Cy Enfield's Zulu (1964)

 It's too bad that Enfield was hounded out of America by HUAC, since Zulu indicates that he probably would have been good at making Westerns.  Zulu is about an 1879 battle between 4000 Zulu warriors and 200 British troops.  Enfield's American films (including Underworld Story and Sound of Fury, both 1950) were corrosive views of American racism and capitalism and though Zulu is relatively apolitical it does have equal respect and understanding of each side, just as John Ford's Westerns did. Enfield and cinematographer  Stephen Dade capture the horror of wartime slaughter against the beauty of the landscape with the effective use of the widescreen ratio, editing and well-timed horizontal pans.  And I feel fairly certain that Enfield was very much aware of what was happening in Vietnam at the time he made this film.

Enfield always had a way with actors and in Zulu Stanley Baker (who worked regularly with Enfield, e.g. Helldrivers in 1957) and newcomer Michael Caine play the leaders of the British troops, constantly clashing on tactics and logistics.  We get little idea of the individual Zulu characters but each of the British soldiers is portrayed in considerable detail of their lives and experiences.  And there is one Boer, played by Gert van den Bergh, who has a considerable knowledge about the Zulu and their tactics, both as a mass and as individuals with spears and shields.