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the four feathers
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has anyone seen the original 1930's film - what it is about? can anybody lead me to a synopsis?
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British army officer who resigns his commission on the eve of his unit's embarkation to a mission against Egyptian rebels seeks to redeem his cowardice by secretly aiding his former comrades disguised as an Arab. When his unit is overwhelmed and captured by the rebels, the hero finds an opportunity to return the 'feathers' of cowardice sent to him by his former comrades by freeing them.
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They were actually Sudanese, with a mixture of Dervishes and other tribes. The so-called Fuzzy-Wuzzies were Haddendoa. The confusion with Egyptians arises because Britain annexed Egypt in the 1880s and the Sudan was at that time an Egyptian protectorate. When the Sudanese were stirred up by the Mahdi, the British stupidly sent Charles Gordon to Khartoum with orders to evacuate the Egyptian garrison. Gordon refused to abandon the rest of the Sudanese to the Madhi and the rest you know.
About 15 years later, the British finally got round to sorting out the Dervishes and sent Kitchener in with a large force. The war ended with the slaughter of the Dervish army at Omdurman, which is depicted towards most versions of the Four Feathers.
I watched it on Monday night. The plot's a bit different from the previous ones, which were set during the time of Kitchener's invasion in 1898. The Heath Ledger version is set in the original expedition to save Gordon in about 1884. It's full of historical inaccuracies, particularly the depiction of the battle of Abu Klea as a British defeat.
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