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The Four Feathers
A young British officer resigns his post when he learns of his regiment's plan to ship out to the Sudan for the conflict with the Mahdi. His friends and fiancée send him four white feathers as symbols of what they view as his cowardice. To redeem his honor, he disguises himself as an Arab and secretly saves their lives.
2002 · Directed by Shekhar Kapur · 132 min · Action · Adventure · Drama · Romance · War · Screenplay in the scene database · 7 frames
Tagline
Freedom. Country. Honor. Passion. To save his best friend, one man must risk everything he loves.
Plot
Harry Faversham, a young British officer completing his training, celebrates his engagement to Ethne Eustace in a ball with his fellow officers and father. When the Colonel announces that the regiment is being dispatched to Egyptian-ruled Sudan to rescue the British General Charles "Chinese" Gordon, young Faversham has serious reservations about going to war, and resigns his commission. Harry's father disowns him. Perceiving his resignation as cowardice, three of his friends and his fiancée each give him a white feather, the symbol of cowardice. Ethne breaks off their engagement.
Harry learns that his best friend Jack and his former regiment have come under attack by rebels. Undertaking the perilous journey into the Sudan alone, he strikes up an alliance with Abou Fatma, a mercenary warrior. Harry disguises himself as an Arab. Harry and Abou Fatma follow a group of army workers he believes to be spies of self-proclaimed Mahdi, Muhammad Ahmad, and reach the garrison of Abu-Klea, which they realise has been overrun. Harry begs Abou Fatma to warn his friends that their destination is under siege and an attack is likely.
The regiment stops its march to bury a group of British killed by the Mahdi. Abou Fatma is captured by Egyptian soldiers; believing he is an enemy scout, they bring him before the British officers. He tells the British that he has been sent by a British officer to warn them of the Mahdi's attack. He says that Muslims always bury their dead and that of the enemy, but that these bodies have been left to keep the British occupied. Faversham's comrades are worried, but ultimately they disregard Abou Fatma's warnings and he is flogged as a suspected spy.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: Michael Schiffer, Hossein Amini
- Cinematography: Robert Richardson
- Edited by: Steven Rosenblum
- Music: James Horner
- Production design: Allan Cameron
- Produced by: Paul Feldsher, Robert Jaffe, Stanley R. Jaffe, Marty Katz
Cast
- Heath Ledger as Harry Faversham
- Wes Bentley as Jack Durrance
- Kate Hudson as Ethne Eustace
- Djimon Hounsou as Abou Fatma
- Alex Jennings as Colonel Hamilton
- Michael Sheen as William Trench
- Lucy Gordon as Isabelle
- James Cosmo as Col. Sutch
- Angela Douglas as Aunt Mary
- Daniel Caltagirone as Gustave
Production
- Country: Morocco, United States of America, United Kingdom
- Language: English
- Studios: Paramount Pictures, Miramax, Jaffilms Inc., Belhaven Limited
- Budget: $35,000,000
- Box office: $29,882,645
- Themes: army, escape, bravery, loyalty, british empire, islam, sudan, revenge, honor, murder
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