I won't lie: as an American with little-to-no knowledge of the events around the movie, my main takeaway from the movie when I saw it some years ago was "Holy crap 'Men of Harlech' is an awesome song", and that the film seems to be a nice piece of imperialist British propoganda.

I'm aware that the Zulu song at the end of the film "saluting" the British defenders is apparently a complete fabrication, but that the Zulu did in fact re-assemble one last time before again dispersing/leaving without assaulting/attacking. Do we know why they re-assembled and then nothing came of it?

One of the main Mardi Gras Krewes is Zulu, a traditionally African American krewe, and this leads me to wonder how was the film received by African-Americans at its release?

The Zulus had guns, why did they hardly use them? And who decided who had to be the fodder for the British guns, so they could be counted?

These days, the film is often dismissed as simple imperial nostalgia.

Given the context of its release- so soon after 'The Winds of Change,' Suez et cetera, was this the perception at the time?