WEIGHED DOWN BY MODERN SENSIBILITIES
The Four Feathers
dir. Shekhar Kapur starring: Heath Ledger, Kate Hudson, Wes Bentley, Djimon Hounsou
Official site | IMDB
A throw-back to more simplistic adventures from the height British Empire, "The Four Feathers" fails to satisfy even on that level becoming instead one part stilted drama, one part politically correct apologia and only a small part actual adventure.

Poster symbolizes the failure of the movie's structure. See Kate Hudson portion shoe-horned between the adventure portions.

Somewhere along the line once the decision was made to remake "The Four Feathers" for the umpteenth time someone got queasy. They got queasy because "The Four Feathers", at its roots, is an adventure of imperialism championing the glory of the British army over the brown masses who had the temerity to try and overthrow them. Along the way, the filmmakers managed to lose their grip on most of what made the first few versions work. "The Four Feathers" is not likely to be remade again until Hollwyood stops trying to make the stuff of shallow adventure serials into full-blown epics.

All the previous versions of "The Four Feathers" were made during a time when political sensibilities about race were not prominent, hence leaving each version of the movie to worry about its essential quality: the adventure. "The Four Feathers" 2002 is a glossy, well-produced movie that tries to make the Kiplingesque adventure into an epic and ends up being a wasted effort.

The core story is about a young officer in the British army who resigns at the last minute when his regiment is sent to the Sudan to put down a revolt of Islamists, disgracing his friends but also his fiancee. He receives the symbolic four feathers for cowardice. The filmmakers seem to think that modern audiences wouldn't understand this, so they spend the first twenty minutes explaining over and over why being called a coward was such a deadly fate for a promising officer. As if in today's war-crazy atmosphere the large majority of Republicans feel any different. Believe me, the empathy is already established.

Some nice battle cinematography doesn't redeem "The Four Feathers"

Realizing that he has lost the love of all he holds dear, the former officer decides to follow his friends incognito to Sudan to help them, redeeming his own courage in his own eyes, if not in theirs. In doing so, he manages to rescue his friends and proves his worth to his fiancee. That is a simple story. Unfortunately, "The Four Feathers" is weighed down by the baggage of a modern retelling.

"The Four Feathers" is the kind of film that has trouble getting made because it is set during a time when white people were tromping around Africa shooting brown people for the glory of empire (or for god or gold). It's the same problem facing anyone trying to make a cowboys vs. indians story. These are, in fact, racist stories because they were set during racist times. "The Four Feathers" is a war adventure. If you have a problem with the setting, well then, set it in outer space or Afghanistan today or Vietnam. Don't spend inordinate amounts of time apologizing for the British calling the Sudanese 'wogs'. Don't create a new noble dark-skinned character (played by professional slave actor Djimon Hounsou) to teach life lessons to the bumbling white guy. If you are going to try and humanize 'the other side', at least show them being humans, not spiritual-advice spouting warriors or self-sacrificing fanatics. The 'enemy' are neither super human nor less-than-human. That is racist.

The pacing of "The Four Feathers" reeks of an editing battle where the constant apologia for British imperialism and an unneeded dramatic subplot involving the Kate Hudson character shoe-horns into the campaign in Sudan. Director Shekhar Kapur was adept at portraying history in "Elizabeth" but here risks taking the blame for an uneven picture that lapses each time it becomes interesting and lacks the rhythm of "The Four Feather"'s predecessors. Any tension built up by the action during the war in Sudan and the tribulations of the hero in trying to rescue his friends is wasted when suddenly 'the action' lurches off to merrie old England. This happens twice in the middle of the movie. Not only is cutting to England wildly disorienting structurally, it gives the impression that characters could travel to and from Africa at the speed of jet travel instead of taking days by ship and rail. The problem could have been solved by book-ending the English parts, keeping the film's focus on the adventure in Sudan.

Two stereotypes, hiding their heads.

Despite the time spent in England there is really an emotional vaccuum to the characters, the most glaring being the Kate Hudson fiancee. While modern audiences can probably reconcile the hero's friend's feeling betrayed by his resignation just before they are shipped off to war, many will have a problem with a woman who will dump her fiancee because he doesn't want to be killed in a foreign land. More will have trouble figuring out why he wants her back after all that. Fools in love, perhaps.

Wasted elements in "The Four Feathers" include some excellent cinematography (by Robert Richardson) in the Sudanese portions including a breathtaking bird's eye shot of a British square under assault by the Mahdi's warriors and, really, a decent performance by Heath Ledger as the hero.

Pity.

In theatres now.