"Inspirational Quote from "Zulu"" Topic

I am getting a scad of Connoisseur colonial figurs ready for the big Sudan game this weekend, so I paid a visit to the Major General's web site for some inspiration. From Major General Tremorden Redding's web site, a short review of Zulu. The quote at the end is memorable. I will have to remember to use it.

"If it's a miracle, Colour Sergeant, it's a point four-five caliber, short-chamber, boxer-primed miracle."

Can anyone else think of good movie quotes that I can use in the game?

Zulu (British, 1964) Another all-time favorite. Cinematic treatment of the celebrated engagement at Rorke's Drift, 1879. A handful of British regulars defend a mud-building mission station against thousands of Zulu warriors. Despite the antiseptic combat choreography, the film is deeply moving, as their desperate situation forces ordinary men to show extraordinary courage. The scene in which the Zulu chants are met by the Welsh soldiers singing "Men of Harlech" is one of the most memorable and stirring in any action film.
"If it's a miracle, Colour Sergeant, it's a point four-five caliber, short-chamber, boxer-primed miracle." --Lt. Chard, in Zulu

link

Colour Sergeant Bourne's response:

"And a bayonet, sir!"

How about "You are all going to die!!" – Mr.(Reverend) Witt
or one I use alot
"Alright, nobody told you to stop working." – A Sargeant whose name escapes me at the moment.

"With some guts behind it" finishes Bourne's quote.

A Sargeant whose name escapes me at the moment

That would be Sergeant Windridge, I think.

As far as I'm concerned, the whole movie is one big inspirational quote, so why pick out little bits and pieces?

Bromhead: Fire at will!
Pte. Owen: That's very nice of him.

Here are some, not from movies but from the period, or close to it:

"To have reached 30 is to have failed in life."

"To die before being painted by Sargent is to go to heaven prematurely."

FYI, if you have Netflix, you can now stream Zulu!

Jake

Maybe not inspirational but I do like the following lines from Michael Cain:

"I'll have my man clean your kit"

"Well, chin-chin, do carry on…" (The rest is "…with your mud pies").

And responding to Chard's comment about the army not allowing more than one disaster per day:

"It looks bad in the newspapers and upsets civilians at their breakfasts."

Ted

"Why is it always us?" Pvt. Cole, "Becouse were here lad." CSgt. Bourne.

"You've done your bit Hookie." Pvt. Hook,VC. Best muttered to yourself after a good die roll.

Not in the movie, but an actual quote from the lookouts posted on the hill,"Their coming, black as hell and thick as grass!"

Some don't like the movie as much but there are good lines from Zulu Dawn, one of my favs, "Poor little , come all this way to be killed by a bullet from Burmingham", then shouted at the firing line, "SHOOT STRAIGHT YA BASTARDS".

Weird…filter that! OHHH, thats a slang for marital relations..sorry.

"Bring your guns about on the hill side …. fire at the smoke!"

How could I forget, "Damned odd. Sounds like a train."

From Khartoum:

It is sometimes wise, Gordon Pasha, to provide the man with a few sunny hours of fraudulent hope so that when night comes he will have a more perfect inward vision of the truth of his hopelessness.

I am the true Mahdi.

Hold them!

"a bullet from Burmingham"

Americans are allowed to spell 'Birmingham' correctly you know – you have one in Alabama even if its pronounced differently

Americans are allowed to spell 'Birmingham' correctly you know – you have one in Alabama even if its pronounced differently

Englishmen are allowed to look at their own keyboards and notice that the I and U are adjacent, before launching into a fit of pedantry, you know – you do have typographical errors in the UK, even if they are pronounced differently.

Doug

CSB: "Hitch, I saw you….you're alive. ."
Hitch: "Oh I am? Thanks very much!"

"Excused duty sir!" Often quoted at the gaming table here, when some figure or unit that by all rights should have hit, did not.

"Spit boy, spit" Occasionally quoted when opponents are taking their time deciding what to do.

"eh-yumph.. Un- uday… eh-yumph…. un-twatuday" often quoted right before I move my figures

"You're no good to anyone, except the Queen and Sergeant Maxfield!" – Sgt. Maxfield

"Usuthu!" – to be shouted before every Zulu charge

"A Zulu can run – RUN! – fifty miles…and fight a battle at the end of it."

One from Zulu Dawn I love:

"Are you afeared of the Zulu then, Colour Sergeant?"
"One Zulu's only one man, and I ain't afraid of no one man. But the Zulus, they come in the thousands…like a black wave of death in the thousands…them assegais stabbin'…"

Hook: "You know what she needs?"

:)

Darth, that wasn't the color sgt., it was the Quartermaster. ;)

Bromhead: Fire at will!
Pte. Owen: That's very nice of him.

…to which Will replied, " off!!"

Ahh, you're right!

After the Boer says "A Zulu can run 50 miles a day and fight a battle at the end of it", a private replies, "Running to a battle? Makes no sense".

The Boer also gets to utter the main anachronism about Chard's and Bromhead's "bloody egos". In 1879 Freud was serving his stint in the Austrian army and had not yet finished graduate school.

"He's a Peeler, 716, come to arrest the Zulu!"

"Somebody pot that fellow!" or "Pot that fellow somebody!" (Can't remember it exactly.) Said by the cook as a Zulu crosses the barricade. I often use "He's counting your guns with the life of his warriors," when my natives are being mowed down by the Europeans.

I was just watching Monty Python's Meaning of Life. The whole Zulu War scene is just brilliant to me!

