Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11034 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-05-01
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 125 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The seventh filming of AEW Mason's classic 1902 novel, this near-epic production of The Four Feathers looks great, sounds great and feels rather average. It would be difficult to diminish the rousing adventure of Mason's novel and director Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth) certainly gets more bang for his buck, with massive battle scenes and rugged, sun-baked harshness enhanced by Robert Richardson's masterful cinematography. Kapur preserves the universal appeal of the story, set in the 1880s, in which a promising soldier (Heath Ledger) resigns on the eve of battle in Britain's Sudanese campaign, is labelled coward by his fiancée (Kate Hudson), and redeems himself by posing as a Muslim warrior to rescue his best friend Jack (Wes Bentley) from certain death in the desert. For all its heroics, however, the film seems oddly passionless; Djimon Hounsou is excellent as Ledger's desert guardian, but these young Hollywood stars lack the authenticity of Zoltan Korda's 1939 film, which remains the definitive version. --Jeff Shannon

DVD Description
Exciting young stars Heath Ledger (A Knight’s Tale, The Patriot, 10 Things I Hate About You), Kate Hudson (Almost Famous, About Adam) and Wes Bentley (American Beauty) shine in this thrilling, epic saga of heroism, loyalty and romantic rivalry. When a British officer (Ledger) resigns his commission on the eve of a battle against Sudanese rebels, he is presumed a coward and given four symbolic white feathers by his friends and fiancée (Hudson). As an act of redemption, he exposes himself to extreme hardship and incredible odds while disguised as a Sudanese in a bold attempt to aid his besieged comrades. Based on the novel by A.E.W. Mason, this stirring adventure will sweep you from within the grand walls of the English aristocracy to the austere beauty of the Moroccan desert as it vividly illustrates man’s indomitable spirit.

Synopsis
Based on the novel by A.E.W. Mason, this movie adaptation is the third of its kind, following 1939 and 1977 versions. It is the story of a British commander, Harry (Heath Ledger), who follows in his father's footsteps by joining the army. He is engaged to marry the woman of his dreams, Ethne (Kate Hudson), whose father was also a soldier. But when his regiment is to be sent to war in the Sudan, Harry gets nervous. On a whim, he resigns his post, and is instantly rebuffed by three of his closest friends. They each give him a feather symbolic of his fear. When he tells Ethne what he has done, she gives him the fourth, explaining that she cannot love a coward. Lost and alone, Harry cannot come to grips with what has happened. So he travels alone to the Sudan, hoping to in some way help his fellow countrymen and redeem his honour. What he finds instead is a land rife with slavery, brutal violence, and a deadly desert climate. He is befriended by Abou (Djimon Hounsou), a Sudanese wanderer, who saves Harry's life time after time. Director Shekhar Kapur (ELIZABETH) makes this moving adventure story utterly believable with striking photography by Robert Richardson and unmatchable performances from Ledger and Hounsou.

