"What book or film inspired you to get into Colonial Gaming" Topic

There have been a few early on that got me into Colonial Gaming

Books I read as a teen
Washing of the Spears by Donald Morris
Lives of a Bengal Lancer by Francis Yeats Brown

Films
Lawrence of Arabia
Gunga Din
55 Days At Peking

Many others since those early days

Book Washing of the Spears
Movie Khartoum

Zulu
Zulu Dawn
March or Die

Zulu

Gunga Din, Zulu

Book Washing of the Spears
Movie Zulu

Later on – Beau Geste began a fascination with the French Foreign Legion

Books-- Kim, Washing of the Spears ( Had a great dinner with the author some years later)

Movies-- Gunga Din, Zulu

As others have said "Zulu" and "Washing of the Spears".

The next two greatest influences were Ral Partha colonials and TSATF.

Zulu and The Wind and the Lion. But it's a peripheral period for me.

Movies: Gunga Din, Four Feathers, Beau Geste, Charge of the Light Brigade, King of the Khyber Rifles, Bonnie Scotland and Wee Willie Winkie

North West Frontier…and I suppose Zulu.

Zulu

Not my cup of tea.

Zulu
Khartoum
1939 Four Feathers.

Kim

Washing of the Spears.

And

Farwell's Victoria's Little Wars.

Washing of the Spears
War for a Persian Lady

Sleepy Hollow (1999)

Got me into doing gothic horror set in the French & Indian War. (Sleepy Hollow was cursed and haunted long before the Hessian lost his head in the Rev War.)

Zulu. I saw Khartoum when it came out, but haven't even dabbled in the Sudan, for no reason I can think of.

Zulu, Northwest Frontier and The Four Feathers.

Zulu, Wind and the Lion, 55 Days at Peking.

The author Ouda.

Books by Wilbur Smith

Zulu and 55 Days at Peking for movies

For books, the Collected Poems of Rudyard Kipling

Knowing Larry Brom and playing TSATF with the Jackson Gamers at his house was my impetus.

Jim

None, it was the Praetorian Guard regiments of Astra Militarum, but the first colonial films that reinforced this for me were The Man Who Would Be King, Zulu, the movie, Lawrence of Arabia, and the television series Shaka Zulu.
However, my colonial gaming is ninety percent VSF/steampunk.

All Movies:
1939 Four Feathers
55 days at Peking
Zulu
Zulu Dawn
Khartoum

While I saw "Lawrence of Arabia" in the theater as a small child, and I am sure that have a profound effect, I would have to say:
The Wind and the Lion (1975)

This was the film that assured that Colonials would be something of a life long project.

Nothing, really. Minifigs and Ral Partha had minis, and TSATF was out, so there were figures and rules available at the same time. It could just as easily been something else, but the Colonial stars aligned.

Gunga Din and Zulu--the first on TV, the second upon initial release.

Indeed, I hardly have known any wargamer (whatever his/her primary interest in the hobby) who didn't see and be inspired by "Zulu"

Also was "inspired" by seeing when them when new such as "Khartoum" and "55 Days At Peking." By the time "The Wind And the Lion" and "Zulu Dawn" were released, I was already hooked.

TVAG

You folks are making me feel so old, because I remember the television series Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers. To this day, I prefer my adventurous Brits in khaki, rather than red.

Grelber

Yup, the rule set TSATF played a role too!

Kipling, TSATF, books bt Byron Farwell and of course Zulu

"The Man Who Would Be King", "Zulu", and "Beau Geste" movies.

I remember Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers too, Grelber. I look for it on DVD from time to time, but no luck yet. Bound to be some scenarios in there somewhere.

Movie Zulu (guess that may be obvious)
Khartoum
55 Days at Peking

I saw 55 Days at Peking at age 11, then Zulu at age 12. I remember reading Washing of Spears, looking for a description of the cattle getting out of the kraal and ending the Zulu assault. I saw Khartoum on my 14th birthday on the big screen at an almost empty matinee. But I didn't start playing colonial wargames until my mid-thirties.

The Washing of the Spears

The Four Feathers (1939) greatly enhanced by witnessing a TSATF game at Historicon in the mid 90's.

While I always enjoyed those movies and books, I started painting colonial troops after playing TSATF after playing a game at a friend's house (Boxers). Inspiring game, he had the city wall and everything.

It's a long list on both counts… but if I had to boil it down to one written and one cinematic source:

--Reading Kipling's "The Man Who Would Be King"
--Seeing John Milius's "The Wind And The Lion"

Honorable Mention goes to "Young Winston" which I saw in the theater in 1972 despite being only 7 at the time and which packs three different colonial campaigns -- NWF, Sudan, 2nd Boer War -- into one movie.