Shaka Zulu: The Citadel

I am keeping this at five star for one reason: Grace Jones. without her participation, it would have been significantly worse.

I wrote A review of this shortly after it was released on DVD in the US. That review has magically disappeared. It was one of the first reviews I ever wrote for IMDb.

Grace Jones was wonderful, she looked wonderful, but her appearance in this was simply a sad waste. I think she was maybe stuck into this as eyecandy just like David Hasselhoff was- they even made her character look similar to the character "Zula" from "Conan the Destroyer".

Somebody else claimed that they considered this miniseries racist, I don't see anything "racist" about this, not really. It's just bad storytelling. Maybe there was an idea here that people would have been interested in seeing after all these years after Shaka Zulu. But that idea was mucked up.

For the rest of it, I couldn't understand the story whatsoever, of course I know now that the DVD that I rented back in 2005 or so was woefully incomplete and there was much more of a story than what I was allowed to see. So now that I know this information I will try to find the full miniseries and maybe that will fill in the blanks that the version that I saw left.

Had I had access to the full miniseries, I may have enjoyed whatever story was there. But this truncated DVD version distributed by Blockbuster Video, it never should have been released in the US. I rented this back in the day because I saw the words "Shaka Zulu" on the cover, as well as Grace Jones. Those two items made me grab it in my weekly rentals at the time. But I was immensely disappointed, the amount of my disappointment in this is equal to the amount of enjoyment I felt watching the original.

I agree with most of the other people who have commented, this does not deserve to even be associated with the original Shaka Zulu.

Also, in response to the comments written by one of the people involved in this production, why fictionalize something just to create a new, inadequate story, when the original story and the actual truth of history would have been sufficient when making any continuation?

Just tell the original story, mine the history books. And don't just grab actors that don't quite fit. Grace Jones of course was the right actress, but the part that they gave her was disappointing. This could've been so much better. So much better.

What really bothered me about this was that in the middle of the film, all of a sudden David Hasselhoff magically appears (sans his Baywatch entourage)... and then there is some gobbledygook about a fire and a shipwreck which doesn't look like a shipwreck at all.

If you are going to sink a ship in a story (and burn it), then sink it and burn it. It is the filmmakers job to make us believe it regardless of how it was done. This is why you build props and sometimes you even build miniatures in case you do not wish to destroy any full-size ships. Which appears to be what happened here, the story involves the sinking and destruction of a ship but they didn't want to do it for real and that made the whole thing completely unbelievable. Imagine, "Pirates of the Caribbean" being been made the same year without any ships blowing up and sinking. And the scene appears to have been inserted into the film just to show how heroic David Hasselhoff is. An honorable thing to do, to be sure, but it was kind of ludicrous to just have this dropped into the middle of the story. But the whole thing about a fire on a ship, I wasn't convinced. And then Karen Allen, although I like her very much, where was Indiana Jones?

My original review expressed my disappointment with this in a much better way.

I don't like writing negative reviews, I gave this five stars because although I didn't like it, I respect the work that was done. I have edited this a few times to clarify my points.

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!!

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.

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".

If David Hasselhoff is in it, we probably shouldn't expect much. And I was right about him. Karen Allen was nothing to write home about either as a potential romantic partner who seemed too dainty for a journey on a ship of this type.

But Henry Cele did a fine job. He convincingly showed us a proud leader of African people, and although he was not a nice person in general (especially to his enemies and other nations), Shaka could be pleasant under the right circumstances. He was too dignified and smart a man to be subjected to the horrors white people had in mind for some Africans in this era. In fact, many of these African men seemed to proud and intelligent to be slaves.

Grace Jones did a good job as Shaka's wife.

One scene where an African girl had been raped was particularly hard to watch.

I'm guessing this was shown for Black History Month (sorry it took so long). It is a worthwhile look at African people. The white characters, not so much.