Your favourite line from Zulu or Zulu Dawn

Posts : 8 Join date : 2018-07-22

I was wondering what other members favourite lines are from Zulu and Zulu Dawn. For me it is Colour sgt. Bourne's reply to the boy solider who, in Zulu, asks "Why us?". Colour Sgt. Bourne replies "Because we're here lad, no one else, just us." To me you get the sense that these men are alone but also they are with each other, their mates and will stand together and survive or die together. What do others have as their favs?

Subject: Re: Your favourite line from Zulu or Zulu Dawn Thu Aug 02, 2018 7:50 am

"I'll tell my man to clean your kit" or "It all depends on what you damned English want for it, afterwards"

Posts : 3 Join date : 2013-06-10 Location : South London

Bromhead to Chard who was standing in the river and with his tunic on a tree stump on the bank: " I'll get one of my chaps to clean your kit"
Chard in reply: " No, don't bother"
Bromhead with a smirk ad his fly swat replies, " No bother old boy. Not offering to do it myself "
Short but superb conversation showing the 'class' and attitude of the two characters.

Guest

So many to choose from but these stick in my head for some reason.
Zulu
Beggin yer pardon sir..... about the soup sir.
Yes what about the soup?
Why that gentleman told me to put it on the fire.
He did?
We have thatched roofs here Bromhead, don't want to make the Zulus a present of fire.
Yes well get on with it theres a good fellow.
And am I to take a rifle to sir'

Zulu Dawn when the artillary changes direction
'No 2 gun cease fire whole section right'
Very Happy

Subject: your favourite line from zulu or zulu dawn Tue Aug 07, 2018 2:03 am

Hi Gardner1879
Horse meat and Axle grease is it ........ ?? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
90th Very Happy

Subject: Re: Your favourite line from Zulu or Zulu Dawn Wed Aug 18, 2021 7:09 pm

“You moved! You moved! Go and tell the NCO at that black shambles that you love ‘im more than you love me! NOW!”

Stand to

Posts : 182 Join date : 2012-02-16 Location : northeast usa

"alright then, nobody told you to stop working." I used this many times with my best sgt. bourne voice for many years on the job.

Subject: Re: Your favourite line from Zulu or Zulu Dawn Sun Aug 29, 2021 9:11 pm

“ Well, when you take command, old boy, you're on your own. One of the first things that the general - my grandfather - ever taught me.”

Posts : 4 Join date : 2021-01-24 Location : Zummerzet

One that stood with me for many a year.....

Chard: "Do you think the Welsh can't do better than that, Owen?
Owen: "Well they've got a very good bass section, mind, but no top tenors, that's for sure."
Sad

On a side note, I have ripped the Zulu chanting from the film audio, if anybody wants a copy [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Another, from Bromhead, "There's something else; I feel ashamed." [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Posts : 19 Join date : 2021-09-25 Location : WA, USA

Zulu Dawn;

CHELMSFORD: Splendid horsemanship. Who are they?

DURNFORD: Sikali Horse, My Lord. Christians all, I know each one by name.

CHELMSFORD: They come well recommended do they?

DURNFORD: My Lord, they rode for me at Bushman's Pass.

Posts : 2593 Join date : 2009-04-24

And we all know what took place at Bushmans Pass. ( Don't shoot Durnford)

Subject: Re: Your favourite line from Zulu or Zulu Dawn Fri Feb 04, 2022 8:15 am

My favourite quote wasnt in the movie. When the apartheid police were warning the staff against being intimate with the zulu ladies they mentioned they would be whipped if caught, Stanley Baker replied: " Can I be whipped while doing it?"

Subject: Re: Your favourite line from Zulu or Zulu Dawn Fri Feb 04, 2022 4:03 pm

philzrx
The audio was available on an L.P., the music from the film on one side, and the Zulu chants (used in the film) set to music on the other. I bought this aged 18 I think and still have it. Probably worth as much as a medal now!

