Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, who played King Cetewayo in the film is actually a real-life distant descendant of the very same Zulu king he was playing. Small wonder the producers decided to choose him to play Cetewayo.

In the scene at the start of the film where Lt. Bromhead is riding his horse along and across the stream, it is not Michael Caine on the horse, as at that stage in his career he could not ride, he told the director he could as to get the part. Caine did try to ride it but he could not do it, so one of the filming crew took his place as a riding double. That's why the camera pans down onto the horse as it crosses the stream.