Zulu

Zulu (1964) is the British war epic you can watch online on iFILM, the film that turned a young Michael Caine into a star.

The setting is southern Africa near the end of the 1870s, at a remote mission station called Rorke's Drift. Barely a hundred Welsh soldiers dig in against several thousand Zulu warriors. Two mismatched officers hold the line: the plain-spoken engineer Lt. Chard (Stanley Baker) and the haughty aristocrat Lt. Bromhead, played by Caine in the role that launched him. Director Cy Endfield lets the siege grind on hour by hour, tightening like a noose around the outpost.

Real Zulu performers filled the ranks, and one of their chiefs was played by Mangosuthu Buthelezi, later a major South African political figure. The film refuses to flatten the attacking warriors into a faceless mob, and that closing exchange of war chants and Welsh song became a genre touchstone. For anyone who loves old-school combat cinema built without a single pixel of CGI, this is essential. Stream Zulu online on iFILM.