Customer Reviews

Great desert vistas fail to help an ailing epic
Over the past ten years or so I have seen a number of my favorite classic novels translated into movies headlined by whichever star seems to be particularly hot at the time. In 1998 Leonardo DiCaprio appeared into a lumbering and top heavy version of "The Man in the Iron Mask" and earlier this year Alexandre Dumas' adventure novel "The Count of Monte Cristo" was brought to the screen with mived results.
So, it was with a weary heart that I handed over my hard earned cash and resolved myself to spending a couple of hours watching one of my favorite novels brought to the screen once more. The movie "The Four Feathers" has been given the big screen treatment several times previously, most recently in a 1978 TV movie starring Beau Bridges and in a pre-Dr. Quinn role the ever popular Jane Seymour.
The newest incarnation has current flavor of the month Heath ("Knights Tale") Ledger in the Beau Bridges role and Kate ("Almost Famous") Hudson as his faithful fiancée Ethne.
With a supporting cast that includes Wes ("American Beauty") Bentley and Djimon ("Amistad") Hounsou, the cast is guided by the steady hand of the acclaimed director of "Elizabeth" Shekhar Kapur.
The story behind "The Four Feathers" is a well known one of betrayal, honor, passion and ultimate redemption that to briefly summarize it seems almost an injustice.
Inspired by the classic novel by A.E.W. Mason the movie begins in 1875, ten year's before the fall of Khartoum. A young British officer, Harry Feversham, admired by his colleagues and devoted to his bride-to-be Ethne, Harry has a promising future in the military, but when the Sudanese rebels attack the colonial British fortress Harry becomes overwhelmed by self-doubt and uncertainty and resigns his commission.
Shocked by his actions, Harry's father disowns him and his friends, and fiancée, assuming the move is motivated by fear, each send him a white feather as a sign of cowardice.
Left isolated and alone in London, Harry learns that his friends have fallen under brutal attack. Instantly, the bond he has with his friends inspires him to overcome his uncertainty and race to their rescue.
The director, Kapur, states in the press packet for the movie that the movie has "at its core" the story of "boys going to war and becoming men." I think this is at the core of why this movie is not as effective as the earlier more literal versions of the epic tale.
Kapur dresses up the screen with incredible shots of the vastness of the African desert and places his main characters in a number of seemingly insurmountable situations, but the movie lacks the sense of the search for redemption that drove the previous movies.
Most telling of this is the omission of two key scenes from both the book and its subsequent adaptations. Firstly, the pivotal moment when Harry receives the feather from Ethne, and then excised completely is the whole subplot revolving around the betrayal felt by the delivery of a feather from Harry's best friend Jack. In its place Jack is seen in the conflicting role of initially standing beside his friend and then ultimately romancing Ethne in the latter part of the picture.
I'm not sure why co-screenwriters Michael Schiffer and Hossein Amini felt the need to make such a dramatic departure from the original text but it's disorientating and the tight structure that made the previous movies so interesting and fast paced is noticeably lacking here.
Worth of metion though is the awe inspiring photography by the noted Director of Photography Robert Richardson and the beautiful period costume design by Ruth Myers. Ledger, Bentley and Hudson also provide strong performances in the roles provided to them, but a seriously flawed script hampers their efforts to imbue any true sense of sympathy for their characters.
The movie therefore comes across as looking particularly great, but as is the case with many recent Hollywood versions of classic novels its mostly style over substance. That is a shame, because it's once again a great work of literature has been transformed into at best a mediocre movie.

Not read the book nor seen any of the originals
I came at this film with no prior knowledge that i was indeed a novel, nor that there have been several filmings of said novel before this one. So this review i hereby give is based on this film and this film alone, without comparison to other 'versions' of the story.

The whole idea of cowardice in the time period depicted was very hoo-haa. One just didn't show if they were a coward, it was their duty and their responsibility to fight for ones country no matter how they felt. So when poor Heath Ledger opts to leave the army it is no surprise that his friends and his fiancee all turn their backs on him...although it becomes clear that even they were acting with the prejudice and not what they actually thought...

The acting is all round quite superb, especially Wes Bentley. The surprising supporting roles for Michael Sheen (so recently brilliant in The Queen) and Kris Marshall (usually a comedian) were excellent, Heath Ledger and Kate Hudson a joy to watch and the film stealing Djimon Hounsou absolutely top notch.

As a period piece it feels just right. The costumes are all glorius. The arid desert heat is portrayed so magnificently by some excellent cinematography. I commend the crew whole heartedly.

A gripping film from start to finish with some fine acting and a good sense of morality; where as i can't vouch for the accuracy, i tend to look the other way for most historical innaccuricies anyway if the film itself is so engrossing. History books are where the accuracy is, films are where the romantic escapism is found.

Feathered pillow recommended
Two hours of overacting and pretentious prattling.
He gets caught and escapes, gets caught and escapes. By the time he takes the poison you wish there was enough to go around to put the audience out of their ordeal...then it still goes on...
The acting and flow of the story is so bad and confusing that not even the exquisite cinematography makes it worth seeing this one through.