The film Zulu has been included on a list of cultural works that could incite far-right extremists. Sir Michael Caine said it’s the biggest load of bullshit that he has ever heard.
According to The Times:
The movie features Caine as a young officer, Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead, in the Battle of Rorke’s Drift, during the Anglo-Zulu War in 1879.
Last month a review of the counter-terrorism programme Prevent found that several well-known works, including Zulu, were cited as “key texts” for “white nationalists/supremacists”.
Other works cited in the report by Prevent’s research information and communications unit were the political sitcoms Yes Minister and The Thick of It, the war film The Dam Busters and the complete works of Shakespeare.
Caine also said that he had no regrets about any of the films he had acted in. “There are no films I wish I hadn’t made,” he said, before later adding: “I got paid for all of them.” He said that he had bought his relations a house each.
The London-born star, who turns 90 next week, has been nominated for an Oscar six times in four separate decades, winning twice.
The review of Prevent was carried out by William Shawcross, who found that the programme was failing to address extreme antisemitism evident in Islamist and extreme right-wing ideology.
Shawcross said that he was “disturbed by the prevalence” of hatred towards Jews among people referred to the programme, which aims to stop people becoming terrorists.
He added that those who referred individuals to Prevent and staff carrying out Prevent schemes did not understand antisemitism sufficiently and were failing to tackle it as a threat.
Shawcross also named individuals and institutions that engaged with the delivery of Prevent programmes. Some received part of its £50 million budget despite having promoted antisemitic tropes and hosted individuals accused of spreading anti-Jewish hatred.
