I do have to say that the film "Zulu" is one of my old
favourites, Michael Cain at his best. When I read this I just had to
reproduce it here, and I hope that the good Mr Dellingpole will forgive
any copyright infringement, this is a not for profit hobby website
James Dellingpole 26 Jun 2018
A tiny bunch of left-wing loons with no lives, shrivelled penises, and the
collective IQ of a pickled herring is trying to ban a screening of the
classic 60s movie Zulu at an armed forces fund-raising event in Kent.
Before I go on can I absolutely stress that while it has been widely
reported – eg here and here – this is NOT a news story? The only reason I
am writing about it is because it’s an excuse to say what a marvellous
film Zulu is: one of those character-building experiences that every boy
should have on his route to manhood.
It teaches the important virtue of keeping a stiff upper lip even as your
small, thinly-manned outpost is surrounded by Zulus – farsands of ’em –
and you are in grave danger of being disembowelled by one of their
fearsome assegais. You learn that if you keep your head, suppress your
urge to flee and stand with your comrades you may yet prevail, just like
the 150 or so British and colonial troops did at the Battle of Rorke’s
Drift in 1879 when they successfully held out against a vastly superior of
perhaps 3,000 Zulus whose spears were still bloody from the 1,300 imperial
troops they’d helped slaughter the day before at Isandlwana.
It’s also the film where Michael Caine really established himself as one
of the greats, playing against type as an upper class English officer (Lt
Gonville Bromhead). Plus Stanley Baker and sundry other fine actors are in
it. It has a fine score by John Barry. And the Zulu king Cetshwayo is
famously played by his great grandson chief Buthelezi.
If you want more on why Zulu is so wonderful, here’s a piece I wrote on
the subject earlier this year.
This was in response to a similar incident also involving a tiny minority
of Social Justice Warrior killjoys. On that occasion, a worker on the
London Underground had written an “on this day” historical notice on a
billboard, informing commuters that it was the anniversary of Rorke’s
Drift.
Some random offence-taker took offence. And like a shark scenting blood,
in came pop star Lily Allen burnishing her woke credentials:
Even so, complaints were made by the usual suspects and – as is the way of
modern officialdom – Transport for London swiftly caved in, apologised for
the sign and scrubbed the message.
This prompted a jubilant campaigner to crow on a video: “That [noticeboard]
is supposed to be for uplifting comments, not for celebrating colonialism,
so I’m glad you’re wiping it off.”
Lily Allen shared the clip with the message “too right” – and later used
her Twitter account to engage with people who disagreed. She said she
found celebrating Britain’s colonial past “disgusting” and mocked one
critic as someone who based his history on having “watched Zulu once”.
Do you see the pattern here?
Here’s how it works.
99.99 per cent of the population just wants to go on living their lives in
a normal, happy way free of lunatic interference from oppressive
busy-bodies. One chap might want to celebrate an historical date on a
billboard – something which, no doubt, 99.99 per cent of those who passed
it would have appreciated. Some other chaps might want to raise money for
an armed forces charity with a screening of a popular classic film.
But the 0.01 per cent (actually the true percentage is probably even
smaller than that) insist on spoiling everyone’s fun with their immensely
tedious and small-minded political point.
And amazingly, instead of ignoring the 0.01 per cent as you do with the
bad smell when someone farts in a lift (elevator), everyone feels
compelled to take their witterings seriously. Institutions and individuals
apologise to them; newspapers report on their antics, often in the manner
of this version of the story in KentOnline.
Campaigners are calling for a charity showing of epic war film Zulu to be
axed over claims it contains “racist overtones”.
The weasel word in that sentence is “campaigners”. It gives these
vexatious pests a credibility, an authority they have neither earned nor
deserve. I’ve read about six different accounts of this story. They
usually mention the “28 people” who have written an “open letter” to
Folkestone’s mayor demanding the screening be cancelled for the following
pathetic excuse of a reason:
“(But) we believe that the choice of the film Zulu, with its inaccurate
portrayal of historical events and its distortions and racist overtones,
could have a negative effect on relationships within the changing and
richly diverse communities here in Folkestone.”
None of them, though, gives any clue as to the identities of these 28
people.
Who are they? And why should care what they think anyway? Folkestone alone
has a population of nearly 50,000, mostly the kind of elderly white people
for whom a classic 1960s movie starring Michael Caine is meat and drink.
Just because none of them has bothered to speak out on this non-issue,
whereas 28 obsessive, small-minded, troublemaking SJW activists have, are
we, therefore, to conclude that the SJW activist line should predominate?
Of course not. This is no more than common sense. Almost everyone, not
just in Britain, but in the entirety of the West feels this way. And we’re
sick of having our freedoms disrupted by this irksome minority.
It’s probably why the recent Tracey Ullman sketch ‘When you so woke you
asleep’ has been going viral on social media.
It is set in a self-help group for “people who are so woke that they are
finding it impossible to have any fun at all”.
The final line – in response to a Social Justice Warrior who has taken
offence at some incredibly minor, microaggressive infraction one too many
times – is: “F*** off, Jamie.”
And that’s how, from now on, we should respond to these people every time.
They do not deserve media space. They do not deserve air space. But if
we’re going to insist on giving these irksome tossers their time in the
sun, then let’s make it clear, at every stage, that we hold their rancid,
pettifogging opinions in nothing but contempt. Otherwise, before you know
it, the little bastards will have won – just like the Bolsheviks in 1917…
Comments
The film is one of the best and pays
equal respect to the Zulu warriors as to the bravery of the British
troops. The historical background to the conflict is that the British were
a foreign invader on the home soil of the Zulu who had every moral right
to fight. It is however, a common mistake to judge the events of history
on the values of today.
Our military adventures in the African
continent do give on cause to stop and think. It was us who first used
concentration camps in the Boer War, and if anything leaves a bad taste in
the mouth it has to be the somewhat chilling words of
Sir Henry Bartle Frere: "Let us hope,
General, that this will be the final solution to the Zulu problem."
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