The Four Feathers (1939)

The premise and entire plot of this movie worked perfectly for me and i enjoyed watching it. I was almost brought to tears three different times while watching The Four Feathers because I was so connected to the main character. I totally identified with his struggle early on in the film, and admired his selfless turn as the full movie went on. The battle scenes were ambitious to say the least and the fact that i free downloaded the movie. Considering this is back in the day when these large scale army scenes are all real people it’s quite a sight to watch. However some of the shot selection wasn’t great because it kind of showed off the empty spots on the battlefield. And the actual fighting was a tad lackluster considering the length of some of the battle scenes.  

The makeup and hair was bad. This is back in the day when it made more sense to throw some dark makeup and a cheesy mustache on a white guy rather than casting an actual Middle Eastern actor. The beard on the main character might have been the closest to looking authentic, which was good because he’s on screen a lot. The other problem with The Four Feathers was the cast. Several of these actors delivered poor performances. I was surprised at the bad line delivery and kept thinking how this could be better with a few upgrades in the cast. It wasn’t across the board, and even the weaker ones had moments that worked. There were even times when I thought “Maybe it’s just the script making this dialogue seem so clunky.” Despite all this, the emotional journey that the story took me on covers a multitude of sins. I recognize its flaws, but they didn’t make the experience unbearable. If anything the imperfections just frustrated me because I feel like it could have been a favorite film with some tweaks. I never thought The Four Feathers was terrible and I would like to watch it again, or even check out the remake. I’ll probably even recommend it to others.