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The Four Feathers (2002)

tomatometer

41

Average Rating: 5.4/10
Reviews Counted: 150
Fresh: 62 | Rotten: 88

Though beautiful to look at, The Four Feathers lacks epic excitement and suffers from an ambivalent viewpoint.

41

Average Rating: 5.6/10
Critic Reviews: 32
Fresh: 13 | Rotten: 19

Though beautiful to look at, The Four Feathers lacks epic excitement and suffers from an ambivalent viewpoint.

audience

64

liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 36,969

My Rating

Movie Info

A.E.W. Mason's perennially popular tale of honor and adventure is brought to the screen yet again in this lavish period action-drama. In 1884, Harry Feversham (Heath Ledger) is a young officer-in-training in the British Army who is soon to graduate and is expected to be shipped of to the Sudan, where the King's military are battling Muslim insurgents who are attempting to overturn English colonial rule. Feversham, however, has developed serious ethical reservations about going along, and on the

PG-13, 2 hr. 5 min.

Drama, Action & Adventure

Hossein Amini, Michael Schiffer

Feb 18, 2003

$18.2M

Paramount Pictures

Cast

All Critics (163) | Top Critics (34) | Fresh (63) | Rotten (89) | DVD (22)

Kapur weighs down the tale with bogus profundities.

September 26, 2002 Comment
Rolling Stone
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Ledger does a great job in the action sequences and the more tender scenes.

September 23, 2002 Full Review Source: Ebert & Roeper | Comment
Ebert & Roeper
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It's a pretty compelling yarn, not to mention full of pretty pictures, and yet it could be so much more than that.

September 20, 2002 Comment
Washington Post
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A movie that lacks the jingoistic bravura of earlier editions ... but hasn't replaced it with meaningful historical revisionism appropriate to our post-colonial age.

September 20, 2002 Comment
Washington Post
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What's missing, crucially, is the passion required to make this unlikely tale work.

September 20, 2002 Full Review Source: Toronto Star | Comment
Toronto Star
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A spectacular-looking film, but its ambivalent story and viewpoint ultimately drag it down.

September 20, 2002 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | Comment
San Francisco Chronicle
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A decent film with some intense battle violence.

December 28, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

The Sahara desert, gorgeously photographed by Robert Richardson, displays the most personality in the entire picture.

December 28, 2008 Full Review Source: TheMovieReport.com | Comment
TheMovieReport.com

It's cold, misguided, confusing, illiterate, boring, badly acted and flat-out laughable.

January 24, 2008 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | Comments (2)
Combustible Celluloid

In this epic sweep from dusty, bloodied dunes to dainty British drawing rooms, little light is shed on wars, and what can be done about them.

June 1, 2007 Full Review | Comment
Long Island Press

Michael Schiffe and Hossein Amini's screenplay adaptation (is) as full of holes as the tracks of a camel herd. [published 9-19-02]

February 18, 2006 Full Review | Comment

Ultimately, The Four Feathers is nothing more than a handsomely mounted escapist action flick.

June 26, 2003 Full Review | Comment
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Four Feathers

Barring the lame and predictable love story, this movie was pretty great. Unique plot, as well as the always super badass Djimon Hounsou. In this one he plays a desert comando covered in white powder with neato hair and decor. In fact, I wish he had been the main focus. But alas, Heath Ledger was ok as well, as was

October 1, 2007
puffchunk
Curtis Lilly

Super Reviewer

I've actually always found this to be a good movie. Even though it is constantly bashed by critics, I think it's a beautiful story. It's not perfect, but it's not bad by any means. The acting was good and the scope of the film was as broad as an epic.

January 10, 2010
ythelastman89

Super Reviewer

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