BEFORE: We're getting down to it now, just four films left to watch after today's movie - then I'll have to kind of kick into high gear and get my 2023 wrap-up post written, double-check the count on every actor and non-actor's number of appearances, and then figure out what I'm going to watch in January, and all that takes time. Fortunately I'm looking at a lot of downtime coming, because I won't be working much past December 20, since the movie theater is on a college campus that mostly closes down for winter break.
But before that, I'm working pretty solidly on guild screenings, like "Napoleon" and "Saltburn" and "Maestro" and FX screenings like "Godzilla Minus One" and "The Boy and the Heron". Note that I don't really get to WATCH any of these films, but that's OK because my dance card is quite full, thanks. I'm just dumping everything on to my watchlist when I can, and once these new award-eligible films are on Netflix or AmazonPrime, I can work them into my chains. So for every movie that comes out right now, I'm saying, "Next year, next year, next year." Much like Olivia Colman's character in "Empire of Light", who worked at a movie theater but never took the time to sit in the seats and, you know, watch one.
Look, I've still got movies from 2002 to cross off the list, like this one. Michael Sheen carries over from "The Special Relationship".
THE PLOT: A young British officer resigns his commission just before his regiment is sent to battle and soon receives four white feathers from his friends and fiancée as symbols of what they view as his cowardice.
AFTER: This story started out as a novel in 1902, and it's been made into films several times, but I have a feeling that this most recent version is the most subversive. I'm guessing that back in 1902 this concept of "colonialism" wasn't viewed as that much of a bad thing. Basically the U.K. and France kept invading African countries and taking over, exploiting their resources and stealing whatever art and treasures they found, but at the same time they were supposedly "modernizing" these savage countries. You know, the white man was always there to help, right? But fast-forward 100 years exactly, and people suddenly have a different view of the colonizers, considering them oppressors and art thieves. Well, sure, but it's not polite to point out other people's foibles, right?
Also, war was vastly different back then, since it was fought on horseback mostly. And it was assumed that most men of a certain age would serve their country as soldiers and be willing to die for the glory of the British Empire, or the French emperor or whatever. These days, not so much - being a soldier is still a valid career choice, but it's mostly the poorer classes enlisting, except for a few British princes who serve in the military symbolically. And back then in 1902 probably the worst thing anybody could be called would be a coward. A very live coward who didn't die in war, but still a coward.
So here Harry Faversham, a young British officer, son of a colonel, gets engaged and then learns soon after that his unit may be called up for a rescue mission in Sudan, he does what he thinks is right, he resigns his post so that his soon-to-be-wife won't become a widow. But he then receives four white feathers in a letter, three from his friends and one from his fiancée, which was their roundabout way of telling him that he was a lousy coward. I guess his fiancée was really counting on getting his death benefits after he served, but then it seems she really didn't want to be with him, after all. Or she fell in love with a soldier who would die for his country, and then really wasn't interested in a non-soldier who wouldn't.
So, finding himself without his friends and without his love, also without a job or purpose, Harry does the unthinkable, he heads off into the Sudan alone, disguises himself as an Arab person and heads toward the British garrison in Africa, where his former unit is stationed and, whaddaya know, not having an easy time winning over the locals. Harry forms a partnership with a mercenary, Abou Fatma, and he sends Fatma to warn the U.K. soldiers that they're about to be attacked. They'd fallen for a trap, their enemy left a bunch of dead British soldiers lying around the desert, and the Brits of course stopped to bury their countrymen, which halted their progress and also left them vulnerable to attack. Silly Brits, but then they didn't want to heed the warning, either, and treated Fatma as a spy.
The Brits get attacked by rebels with spears and rifles, and end up in a defensive square, surrounded by enemies. When all seems lost it appears that the British cavalry is arriving, but nope, it's just more Sudanese enemies disguised as British troops. But hidden among them is Harry, come to save as many of his friends as he can. Yeah, it doesn't go well. One friend ends up dead and Jack, Harry's best friend, is blinded when his rifle misfires. After the battle Harry stays with the blinded Jack and protects him until he can be rescued and sent back to England, but he doesn't reveal himself.
Harry learns that his third friend, Trench, has been sent to the Mahdi prison called Omdurman, so of course Harry allows hiimself to be captured and sent to that prison, so he can try to help Trench escape. Yeah, this doesn't go well either, they have to work in a labor camp and fight for scraps of food, and their only hope is to take a poison that will allow them to fake their deaths, and then hopefully get revived after their bodies are removed from the prison. Meanwhile, Jack is back in England, trying to marry Harry's ex-fiancée, Ethne.
Amazingly, the plan to fake their own deaths works, and Harry manages to get Trench back to England, also - and then blind Jack figures out that Harry was his rescuer, and releases Ethne from her engagement. Ethne realizes that Harry has proven his bravery, so, hey, he's maybe got a chance to be happy and married at last - but man, it sure wasn't easy getting there. You have to wonder if it was worth all that effort, I mean, couldn't Harry have just accepted the coward label and moved up north or something, changed his name and become a fisherman or something? It seems that would have been a lot easier than waging a one-man war of his own and crossing a desert with no water. Just saying.
I promise you, Christmas movies are on the way. Three of the final four films for 2023 will be holiday-based, I just want to wait a few more days before starting all that. Anyway, I haven't felt very Christmas-ey just yet. Maybe I won't until I watch those movies, I don't know.
Also starring Heath Ledger (last seen in "The Patriot"), Wes Bentley (last seen in "The Game of Their Lives"), Djimon Hounsou (last seen in "Black Adam"), Kate Hudson (last seen in "The Reluctant Fundamentalist"), Rupert Penry-Jones (last seen in "The Batman"), Kris Marshall (last seen in "Easy Virtue"), Alex Jennings (last seen in "The Lady in the Van"), James Cosmo (last seen in "The Last of the Blonde Bombshells"), Angela Douglas, Tim Pigott-Smith (last seen in "Jupiter Ascending"), Lucy Gordon (last seen in "Serendipity"), James Hillier, Campbell Brown, Daniel Caltagirone (last seen in "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life"), Megan Hall, Nick Holder (last seen in "Anna Karenina"), Julio Lewis, Manar Mohamed, Nider Mohamed, Deobia Oparei (last seen in "The Gray Man"), Mohamen Mehdi Ouazanni, Mohamed Quatib, Laila Rouoass, Alek Wek (last seen in "Suspiria").
RATING: 4 out of 10 rugby fouls
