The Four Feathers (1939)

(On Cable TV, April 2021) British film producer Alexander Korda was well known throughout World War II as an immigrant more British than the British-born, putting together films that sang the praises of the embattled country even when they putatively took place in other historical eras. In this context, The Four Feathers is notable for a few things, starting with an early spectacular use of colour at a time where such a process was costly and difficult to handle — especially in the harsh location shooting conditions that the filmmakers experienced in Sudan. Widely considered the best rendition of an often-adapted novel (most recently in 2002, with Heath Ledger), it’s a tale meant to stir any young man with patriotic fervour, as it shows its protagonist turning away from service, then being labelled a coward (through the titular feathers) by family and friends. The highlight of the film remains the spectacular battle sequences shot in naturalistic colour in the middle of the desert. There’s a kinship here with later films such as Zulu, unfortunately, all the way to the built-in racism and colonialism that we’re asked to espouse as self-evident:  Don’t look too close at the depictions of non-English characters. It’s by an accident of history (albeit not an unpredictable one) that The Four Feathers landed in theatre screens just as England needed a patriotism booster. It’s still, despite quite a bit of disturbingly outdated material, a decent watch.