Great Military Blunders Who's Sorry Now? (1999– ) Online

There's a feature film, "Zulu" (1964), starring Michael Caine and Stanley Baker, that successfully capture the bloody combat between innumerable Zulu warriors and the small unit of redoubtable British soldiers who fought off the hordes of howling Zulus at Roarke's Drift in South Africa.

There is no such celebration of the Chelmford expedition shortly before, a larger group of soldiers sent to frighten and punish the Zulus so the colonials could have a clear field. They were out maneuvered by the Zulus and massacred at what's known as the Battle of Isandlwana.

I don't know why this incident isn't better known. So there was a mass slaughter by an overwhelming numer of indigenous people. The same thing happened (On a smaller scale) at the Little Big Horn in Montana about the same time -- and General Custer became a hero after his death.

It may be because Chelmford's big loss was promptly followed by a small victory at Roarke's Drift, so the shift in popular attention was easy. There was no such ultimate victory in the American West, unless you count the appalling murder of exhausted and ill-equipped American Indians at Wounded Knee, but we can't do that because the "battle" was more like a mass execution of men, women, and children, than like a military engagement.

This documentary is candid and honest. It's photographed mostly on the battlefied itself in South Africa and includes observations by historians and guides who know what they're talking about. It's a bit long for what it has to say but it includes interesting details, such as the use of the Zulu's horns attack -- a frontal assault against the enemy with simultaneous "horns" curving out and then back in to attack from the flank. The Zulu warriors were highly trained in a military organization that resembled that of the British.

It's enlightening but, come to think of it, there may have been a feature film about this battle after all. "Zulu Dawn." I'm not sure.