Continuity mistake: When Zulus are battering down the door leading to Hook's bunk and the soldiers inside are escaping through a hole they knocked in the wall, at some point a blazing log falls across the hole. Some shots later, it's gone.
Continuity mistake: When Bromhead is standing on the burning roof firing his pistol at the Zulus running about below, you can see there's no gun smoke or muzzle flash from the barrel. It looks as if he's just pointing it around.
Factual error: Stanley Baker (in the scene where he reloads his revolver) is shown using a Webley Mark VI - not issued until 1915.
Suggested correction: The film company and production unit tried to find revolvers of the sort that would have been used by British army officers in the 1870s. They were unable to find hand held firearms of the appropriate date, and so had to issue Stanley Baker/Lieutenant Chard and Michael Caine/Lieutenant Bromhead with First World War era handguns as the best possible substitute. Everybody was aware that this was historically inaccurate, but this was the best they could do under the circumstances.
Explaining why or how a mistake occurred does not invalidate it. This correction isn't valid.
Factual error: The Swedish missionary Otto Witt is portrayed as a drunkard who encourages the soldiers to abandon their posts. In reality Otto Witt helped the defense by helping to build the barricades. He later volunteered to assist as a lookout on the nearby hill. He departed before the battle to join his wife and two daughters at a nearby farm.
Continuity mistake: In the Diamond DVD, chapter 4, time 01:36:04, Stanley Baker is shown in a far shot breaking open his revolver and emptying the spent cartridges. Without reloading, he does it again seven seconds later in a close-up shot. (01:36:05)
Continuity mistake: During one of the first Zulu attacks, a local is walking behind Chard carrying a box of ammo with a bayonetless rifle slung over his shoulder. The man is hit by a bullet and goes down. Chard quickly checks the man and then realises he's being charged by three Zulus. He shoots the first with his pistol, runs out of ammo so makes a grab for the dead mans rifle which now suddenly has a bayonet attached to it.
Deliberate mistake: The Zulus sniping on the defenders from the mountain are armed with Martini Henry Rifles implying they were taken from the dead at Isandlwhana. This couldn't have happened as the Zulus attacking Rorke's Drift did not fight at Isandlwhana, they were only the reserves. The looting of the camp was done by those who fought there. The Zulu snipers used old muskets.
Factual error: Conversely Corporal Allen, portrayed as the model soldier, was demoted from sergeant (his previous rank) for drunkenness before the battle.
Factual error: Henry Hook in fact retired from the Army as a Sergeant-Instructor, hardly the barrack-room lawyer as which he is portrayed.
Continuity mistake: When the preacher (Jack Hawkins) and his daughter are leaving Rourke's drift in a cart it cuts to two soldiers talking, then cuts back to the departing cart - if you look carefully you can see a car drive along the distant hillside.
Continuity mistake: During the battle in the hospital, when Hook bayonets a Zulu up against the wall, the bayonet clearly goes under the armpit, not through as the mark left on the wall afterwards would suggest.
Continuity mistake: Jack Hawkins, as he leaves the Zulu compound in the buggy with his daughter, manages to grow a beard. (00:15:40)
Factual error: At the begining of the film, Chard and Bromhead do not know one another and during the preparations for the defence it is indicated that Chard and Commissary Dalton do not know each other. Chard had actually been stationed at Rorke's Drift for several days before the battle and knew both Bromhead and Dalton.
Factual error: Several of the Martini-Henrys shown in the movie are later models that could not possibly have been present at Rorke's Drift. These include the Mark III, Mark IV, and several variants of the Francotte Cadet and Boer ZAR Contract Westley-Richards (neither manufactured until 1895) along with Bromhead's hunting rifle. One of the Zulus is even carrying a Martini-Enfield .303 Carbine, not manufactured until 1899.
Suggested correction: When they were making Zulu they could only obtain a limited number of firearms that would have been available in 1877. They had to make do by supplying the actors with firearms from later dates.
Explaining why or how a mistake occurred does not invalidate it. This correction isn't valid.
Continuity mistake: One shot of the Zulus attacking is shown in reverse - all the Zulus appear to be left handed.
Factual error: Dabulamanzi led the Zulus attacking Rorke's Drift. He was either a brother or half brother of Cetewayo, not one of his sons.
Factual error: When private Hitch is wounded, he is shot in the leg. He was actually shot in the shoulder. The bullet shattered his shoulder blade and he was invalided out of the Army as a result.
Factual error: Another commissary (senior to Dalton) and an army chaplain (who distinguished himself by handing out ammunition during the battle) were also present in the garrison.
Factual error: The webbing the British soldiers wear is incorrect. They are wearing Slade Wallace which is 1888 onwards. They should be wearing 71 Valise pattern.
Continuity mistake: Colour Sergeant Bourne goes one on one with a large Zulu warrior and kills him. Later, this same Zulu warrior is alive & well.
