than a lot of imperial adventures get right.

What it does not settle is whether the post should have been there. Courage inside an empire's war is still courage, and it is not a verdict on the empire. I would watch it with older teenagers and make that distinction out loud, or the song at the end will do the thinking for them. Ask who in the hospital the defense was actually for. The answer is the men who could not run. That answer is usable. A flag is not.

Journal

Keep Zulu in the record.

No house has filed a sentence for this yet.

Live Historic number 56. Yours can differ.

The glance

Household and Piety are the thin ones.

Is a marriage, a parent, or a child a real life here, or just a prop?

This phone is set for a grown person, just me. Change the ages.

Consider this

The Longest Day

65 instead of 56

The Longest Day is still a war film, and it scores 65 instead of 56. What you gain is republic: The debt is public: a continent, and the men sent to open a beach for it.

The eight

8
Industry
Barricades, ammunition, and a hospital full of wounded are the work of the afternoon.
2
Household
No household. A hospital of soldiers is the closest thing, and it is a duty.
4
Piety
A few men are afraid in a religious way. The film notices and does not sneer.
9
Courage
They stay in a position that the morning's news says will fall.
5
Republic
An empire's post is not the same as a just cause. The courage inside it is still real.
6
Temperance
It respects the attackers enough to make them an army, not a swarm, and still loves the last stand.
6
Truth
The disaster at Isandlwana is told. The film is more interested in the stand than in the justice of the war.
5
Stewardship
A house can inherit the defense of a room full of wounded. Not a love of the empire that put them there.

Where to watch

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Live Historic · Zulu · 56IMDb

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Film · 20th Century · 2022

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Avatar: The Way of Water

56Watch it awake.

The warning is the same as the first film. The water is not a warehouse either.

The review

The first film said a forest is not inventory. This one moves the same sentence underwater, and the sentence is still true. Jake's trouble is that the war he joined has children now, and a father who made himself a weapon does not get to retire from it when the next boat comes.

The spectacle is the product. Stay for the father who would rather the children learn the reef than learn his war, and notice the film cannot help spending them on the war anyway. Take the warning. Do not take the three hours of fire as the point.

Journal

Keep Avatar: The Way of Water in the record.

No house has filed a sentence for this yet.

Live Historic number 56. Yours can differ.

The glance

Republic and Temperance are the thin ones.

Does anyone owe a neighbor, a law, or a town — or is every person out for themselves?

This phone is set for a grown person, just me. Change the ages.

Consider this

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

68 instead of 56

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is still a adventure film, and it scores 68 instead of 56. What you gain is republic: An empire, a rebellion, a council that is afraid to act.