Subject: Re: Your favourite line from Zulu or Zulu Dawn Fri Feb 04, 2022 4:16 pm

The entire script can be viewed on [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Subject: Re: Your favourite line from Zulu or Zulu Dawn Fri Feb 04, 2022 4:19 pm

And I rather like the line:
"The nations are but a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance."

Posts : 2593 Join date : 2009-04-24

That would be the Red Dust?

Subject: Re: Your favourite line from Zulu or Zulu Dawn Sun Feb 06, 2022 9:53 am

There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed

Posts : 3458 Join date : 2021-01-04

I must admit I always smile when we read out Psalm 46 in church, though in the film they miss a little bit out:-

9 He maketh wars to cease in all the world: he breaketh the bow, and knappeth the spear in sunder, and burneth the chariots of fire.
10 Be still then, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the heathen, and I will be exalted in the earth.
11 The Lord of hosts is with us: the God of Jacob is our refuge.
BCP

Kate Very Happy

Subject: Re: Your favourite line from Zulu or Zulu Dawn Sun Feb 06, 2022 2:26 pm

Isn't it 'snappeth'?

Posts : 3458 Join date : 2021-01-04

It is in the film but not in the BCP

Subject: Re: Your favourite line from Zulu or Zulu Dawn Sun Feb 06, 2022 3:19 pm

Interesting change. Just looked in grandma's 1880s' bible and seen it was 'cutteth'. Somehow 'knap' doesn't quite sound right - knapped flint yes, but a knapped spear, no.

Posts : 3458 Join date : 2021-01-04

Hi Julian
Your grandmother's Bible is presumably the King James Authorised version of 1611 whereas the Psalms in all editions of the BCP since the first edition of 1549 have been that of Miles Coverdale's translation of the Bilble of 1535.
So the original word was 'Knappeth' (which is a now obsolete word but can mean snaps or breaks) but was then changed to 'Cutteth'
Just different translations.
They probably changed it to snappeth for the film as it didn't sound so archaic and probably sounds better that 'cutteth'
Our 'fictional' Colour Sergeant Bourne who's father was a lay preacher would probably, in my opinion, have used the word knappeth as the BCP was the common service book of the time.(and still is)
Very Happy

Subject: Re: Your favourite line from Zulu or Zulu Dawn Sun Feb 06, 2022 4:50 pm

Kate
Very interesting. It just goes to show that nothing is SACRED! Quite literally.

Posts : 270 Join date : 2017-07-21 Location : San Diego, CA

That's enough of your spleen, Mr. Melvill. I regularly use this at work, much to the chagrin of internal affairs.

Subject: your favourite line from zulu or zulu dawn Wed Feb 16, 2022 3:33 am

hahahahahaha Weekend Warrior , have often used it myself ! Very Happy

90th

Subject: Re: Your favourite line from Zulu or Zulu Dawn Wed Feb 16, 2022 9:50 am

Poor Melvill was soon to show more of his spleen than he expected.

Posts : 6 Join date : 2018-04-13

From Zulu: Colour Sgt. Bourne: "Button your tunic! Where do you think you are, man?"

Posts : 36 Join date : 2023-04-30

My favorite at the end of Zulu Dawn. " Excuse me my Lord, there is something I must convey to you, I rode a little way down the track to Rorke's Drift, the sky above is red with fire. Your orders my Lord, do we move to the Drift. "

Subject: Re: Your favourite line from Zulu or Zulu Dawn Tue Mar 19, 2024 2:22 pm

jgregory
Perhaps even more telling than the line you quoted is the silence afterwards from Chelmsford when he says nothing at all.

Subject: Re: Your favourite line from Zulu or Zulu Dawn Tue Mar 19, 2024 3:11 pm

He was probably too lost in thought about "how am I going to get out if this one?"

Subject: Re: Your favourite line from Zulu or Zulu Dawn Tue Mar 19, 2024 3:57 pm

Julian,

A friend of mine was a close friend of Peter O’Toole, who confided in my friend that silence was his favourite part of the role, as by saying nothing, he says everything.

JY

Subject: Re: Your favourite line from Zulu or Zulu Dawn Tue Mar 19, 2024 4:52 pm

That was indeed exactly what I took from the scene.

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