The Four Feathers

My first introduction to Heath Ledger was in 1997 when he starred in a series called Roar.  Well, me being a teenager, I became obsessed and consequently watched everything I could with him in it until his death, even though some of his stuff certainly lacked in many areas (ie. The Brothers Grimm-very lame despite Matt Damon's co-starring). 

 

In any case, this obsession led me to watch the Four Feathers.  It's based on a book you know, which happens to be way better than the movie. It is by A.E.W. Mason and was first written in 1902.  The introduction includes a fabulous description.  The Four Feathers "has been called one of the greatest war stories ever published.  Those readers, however, who come to the novel by way of director Zoltan Korda's spectacular 1939 motion picture might be somewhat surprised by what they find.  Certainly, war is a crucial part of Mason's plot.  The Anglo-Sudanese conflict provides the motivation for Harry Feversham's decision not to fight and his subsequent, redemptive acts of heroism as a free-agent soldier of misfortune in the Sudan.  But the reader sees few scenes of actual military conflict.  No great battles spill across the pages of the novel, as they do in the Korda film.  No defensive squares fire in formation against the howling hordes of whirling dervishes.  No bodies of fallen soldiers litter the desert." 

I found that after watching the movie (2002) that it was exactly as this Introduction author (Gary Hoppenstand) described, even though he was describing the 1939 film.  There was actually a defensive square in the 2002 version too!  I fully expected the text to be full of war, and it was not and it was wonderful.  One thing I liked very much about the book was that it was written in educated English and was not full of slang that I can't understand (as is often the case in British teen novels, though this is, by no means, a British teen novel).  I loved the way it was written; while focusing on Harry Feversham, his story was actually told mostly by others.  I highly recommend it!