Chard Meets Bromhead (Michael Caine debut) | Zulu | HD 

Exactly. He’s so deliciously and authentically elitist you can’t help but respect it. He doesn’t try to hide it in the slightest and lets it ooze off his sleeves. Well, at least we know who he is!! Damn I love Michael Caine!!!

Agreed. Still can't believe he is alfred from the Nolan batman series

Chin chin old boy 🐎🦯

I would guess that playing up on the elitest attitude at the beginning of the film produced and even greater degree of change in his character after the battle. The higher they sit, the farther they fall.

@@whiteknightcat Totally normal behavior for a higher born man in that culture, I think the point is that his breeding not only had that lilt and pomp, but he held on and fought as a leader, well principled as well as very polished manners. We could use more of that in our day and age, it's just about completely gone.

Oh, hell yeah!

My great-grandfather was an officer of engineering in WWI and my grandfather was an officer of engineering in Korea (USA, however). Saved them both from possible death in battle during both wars. Thankful they valued their education. Both were very successful in the petroleum industry afterward.

I was a Combat Engineer in the U.S army..It is a very important job.

I was a communications specialist in an army national guard combat engineer battalion in Idaho for 11 years. The battalion did all kinds of disaster relief work and trained to do combat support missions. The communications situation changed by the mission the battalion was performing. It kept us on our toes. I enjoyed it immensely.

In WW1 there was also some resentment in infantry battalions due to the fact that the REs, and other specialist troops, were better paid. In WW1 infantry performed labouring tasks, often in "rest" periods, but were not paid for it. One former Essex Regiment soldier recalled the rhyme "God made the world, bees make honey. The Essex do the work, the REs get the money."

I've always liked that line too.

A true Rupert...

Mud pies... thousands of them 🥳

Lol…love it. What a prick!

My Dad always said to me, "the sgt's are the backbone of the Army", of course in 1939 he was a Sgt in the Territorial R.E.'s so maybe he was biased.

@@petermartini8346 I don't think he was biased at all. I think even commissioned officers will acknowledge the invaluable contribution of the senior non-commissioned ranks in keeping 'the show on the road'.

@@heartofoak45 Thank you. My dad took me too see "ZULU" at the age of ten when it first came out in 1964. It started a lifelong obsession/interest in the Martini Henry & I am fortunate enough to now own a number of them & fire them regularly. I live in Canada now so a little easier to do so than in the UK, I believe.

You're wrong on this sadly. Most officers in WW1, from the British perspective were from the middle-class. The seniors from the upper class. Particularly Junior officers like Chad or Bromhead. They were called "temporary gentlemen" by the upperclass.

@Kincaid Wolf Most pre-war officers came from families with military connections, the gentry or the peerage. This is according to Gary Sheffield's book _"Leadership in the Trenches: Officer-man Relations, Morale and Discipline in the British Army in the Era of the First World"_ At any rate, the point of that passage was that the enlisted men were not nearly so cynical about the officers that we today imagine

He's right. Officers who complain to their men about "chickenshit" such as having a clean uniform, having no creases in their bed linen, and rigid adherence to protocol don't exactly set the right message looking like a slob. This does not mean that troops don't admire and to a degree expect their officers to get their hands dirty and expose themselves to danger in the thick of a fight. The two are not mutually exclusive.

@joydivision2112 Agreed. I will say Bromhead doesn't inspire loyalty by refusing dirty work, just that "an officer should look smart in front of the men" has truth to it.

​@@CodaMission You're talking about WW1 not pre-war. During WW1, and due to the huge increase in the British Army, most junior officers were from the middle-class and they were discrminated against. Even today, there are almost zero senior army officers who did not attend private school. I am in the British Army and generally most rankers dislike Army Officers from the upper class. They tend to be pretty useless and British military history time and again has shown the NCO's to be the true leaders of the British Army. Losing your commanding office is always going to invoke a reaction. Irrespectitve if he is upper-class or lower-class because you follow your leader. You seem to conflating upper-class and losing your officer. There not the same thing, the soldiers would have felt the same for any officer. Now, until the 1871 Cardwell reform (8 years before the Zulu war), rich men could buy their Officer Commission. Irrespective of skill or competence. The Cardwell sought to remedy a series of military blunders by upper-class officers in the Crimean war and the The Indian Mutiny of 1857. Not to mention how the professional and merit based Prussian Army smashed the French in the Franco-Prussian war. The Battle of Islawanda from the British perspective was largely due to the incompetence of the Officers in charge. Namely Lt Col Henry Pulleine. Who, had bought his officer commission and role into the army. This is the same with Lord Chelmsford. Both amataure Officers who bought their senior military commission commissions. It is absolutely no surprise that Lt Chard, from the Engineer Regiment, a regiment that never allowed Officers to buy their commission, was able to win this battle. And you can see the tension between him and Bromhead (an upper-class officer of the line). Engineers built the British Empire and gave us the industrial revolution. And the upper-class never accepted this reality. Unlike in the USA. Upper-class Officers looked down on regiments associated with logistics and engineering, though they would become far more important in the Great War. The best arms of the British Military, the SAS, the Royal Marines, Royal Navy, Royal Air Force, the Engineer and Logistc Regiments never allowed private money to ascerain rank and merit determined success. The British Army success on the battlefield has been pretty sketchy since the napoleonic era.

its a film mate...not real.

