Zouave - Zouaves in Popular Culture

Zouaves in Popular Culture

• A zouave is featured on the packet of Zig Zag cigarette papers.

• In the Buster Keaton film The Playhouse, a zouave drill routine is one of the acts at the theatre. One of the gags involves Buster's boss telling him to get him some Zouaves and Buster first hands him a pack of cigarettes. See 12:23 at

• Used indiscriminately as an insult by Captain Haddock, a character in The Adventures of Tintin. Professor Calculus takes particular offense at the insult in the album Destination Moon.

• In French vernacular speech the phrase "faire le Zouave" can be translated as "to play the goat" i.e. to behave wildly.

• In the film Gods and Generals the 11th New York and the 14th Brooklyn are shown fighting the Stonewall Brigade at First Manassas. Also later in the film at the battle of Fredricksburg you can see both the 114th Pennsylvania defending the pontoon bridges against General Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade, and the 5th New York briefly as the Union are looting Fredricksburg. In the special extended version of the movie, the 14th Brooklyn can be seen fighting at the Battle of Antietam.

• In the film Gettysburg one can see the 14th Brooklyn during the first day of battle, and the 114th Pennsylvania briefly as the Union are building up defenses on the high grounds outside Gettysburg that night after the first day of battle. The 72nd Pennsylvania is seen briefly during Picketts Charge, and when the Confederates try to overrun the Union defenses. In the opening credits for the movie one of the background pictures shows 3 zouaves of the 5th New York Volunteer Infantry regiment guarding a union battery. This is a historical flaw in the movie because the 5th New York was mustered out of service two months before the Battle of Gettysburg.

• In the film "Glory" one can see the 14th Brooklyn in the beginning. The 14th Brooklyn is actually supposed to represent the Zouave d' Afrique (114th Pennsylvania later in history) because the scene is showing the assault on the Sunken Road. The 14th Brooklyn in real life did not fight at the Sunken Road. Some zouaves are later in the show when General Strong is talking about the defenses of Fort Wagner. These zouaves are supposed to represent the 76th Pennsylvania, but the uniform is historically incorrect. The uniform in the movie is that of the 165th New York, but the 76th Pennsylvania wore a dark blue zouave jacket with red trimming with a false gray vest, a red sash, a dark blue fez with a dark blue tazzle, and Arab style sky blue pantaloons.

• In Margaret Mitchell's Gone With The Wind a Zouave, Rene Picard, joins the Confederate Army in Atlanta. Picard is remembered for his good humour, charm and optimism. Also, for his inveterate Creole French accent.

• In the 1955 Danny Kaye film The Court Jester the Jackson Zouaves American Legion Drill Team from Jackson, Michigan, is seen performing a humorous drill routine using the traditional Zouave quick-march. The group also made several appearances, in full Zouave uniform, on The Ed Sullivan Show between 1953 and 1960.