facing impossible odds

Zulu film 1964 hi-res stock photography and images - Alamy

Stanley Baker (prone) and young Michael Caine in Zulu.

I’m still under orders to take it slow until I get better, with various medical procedures still lined up for me. When Patty suggested we take the afternoon off to watch Zulu–Michael Caine’s film debut, by the way (1964)–I jumped at it. It’s one of my favorite movies.

The Battle of Rorke’s Drift featured less than 100 Welsh infantry against several thousand Zulu warriors who had just wiped out some 1,200 British troops.The defenders enjoyed a miraculous deliverance. The movie screenplay, BTW, actually tones down (!) the true story, which was even more incredible.

We don’t watch a lot of war movies, but Zulu is something special. The cinematography is spectacular, and the story is more than compelling.

And it tells us that seemingly impossible and hopeless situations might be overcome, after all, as long as you keep trying and don’t give up. Not unlike my writing career–which at many a time seemed totally unachievable.

I’m so glad I didn’t throw in the towel.

Zulu (1964) | film freedonia

For those feeling hopeless and defeated after seeing Democrats steal this year’s presidential election–hey, it could be worse.

In 1879 some 150 British and colonial troops stationed at Rorke’s Drift, where they were expected to be out of harm’s way, were attacked by at least 3,000 (and possibly as many as 4,000) Zulu warriors. What could be more hopeless than that? What could they do?

The ancient Chinese sage Sun Tzu, author of The Art of War, said it best:

“On death ground… fight.”

So that’s what they did, all afternoon, all night. And the next day, what was left of the Zulu host retreated, their purpose unachieved. The handful of men at Rorke’s Drift had lived through an inescapable danger. By not giving up. It was simple: there was nothing for them to do but fight. As hard as they could, for as long as they could. And most of them survived it.

The battle of Rorke’s Drift was the subject of a 1964 movie, Zulu, featuring Michael Caine’s film debut. Most war movies exaggerate the history, but Zulu understates it–because the true story of the fight was just too hard to believe. Caine’s character, for instance, Lt. Gonville Bromhead, was actually stone deaf: he’d been placed at Rorke’s Drift to keep him out of the way. His disability didn’t stop him from winning a Victoria Cross for his role in the battle.

As daunting, even terrifying, as our country’s current crisis is, people throughout history have been through worse. Sometimes they even triumph against impossible odds.

But they don’t do it by losing heart and giving up.