Zulu Dawn

Zulu Dawn
UK film poster by Tom Chantrell
Directed byDouglas Hickox
Screenplay by
Story byCy Endfield
Produced byNate Kohn
Starring
CinematographyOusama Rawi
Edited byMalcolm Cooke
Music byElmer Bernstein
Production
companies
Lamitas
Samarkand
Distributed byAmerican Cinema Releasing
Orion Pictures (through Warner Bros.)
Release date
  • 29 October 1979 (1979-10-29) (London)
Running time
117 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom United States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$11.75 million($51 million in 2025 dollars)

Zulu Dawn is a 1979 British-American adventure war film directed by Douglas Hickox and written by Anthony Storey and Cy Endfield. It is based on Endfield's book of the same name about the historical Battle of Isandlwana in 1879 between British and Zulu forces in South Africa.

Zulu Dawn features an ensemble cast led by Burt Lancaster, Peter O'Toole, Simon Ward, and Nigel Davenport. Chronologically it precedes the smaller Battle of Rorke's Drift, which also had opposing British and Zulu forces. Zulu (1964) was a film about the latter battle.