838. The Four Feathers (1939)

Starring: John Clements, Ralph Richardson, C. Aubrey Smith

Director: Zoltan Korda

Running Time: 129 mins

The Four Feathers is a British film about a man whose military heritage is heralded as one of the most prestigious, however before the British army are sent to Egypt to crush a rebellion, he resigns and is accused of cowardice. In order to restore his family’s and his own reputation, he must go undercover and find a way to aid his comrades in their time of need by making an epic journey across the desert.

Well, this is a good adventure film, with interesting characters and a simple story. It’s a lot like Lawrence Of Arabia in that way, however there are still many aspects here which don’t compare to that classic. This film is at times painfully slow-paced, and overall lacking in excitement or even a historically interesting story.

I’ll start with what I thought was the best part about this film, the characters, in particular the main character, Harry Faversham. His story is an epic one, but he’s still a totally believable character, because of his motives for undertaking this epic adventure. At the beginning, he’s not a coward, he just doesn’t want to be stationed in Egypt, which is a very easy situation to relate to, whilst he only goes on this journey to restore his family’s name, not just because he’s some sort of great hero, and I thought that that helped especially to be engrossed in the story.

Meanwhile, this is still a fantastic adventure film. Set against stunning backdrops, it’s a lot of fun to look at, whilst all of the obstacles that Faversham comes across throughout are all intriguing, although not necessarily exciting. The problem with the adventure is that it just doesn’t seem like such a hardship. Although it’s trudging and full of obstacles, Faversham doesn’t seem to have too much drama while overcoming them.

The main reason for that is the lack of really exciting action in this film. In Lawrence Of Arabia, the action scenes are fast-paced, the stakes are high, and it’s a lot of fun to watch, however her, whenever there’s a battle, it doesn’t seem that hard, and, worst of all, is incredibly slow-paced, so you can never get really deeply invested in it all.

Overall, this gets a 7.2, because despite having interesting characters and a fun adventure, its slow pacing and lack of action really affects your intrigue of the film.