Tagged as a "war epic" and an "action-adventure flick," this film directed by Shekhar Kapur has at its core the themes of freedom, love of country, honor and passion.
Everything seems to be going perfectly for Harry Feversham. He is regarded as one of the British regiment’s finest soldiers and is a faithful fiance to the lovely Ethne (Kate Hudson). He seems poised to live a life of near perfection. However, Harry’s fame turns to shame when he is overpowered by self-doubt. He resigns his commission upon learning his regiment will be sent to war in Sudan where the Mahdi (Muslim religious leader) and his followers have seized a British fort in Khartoum.
Nobody understands Harry’s decision. To his family, friends, and fiancee, it is simply a coward’s way out. To express their disappointment, they send Harry four white feathers as a symbol of cowardice. Though quite unsure of himself, Harry heads for the Sudan driven by the will to save his friends from the Mahdi and himself from his own fears.
For some movie critics, The Four Feathers is a far cry from other award-winning Hollywood epics. Despite that, Four Feathers has reminded me about the ways of the world, of who I am, and what matters most in life.
The film shows a young man’s struggle to survive at a time when the English think that the ways of England are the ways of the world, the time when the so-called greedy "scramble for Africa" among European nations is meant to fulfill imperialistic intentions.
The world of politics hasn’t changed that much since then; the concept of the "white man’s burden" still exists – albeit with a new face. When England sought African lands during the peak of colonialism, this was justified on the grounds of educating "savages." Now the US seeks lands in the Middle East in pursuit of oil, in the guise of freedom and world peace.
This is just the political aspect of the movie apart from its far more relevant issues of courage, honor, religion, friendship and fear. Harry not only doubts his ability, he also refuses to go to war because he fears the unknown. He doesn’t see the point in going to what he calls "a God-forsaken desert in the middle of nowhere." But when Harry sets aside his fear and self-doubts and heads for Africa, his move becomes an act of self-redemption for someone branded a coward. It is the fear of losing not his own life but his friends that pushes Harry to head for Africa.
Once in Sudan, Harry does everything he can to save his friends. He disguises himself as an Arab, and asks his new-found friend Abou Fatma (Djimon Hounsou), a mercenary, to warn his comrades of the danger that awaits them. Harry even dares surrender himself to Sudanese rebels, hoping to find a friend captured by the Mahdi.
Harry learns from Abou that "fear always remains" even if one claims not to care about anything anymore. Harry also learns from Abou that Africans may be "savages" in the eyes of the British, but that doesn’t mean they don’t know about God or compassion.
Harry’s self-sacrifice and the decisions he makes reveal that we are responsible for one another. Indeed, there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for a friend.
For Harry, dying to save a friend is far more noble than dying to conquer a land that is not theirs to begin with. He believes that what matters in life are the people we care about and not blind patriotism.
It seems ridiculous how four white feathers can hurt a young man’s fragile ego and compel him to rebuild his character and his life. It must have been quite a revelation for Harry to learn from Abou that while his four white feathers symbolize cowardice, Abou’s white feather is a memento of the first time he killed a man. The movie stresses that like Harry, each of us has his own fears. The difference rests not on whose fear is greater but how we conquer fear. I guess the reward we get for overcoming our fear is that we learn who we are and find what we are looking for.
"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear," said Ambrose Redmoon. The yardstick for bravery is not the readiness to go to war; rather, it is about standing up for what’s right even at gunpoint. I could go on and on about things I realized about courage from Four Feathers but in the end, it always boils down to the fact that "it’s not bravery if you’re not scared."