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Marking the sixtieth anniversary of the premiere of Zulu, starring Stanley Baker and Michael Caine, this volume brings together contributions from leading military historians to analyse changing depictions of the British Army and its role in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century colonial conflict in the cinema of empire. The first comprehensive study of the British Empire in film for over 20 years, the book’s focus on feature films rather than documentaries sets it apart from other scholarly treatments.
Chapters explore early re-enactments in the silent era, classic Hollywood and British imperial adventure in the 1930s such as Charge of the Light Brigade, Gunga Din, and Korda’s The Four Feathers, before moving on to the beginnings of more nuanced treatments in the 1960s such as Zulu and Khartoum amid increasing decolonisation, and then to contemporary post-imperial cinematic critiques in Afrikaner, Hindi and Maori-language films. A comprehensive filmography is included, with over 200 cinema and television films relating to the British Army’s role in colonial conflicts prior to 1939.
The book will be valuable to students and lecturers in film studies, military history, imperial history and cultural history, as well as a wider audience interested in military history and cinema.
Army, Empire & Film is a strong contribution not only to Film and Military History but also Post-Colonial and National Cinema Studies. Its contributors wrote clearly and researched well, creating a book that is informative and accessible to a wide range of readers.
— Ellen Z. Whitton
Professor Ian Beckett FRHist S, FSAHR, is Honorary Professor of Military History at the University of Kent, having retired from teaching there in 2015. His books include A British Profession of Arms: The Politics of Command in the Late Victorian Army (2018), and British Military Panoramas: Battle in the Round, 1800–1914 (2022).
1. Introduction Ian F.W. Beckett
DOI: 10.47788/HSFJ9287
2. Valleys of Death: Putting the Crimean War on Film Mark Connelly
DOI: 10.47788/AZLE8367
3. Hindi Cinema, the 1857 Mutiny and Representation of the British Empire Kaushik Roy
DOI: 10.47788/PUEW6066
4. ‘Dwarfing the Mightiest, Towering over the Greatest’: Cinematic Representations of the Anglo-Zulu War and Zulu History Ian Knight
DOI: 10.47788/XKUC4263
5. Mr Kipling’s Celluloid Soldiers Ian F.W. Beckett
DOI: 10.47788/TYJR8091
6. One Book and Seven Films: The Four Feathers Rodney Atwood
DOI: 10.47788/UIJZ7888
7. The Four Feathers (2002): A Re-enactor’s Nostalgias Graham Gillmore
DOI: 10.47788/CGCN4933
8. Khartoum: End of A Cinematic Era Christopher Brice
DOI: 10.47788/PCIA1751
9. Dominion Conflicts on Screen Ian F.W. Beckett
DOI: 10.47788/KWDK3619
10. Afrikaans Films on the Anglo-Boer War of 1899–1902 André Wessels
DOI: 10.47788/GEZH1418