Viewed on 08 Jul 03   British film makers have long excelled in, and have a well established tradition of movies which tell of exceptional moral character, strength and/or endurance of one individual when confronted with overwhelming adversity.   Examples such as The English Patient, and The Loneliness of a Long Distance Runner and Lawrence of Arabia come to mind.    One earlier such film was Zoltan Korda's 1939 classic The Four Feathers, from the Mason book of the same name.    The currently screening THE FOUR FEATHERS is the latest film adaptation of that book, however Director Shekhar Kapur breaks with this long and well established British tradition by not excelling in anything.    The outraged corpse of Zoltan Korda trashes wildly in his grave tonight.
        The weak links in THE FOUR FEATHERS are not in the time-tested story of a coward redeeming himself, but rather with everything else.    The cinematography swung from brilliant, as in the slave labor camp scenes, to what will go down in history as Hollywood's most bothersome "Shaky Hand-Cam" ever to miss the editors' scissors.    The acting was almost on a par with afternoon soap-opera, but not quite.   We unsuspecting viewers were bombarded with exaggerated emotional responses and facial expressions - it was almost as though Director Kapur were afraid we might not otherwise "get it"...    I do not exaggerate - all male leads had at least one crying scene.  One immediately begins to suspect Director Kapur again.   On closer inspection of his credentials, we find he was a failed actor who turned to producing in Bollywood.    That's not a misprint -Bollywood - as in India.   This explains volumes.    Really, Producer Stanley 'Fatal Attraction' Jaffe should have known better.    One safely concludes that both Indians and afternoon soap-opera addicts will like this film.    One also safely concludes that ONLY Indians and afternoon soap-opera addicts will.
        Enduring Line or Phrase:  "..the man on our right   ...the man on our left..."


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