@@dd52161 I meant the men that actually fought in that battle , should have made that clear . But I do see your point 🤣

@@dd52161 No, it did happen. January 22, 1879.

British films, coming from the UK... thousands of them.

And he literally is looking down on him. And the overcoat (?) and animal stick thing he twirls add to his air of superiority.

@@pkelly5149 It seemed to be a cape of some sort. A rather dandyish touch, especially considering he was in full uniform at the height of the South African summer.

@@stevekaczynski3793 True. But an officer should look good in front of the men.

@@stevekaczynski3793 it’s a thin dust cape, in order to prevent the uniform from becoming dusty or dirty.

Chard's views weren't 'snobbery' because they were accurate. That's a key fault in your topsy-turvy class analysis.

@@ViktoriousDead Sharpe is flawed masterpiece

@@ViktoriousDead *looks down at his tunic

Apparently another officer, Spalding, consulted the Army List and determined Chard was senior.

@@stevekaczynski3793 In the film it says that Chard had served for 3 months longer than Bromhead. In reality he had actually served 3 years longer so he took overall command due to length of service.

You didn't watch the movie before commenting did you? Same rank but Chard had seniority, aka a longer time in rank but the rest of your assessment is on point and about the norm for YT comments! 😀

@@andyd2528 it was all about date of rank

There was never any issue about who was in charge. Chard had been placed in temporary charge, by a Major Spalding, temporarily absent, who was the local area commander or somesuch. All the bit about who had seniority, and the "negotiations" about command are entirely film fiction.

A member of aristocracy proper vs. a meritocratic middle-class officer who earned his rank. To be fair Chard was kind of a boor with poor manners, as Queen Victoria wrote in her private diary when him and Bromhead were invited to a royal dinner in their honor to celebrate their awarding of the VC. Apparently he had poor table manners and no verbal filter, making dirty jokes in front of the Queen and other guests.

My grandad was an engineer during Korea. If there's one lesson I've learned from his stories, its to always listen to the engineer, no matter of rank.

He was in Korea as an infantry rank and file

@@weetak Did not know that!

@@DSS-jj2cw I think u can check wikiepedia's note on Zulu

It almost dint happen because director said he dint know what to do with his hands. Caine countered, saying such was exactly how an officer went about!

While this was his breakthrough role he already had a modest career going as an actor and was not merely an extra.

Socially the historical Chard and Bromhead were not that different. While Bromhead indeed came from a military family, a brother of Chard's advanced to the rank of colonel like he did.

He's also a bad-ass Korean war vet.

@@soldat2501 I suspect he was one of many actors who were national servicemen at that time.

You must be young. Michael Caine is instantly recognizable by older people like me. Haha

I'm surprised he didn't have a role in the reboot starring Mark Wahlberg.

@@clipobserver Don’t do that! Dear God you frightened the life out of me! Ps ha ha very funny.

Yes, the British Army made few concessions to the climate.

Victorians in general were not what we might call "sensible" in their attire.

Still I do not see the actors sweat

@@weetak well they did go for a swim

@@MikeJones-qn1gz yes. But not while having them on. Must be stinking like hell. Wonder how they sleep

Indeed

I don't know if it is the same firm, but I remember a company producing figures based on the characters played by Caine, Baker and Green. I think they were 120mm scale. I don't know if there were any others from Zulu, but they did do other figures based on film characters.

Not at the time, it was a Warwickshire regiment, became a welsh reg in the Childers Reforms

The 24th weren't light infantry, they were a standard line infantry regiment.

Funny thing, Michael Caine made a cameo in Monty Python's Meaning of Life Zulu segment

Zulu Dawn included this detail, beards and facial hair.

No, Officers had rankers clean their kit. This continued in WWII and till recently in all western armies.

According to Wikipedia, Chard never married, had no descendants.

Search it up lad

@@OfficialNarra I'm lazy tho

Prost, ваше здоровье, cheers...

huh, so thats what it means

@@OfficialNarra It means cheers 🍻

Oh, hell yeah!

They held the same rank. Gonville Bromhead would not attain the rank of Lieutenant until 28th October 1871, a rank which John Chard had held since 15th July 1868. Making Bromhead the junior officer at Rorke's Drift by three years and three months. He was aged 33 at the time of Rorke's Drift. Following the defence Bromhead was appointed a brevet Major.

@@ImperialistRunningDo But as a line officer, wouldn't Bromhead still retain command?

@@nicholasmuro1742 the most senior officer at Rorke's Drift was Major Henry Spalding. The major rode off that morning, looking for overdue troops. Before he left, he put Chard in command. I will never understand why ANY major, let alone the senior officer, would go off on such a minor errand. That's exactly what NCOs are for.

@@ImperialistRunningDo Maybe he knew something was up? Or just felt like going for horseback ride in the countryside? Still, why put an engineer in charge?