Guerreiro da Justiça

I've waited 25 long years to see this movie and finally found it on popcornflix.com as a free to view. First time I've ever watched a free movie online!

Can't say much about the context of the story as my 'knowledge' of the slave trade and African history in general is limited to other similar US interpretations such as "Roots" and such. So my apologies when I say I actually enjoyed most of the film - being those sequences containing Henry Cele, naturally!

I really admired this chap. His performances are stellar especially considering he had no theatrical training or anything. He just seemed to emanate the character and personality of what one would assume would be the essence of Shaka's personality.

I also researched and found that he was quite a philanthropist and set up training camps for kids in his area and coached them in football. What a wonderful legacy!

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".

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).

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.

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.