Period Piece
Cowardice in the movies is one of those all-too-human flaws that tends to get under an audience's skin as they sit in the dark and wonder what they might do under similar circumstances. Would I go over the top onto a bloody battlefield or stay frozen in my foxhole? Step out into a dusty western street to face the bad guys or cower in a doorway as someone else does the job? Tell the Roman soldiers that yes, I am indeed one of them, or skulk in the shadows as the cock crows?
A. E. W. Mason's 1902 novel The Four Feathers is an adventure story that addresses, at least in part, the personal agony of cowardice. It has been an extremely popular book with filmmakers, dating back to the silent era, who clearly relish its heady mix of ethics and action. The 1939 movie version, directed by Zoltan Korda with music by the great Miklos Rozsa, is often cited as one of the great battle films of that era. Now it has been remade yet again, directed by Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth), whose Indian heritage makes for a most interesting take on this "sun never sets on the British empire" epic.
The Four Feathers plays out in the late 1800s, when Britannia indeed ruled the world, and concerns a young English army lieutenant named Harry Feversham (Heath Ledger). Harry comes from a long line of fighting Fevershams, who have battled and died for the Union Jack at various outposts. But once it is Harry's turn to grab a rifle and go fight in the Sudan, he immediately resigns his commission and leaves the military. This unheard-of act is so loathsome to his superiors, his father, his comrades-in-arms and even his fiancée that in short order he is in possession of the feathers (one from each of his bunkmates, and one from the love of his life) which signify blatant cowardice. Harry eventually heads off to the Sudan, pretending to be an Arab, to help his friends and former regiment fight the good fight against the "heathens."
