Film, TV, and Theatrical Adaptations
This novel's story has been filmed several times with all films retaining much of the same storyline. For example, the celebrated 1939 cinematic version, produced by Alexander Korda and Ralph Richardson its chief star, begins just after the death of Gordon in 1885 and most of its action takes place over a three-year period between 1895 and 1898, with its climax the Battle of Omdurman when British soldiers wore khaki uniforms.
The 2002 version with Heath Ledger takes place during the 1884-1885 campaign, when some British still wore red coats and when some of the novel's action occurs, and features the Battle of Abu Klea, January 17, 1885, fought by the Desert Column that included the Camel Corps dressed in grey jackets and khaki trousers, but not in red coats. While the square was briefly broken, unlike the film version, the British won the battle, but their advance was delayed. The battle is more accurately treated in the movie Khartoum (1966). In the 1929 silent version of The Four Feathers, a square of Highlanders is broken, but saved by Feversham and the Egyptian garrison of a besieged fort. Set in the 1880s, its great moment comes when wild hippos in a river attack the Dervishes pursuing Feversham. The many versions also differ in the racial ethnicity of the local Sudanese guide, Abou Fatma, who assists young Feversham in his desert adventure. For instance, this local guide is an Arab man in the 1977 version while he is a Black man in the 2002 version.
The enemy forces, Islamic rebels called Dervishes, of The Mahdi, are the same, as are the geographic settings, England, Egypt and the Sudan).
The films also feature a British square broken, only mentioned in the novel in a battle in which the square recovered. The various film versions differ in the precise historical context.
The various film versions are as follows:
| Year | Title | Country | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1915 | Four Feathers | USA | J. Searle Dawley | Black-and-white, silent |
| 1921 | The Four Feathers | UK | René Plaissetty | Roger Livesey appeared in a minor role. Black-and-white, silent. |
| 1929 | The Four Feathers | USA | Merian C. Cooper Lothar Mendes Ernest B. Schoedsack |
Richard Arlen, Fay Wray, Clive Brook. |
| 1939 | The Four Feathers | UK | Zoltan Korda | Starring Ralph Richardson, John Clements, C. Aubrey Smith, June Duprez. Considered by many to have been the best of the film versions, this was lavishly filmed in colour on many of the real African locations. |
| 1955 | Storm Over the Nile | UK | Terence Young, Zoltan Korda | Starring Anthony Steel, James Robertson Justice, Ian Carmichael, Ronald Lewis, Michael Hordern. A low-budget color remake, using much of the location footage shot for the 1939 version of The Four Feathers, and exactly the same script - one of the few instances in which this was done. |
| 1977 | The Four Feathers | UK | Don Sharp | Starring Robert Powell, Simon Ward, Beau Bridges, and Jane Seymour. Completely remade for a new generation (though several scenes have been inserted from the 1939 version (e.g. the troops boarding the train in London, a panorama featuring dhows on the Nile, the British army on parade) with a great deal of skill so that the lifting of these excerpts is far from obvious to those who have not seen the 1939 version), the classic tale retains its imperial stiff upper lip and Boys Own style of adventure heroics. |
| 2002 | The Four Feathers | USA | Shekhar Kapur | Starring Heath Ledger, Wes Bentley, and Kate Hudson. Made by an Indian director, this version takes a revisionist stance on the original novel's themes of masculinity, empire and the clash of Western and Islamic civilisations. Unlike previous versions, this version centres its big battle scene on the 1885 Battle of Abu Klea (thirteen years before Omdurman), when British soldiers were still wearing red uniforms in the desert (although actually they already wore khaki) and the famous British square formation was supposedly broken for the first time. Oddly, in this film the British lose the battle of Abu Klea while in reality they won. |
Read more about this topic: The Four Feathers
Famous quotes containing the word theatrical:
“Be reflective ... and stay away from the theater as much as you can. Stay out of the theatrical world, out of its petty interests, its inbreeding tendencies, its stifling atmosphere, its corroding influence. Once become “theatricalized,” and you are lost, my friend; you are lost.”
—Minnie Maddern Fiske (1865–1932)