“Saving Private Ryan”, “Platoon” or rather “1917”? When it comes to the most realistic war films, a renowned expert cites a completely different work, one you may have never seen before…
What makes a war film realistic? Historical accuracy? Technical prowess like Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan and its unforgettable opening sequence so realistic that it was even necessary to set up an emergency line for veterans, or like Sam Mendes’ 1917, shot almost entirely in single takes?
And no, for veteran James D. Dever, who retired from the United States Marine Corps in the late 1990s and has since worked as a military technical consultant in Hollywood, it’s neither We have to save the soldier Ryanis 1917or even Oliver Stone’s Platoon. The veteran indeed has a different answer to this question (via SensaCine): “The era doesn’t matter. It’s the uniforms and the way [les personnages] move and behave that, for me, define the realism of a war film.”
Ultimately, these are details you’ll probably only notice if you’ve served in the military and been sent to war – whether it’s certain wording that doesn’t fit into military jargon, weapons misused or mistakes in the uniform. “In some of these movies today it looks like the clothes were taken off the rack”, explains Dever. “They don’t look dirty or sweaty, and there’s no indication that the uniform has been worn for a while.”
A film with Michael Caine
As a positive counter-example, he cites a 1964 war film in which Michael Caine, among others, future Christopher Nolan regular, plays a main role: Zulu. The film may be less well-known than other classics of the genre, but it has a perfect score of 96% on the American review site, Rotten Tomatoes – and Dever is also full of praise for the feature in question.
Paramount Pictures
“If you’ve never seen the movie, you should definitely watch it”, he enthuses about the work which is set during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879.The formations are exactly adapted to the era, the rifles, the way in which the [soldats] they behave. It’s so real that that alone makes it a good movie.”
Besides Michael CaineStanley Baker (The Guns of Navarone) and Jack Hawkins (Ben-Hur) also star in the Cy Endfield-directed film, which focuses on the bitter battle between the Zulu tribe and the soldiers of the British Empire, which was then the largest and strongest colonial power on the African continent. At the so-called Battle of Rorke’s Drift (the name of a small mission station in the South African colony of Natal), 139 Englishmen were pitted against a superior force of 4,000 Zulus.
Zoulou is currently available to (re)discover in streaming on Filmo.