(OK I had to look this up to get it right ..)

"Better than staying at home, eh sir! At home if you kill someone they arrest you. Here they give you a gun, and show you what to do, sir.
I mean, I killed fifteen of those b#ggers sir! Now at home they'd hang me. Here .. they give me a f#cking medal sir!"

Question …

In Gladiator, (Russel Crowe), at the begining when the Roman Legions face the Goths? Huns? whoever …

There is a bit of singing/chanting which to my mind sounds suspiciously similar to the Zulu's in Zulu.

Thoughts?

Gladiator Germans: Yes, it is Zulu, I understand

"before launching into a fit of pedantry," that's a lovely phrase

In a skirmish game I had a player shoot an Orc that was about to ambush another player. The shooter said "Eyes wide, boy. I can't watch your back all the time".
We laughed so much I gave him an extra fate point.

I quote Zulu around the table all the time. "Hold your fire. Mark your target when it comes" is a favourite when any horde, in any period, charges any gun line.

Ssendam, it was deliberate – Oor Ridley likes a bit of a arty-farty 'omage in his flicks, always has, ever since he was a lad. The whole scene was allegedly inspired by his reading of Robert Graves, who transcribed 'Hasta' as 'Assegai' in I CLAVDIVS. The Germans are the Plucky Zulu. I would say he was not a million miles out as Metaphors go.

(My dad always says Clavdivs is a silly name, but not as silly as ivlivs.)

Pat

how about:
"you were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!"

The *That zulu, he is counting your guns" thing always sends a chill down my spine.
Mick

Don't throw
Bloody spears
At me!

(aha, so NOW we see what DBA really means!!)

:)

(methings I've found the working title for my new set of colonial rules!)

Ah David – you beat me to it! That quote pops up still in the strangest places- i heard a local FM radio announcer use it when referring to peak hour traffic…. must be said with a Michael Caine accent of course!

How about this then, "Front Rank Fire, Rear Rank Advance!"

YouTube link

and some more quotes here: rorkesdriftvc.com/zulu.htm

YouTube link

GLADIATOR/ZULU chants

superb DM, copyright it :)

Then again, if reference to "Egos" is a bit premature, there's just no mercy for Caine's referring to the coming Impi as the "Fuzzies!"

Not to mention the Enfield Rifles--bolts flying--in several scenes.

Criticisms? No, just the foibles of a much loved, old friend.

TVAG

About time they did a ruthlessly accurate version of Rorkes Drift tho'

IIRC the response to the 'run fifty miles' comment is 'Well there's daft it is then. I don't see no point in running to fight a battle'. Sounds much better spoken in the accent of the South Wales valleys. As another poster has commented, the film is full of quotable lines. Amongst my favourites are those uttered in two separate scenes by, I think, Sgt Windridge. First, near the start when he is detailing two men to be lookouts, one of whom marches off without his rifle and the Sgt picks it up and throws it at him saying 'And take your bundle with you, you dozy Welshman'. The second, is after the first Zulu assault. One of the 'lookouts' has gone to check on a calf in the cattle pen. The poor beast is suffering and he is trying to console it when the Sgt appears and says 'What do you think you're doing at a time like this?'. I have been known to use this phrase when my wargaming partner in DBM doubles competitions throws 1s and 2s when we despearately needed 5s and 6s.

Another film quote I often use is from Lawrence of Arabia. When, dressed in Arab robes, he reaches Army HQ in Cairo after his epic journey across the desert with his two Arab servants. He marches into the HQ and the orderly Sgt or Corp, having recognised him and allowed him in, says – as Lawrence walks past him – 'What do you think you look like'. This is often what I say to my cat when he comes in from the garden having spent 5 minutes rolling in the dust, leave, grass cuttings etc. Needless to say, being a cat, he pays me no mind!

"Because we're here, lad. No one else. Just us."

"In Europe, young women accept arranged marriages to rich men. Perhaps the Zulu girls are luckier getting a brave man."

"I imagine he's nobody's son and heir now" (or something like that).

Surely you shou be singing Men of Harlech.

Ive watched this film so often over the years I wore out two copies on VHS, and could probably recite most of the script.

Never gets old.

"Not the best of shots are they?"
"I want you to put a platoon together"
"I'll need more than one old boy, If Im going up there after them!"

and

"A prayer's as good as bayonet on a day like this"

"Why?"

(That one guy who sits up, utters that, and dies on the operating table.)

Good for when you fail to roll morale. :)

This is a real quote from Isandhlwana:

"Just who the Hell do you think you're firing at?" But it was said in Zulu. (Fugitives Drift, By Essex, I think)

And ptrick is right about the "Fuzzies" quote. They didn't even have Fuzzies then.

Bet the Fuzzies had Fuzzies

CooperSTEVE, was that an off-colour Pube Joke?

Bad Language Makes the Khalifa Cry.

Pat

No, I just meant I guess they were running round the Sudan with bouffant 'fros in the 1870s, don't think it was a hairstyle only adopted in the 1880s. The Pubes were a different tribe (from Nubia) who did awful things to their captives – you wouldn't want to get caught by them. They were pygmies, so sometimes known as 'the short & curlies'

You are getting the Nubes, from Pubia, confused with the Pubes from Nubia.

Pat

German speaking Zulu – Usuthu…. Classic

'Ching ching old chap…. do carry on with your mud pies' and…'No bother…. i wasn't offering to do it myself

Ardendorf to Bromhead…. and who the hell do you think is coming to wipe out your command?? The Grenadier Guards?