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The Four Feathers (Shekhar Kapur, 2002)
The Four Feathers (Shekhar Kapur, 2002)
Director: Shekhar Kapur
Writers: A.E.W. Mason(novel), Michael Schiffer(screenplay)
Cast: Heath Ledger, Wes Bentley, Kate Hudson
Length: 2h 12min
Genre: Adventure, Drama
Synopsis: On the eve of battle a British officer resigns his military commission just before his regiment ships out to put down an uprising in Sudan,1884. His friends in the regiment consider him a coward and along with his finance they send him four white feathers, the mark of a coward.
Review: This is the seventh movie version of the classic British novel. I haven't watched the three silent film versions, but I've seen all four of the 'talkie' versions of The Four Feathers...And this one is a sorry excuse and a waste of a great story. I don't think I've ever been so bored by a movie before.
Style over substances, doesn't equal a good movie. The story was so convoluted with inter-cut scenes that started in the middle of the action and then cut away before the natural end of the scene had occurred. The director used every trick in the book to make his film look like an art film, but it ain't! The story rambles, making it hard to follow.
It doesn't help that the director took it upon himself to rewrite history with the British now looking like dolting invading idiots who are saved by a North African. This desert mentor & strong man who befriends Harry and sees him along his journey, is one old tired character trope.
We get none of the upper aristocratic British attitudes and protocol, that powered the heart of the original story. The spirit of the original is gone and replaced with a showy film that uses every trick camera shot in the book and finished off with disjointed edited.
I couldn't believe everything that was good in the other movie versions was removed and replaced with scenes like the enemy who pops up out of the sand during an attack....Oh! I never seen that one done before
Did I mention Kate Hudson was all wrong for the role, she was positively a bore. Heath Ledger was good and he would have been great had the director not whizzed all over a fine proper British story.
Pretty photography can't save this bombastic bastardization of the classic British story. Do yourself a favor and watch the original 1939 version instead.
Writers: A.E.W. Mason(novel), Michael Schiffer(screenplay)
Cast: Heath Ledger, Wes Bentley, Kate Hudson
Length: 2h 12min
Genre: Adventure, Drama
Synopsis: On the eve of battle a British officer resigns his military commission just before his regiment ships out to put down an uprising in Sudan,1884. His friends in the regiment consider him a coward and along with his finance they send him four white feathers, the mark of a coward.
Review: This is the seventh movie version of the classic British novel. I haven't watched the three silent film versions, but I've seen all four of the 'talkie' versions of The Four Feathers...And this one is a sorry excuse and a waste of a great story. I don't think I've ever been so bored by a movie before.
Style over substances, doesn't equal a good movie. The story was so convoluted with inter-cut scenes that started in the middle of the action and then cut away before the natural end of the scene had occurred. The director used every trick in the book to make his film look like an art film, but it ain't! The story rambles, making it hard to follow.
It doesn't help that the director took it upon himself to rewrite history with the British now looking like dolting invading idiots who are saved by a North African. This desert mentor & strong man who befriends Harry and sees him along his journey, is one old tired character trope.
We get none of the upper aristocratic British attitudes and protocol, that powered the heart of the original story. The spirit of the original is gone and replaced with a showy film that uses every trick camera shot in the book and finished off with disjointed edited.
I couldn't believe everything that was good in the other movie versions was removed and replaced with scenes like the enemy who pops up out of the sand during an attack....Oh! I never seen that one done before
Pretty photography can't save this bombastic bastardization of the classic British story. Do yourself a favor and watch the original 1939 version instead.