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Actors: Heath Ledger, Wes Bentley, Kate Hudson, Djimon Hounsou
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about The Four Feathers |
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Before 2002, A.E.W. Mason's stirring 1901 novel had been filmed five times, including two silents, a 1929 version with Fay Wray and William Powell, a 1939 UK version with Ralph Richardson, and a 1977 TV version with Beau Bridges and Jane Seymour. The 2002 adaptation directed by Shekhar Kapur (whose last project was the 1988 "Elizabeth" starring Cate Blanchett) is an old-fashioned, lump-in-the-throat epic whose like is not often seen these days. The year is 1884, when Britain rules a quarter of the planet. Ledger stars as Harry Faversham, an officer in Her Majesty's service who is about to marry the vivacious Ethne Eustace (Hudson) when his regiment is called to service in the bloody Sudan. Realizing he had become a soldier only to please his father, a general, he resigns his commission, but three of his best buddies -- and his sweetheart -- gift him with white feathers to signify cowardice. Only his closest friend, Lt. Jack Durrance (Bentley) remains silent. Harry finds his marriage dashed and his father a stranger. There being no future for him in England, he realizes he must rejoin his friends. He sets out into the desert to find them, and eventually hooks up with a strong and resourceful local named Abou Fatma (Hounsou) who sometimes spies for the British but is very much his own man. Eventually Harry will see the worst that battle and imprisonment have to offer, and his friends wounded and killed, but he will redeem himself. The movie is slow and stately for its first half, but accelerates into intense and vivid action in Africa. Ledger is quite good, but the most impressive work is done by Hounsou (who was the magnificent Cinque in "Amistad") and Bentley: long-suffering and stoic (and all the more amazing a performance for an Arkansas native whose last notable role was as the creepy boy-next-door videographer in "American Beauty"!).
--David Loftus, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of The Four Feathers |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Movie
Actual chase scenes or violence - 20%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 40%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 40%
Time/Era of Movie:
- 19th century
War Thriller
Yes
Armed Forces:
- Army
War story:
- escaping behind enemy lines
Romance
Yes
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- infantry soldier
Age:
- 20's-30's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Hair color?
- blonde
Hair style
- short/standard wavy (man)
Body type
- average (man)
Unclothed?
- Chest
Events of movie makes character more...
- tougher
Ethnicity/Nationality
- British
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Hair color
- brunette (Black)
Hair style
- (man) short/standard curly
Body type
- muscular (man)
Unclothed?
- chest
How much in movie?
- 60%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- Black
Main Adversary
Identity:
- enemy army
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- 40%
Hair color
- brunette (Black)
unclothed?
- chest
Ethnicity/Nationality
- Arab
Setting
Europe
Yes
European country:
- England/UK
Africa
Yes
Part of Africa:
- Arabic Africa
Desert?
Yes
Desert:
- dying of thirst, sunburn
- hostile arabs
Misc setting
- prison
- fort/military installation
- cave
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- very gory visuals of deaths and torture
Movie makes you feel...
- excited
How many deaths in film?
- hundreds
Sex/nudity in movie?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- kissing
Kind of violence:
- land battles
- mission to rescue
- hand to hand
- guns
- knives
Unusual forms of death
- hanging
- perforation--bullets
- perforation--swords/knives
- blunt clubbing (like seals)
Any profanity?
- None
Is this movie based on a
- book
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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