Shaka Zulu: The Citadel

As a South African, it's an insult to think that someone was actually paid to produce this nonsense!

Despite the fact that the director was one of the writers for the original Shaka Zulu mini, this "addition" to the series is appalling! The original series was based on historical facts about a man who was a great strategist, leader and warrior. A man who played a large role in shaping the history of local tribes in South Africa.

The plot of this film, however, is nothing but hogwash, scraped from the bottom of the barrel by a writer that has failed to impress since the mid-nineties.

While Omar Sharif and Henry Cele are good actors, what is David Hasselhoff doing here, rescuing drowning slaves with his red buoy and bleached smile?

I kept expecting blond, busty women to appear out of nowhere and run across the screen in their tiny red bathing suits, for no apparent reason. Not that this would've been any more bizarre than the fantastical plot line that was probably dreamed up after 10 pints of beer at a fancy dress party, where someone's caveman costume inspired the writer to return to an African theme for his next "blockbuster".

The heading that I chose is dubious by design. I am sure that there are equal numbers of people who will rip and debase this film for its assertions of Mandigo black and white fascination with each other as well as the ever reoccurring themes of white Emperialism / superiority and the tribes of humbled Black Africans. On the flip side, others will exalt the way in which Shaka can be likened to a Shaft of the 18th century, taking on the establishment almost single handedly and winning. Grace Jones disappears after the first quarter of the film and I was disappointed that the 6 foot Amazon never quite developed into the warrior that I had predicted. All in all I think most will be pleasantly surprised about the subtle twists, adequate acting and better than low budget cinematography.

Hollywood loves to distort African history! This mess is not the true story of Shaka Zulu and to say it's based off a true story is absolutely outrageous! It's a slap in the face to Zulu people and Zulu culture! If you want to see a good movie about Shaka, then please get the blockbuster 1986 movie instead!!! The whole slavery, North African conquest, Shaka having a wife, a grown daughter and being on as slave ship is hogwash! This should be put in the racist Hollywood fictional file! Along with that racist Exodus movie having whites cast as Egyptain royalty, even though white invaders weren't there during this period and (Mrs. Weaver, a white woman playing a Ethiopian/Nubian Queen and a white man playing a Berber Pharaoh), a disrespectful whitewashing of African history! Hollywood needs to stop making movies of African history to please whites/making African rulers in the image of whites!! Don't watch this racist marginalization/rewriting of history! It only adds to the erasing of true African history and the people's of African! They would never do this when making a movie about European history!!

I havee watched the original series w Henry Cele. This thing was exploitive full of fantastical lies that hollywwod''s cultural appropriation is so typical of. The ony truth was abt extent of arab slave trading in E Africa.

Complete drivel. An unfortunate manifestation of the hypocritical, toxic culture of a decade ago. In this movie, pedestrian regrets for slavery go hand in hand with colonialist subtexts (the annoying redhead feeding Shaka rice?). Forget historical reality too. Didn't most western slaves comes from West Africa? An American slaver easily capturing Shaka with a handful of men?. Finally, David Hasslehoff could not have been any more obnoxious. One can only ponder, how would he have fared in the miniseries? (Promptly impaled most likely). The miniseries was superb, and it is unfortunate that DH should have gotten his hands on something unique, and made it mundane. (I tend to think that he had hand in creating this fiasco).