The Four Feathers

The Four Feathers (2002) is Shekhar Kapur's sweeping period drama, ready to watch online on iFILM. In 1884, British officer Harry Faversham resigns his commission just as his regiment ships out to fight the Mahdi in Sudan.

Everyone reads it as cowardice. His fiancee Ethne (Kate Hudson) and three fellow officers each send him a white feather to mark the shame. Heath Ledger plays Harry, and instead of arguing he slips into the desert alone, passes himself off as an Arab, and sets out to drag those same friends back from the brink. A wary guide named Abou Fatma (Djimon Hounsou) becomes the one man who keeps him alive. Wes Bentley rounds out the triangle as the friend who loves Ethne too.

Kapur turns A.E.W. Mason's much-filmed novel into a study of honor, guilt and an empire's ugly war, swinging between thundering dune battles and quiet heartbreak. This take is remembered for its desert heat and a young Ledger holding the screen. Stream The Four Feathers (2002) online on iFILM.