/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-US: Hollywood Takes Sudan Out of Africa

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Gabriel Packard

NEW YORK, Nov 26 2002 (IPS) - It may not be possible to exclude Sudanese history altogether from a historical film set there, but ‘The Four Feathers’ comes close.

Sudan, whose name means “land of blacks”, is the largest country in Africa. But like most places in that continent, it is little known, apart from reports by the United Nations or the U.S. State Department on torture and slavery, both of which are reported to be a major problem there.

This latest Hollywood blockbuster set in Africa will do little to increase viewers’ knowledge of the place. The Four Feathers, the seventh film incarnation of A.E.W. Mason’s 1902 novel, has been greeted with lukewarm reviews and cries of “Nice combat scenes, shame about the politics”.

Shekhar Kapur, the director of this year’s re-make, is an Indian, so his reverence for the British Empire came as a surprise to many.

OK, the movie does offer treats for the eye. Oscar-winning cinematographer Robert Richardson clearly earned his keep, especially with a masterful set-piece battle scene.

But on the whole, The Four Feathers, like most movies, doles out a meagre ration of food for thought.

The film is set in 1884, a time when “a quarter of the earth lies under the British Empire”, as the opening title card tells us. The plot follows officer Harry Feversham (played by Heath Ledger), his best friend, Jack Durrance (Wes Bentley) and their unit in Queen Victoria’s army, a self-proclaimed agent of God and Empire.

After the obligatory love-triangle is set up (Harry is engaged to Ethne, but Jack secretly loves her too), the troop is ordered to leave for its maiden mission. They are to fight in Sudan, where General Charles “Chinese” Gordon is trying vainly to hold Khartoum against the uprising of the Mahdi, a fundamentalist Muslim leader.

The other boys are jubilant at the prospect of going to give Johnny Foreigner a good hiding. But Harry, who has been pressured by his family into joining the army, doesn’t want to fight and resigns his commission. For his perceived cowardice, three of his army pals and Ethne each send him a white feather, the ultimate condemnation for a man who will not fight for Queen and Country.

In response, Harry embarks on a wholly unconvincing escapade. He heads to Sudan and disguises himself as a native northern Sudanese Arab. (The film keeps pretty quiet about southern Sudan, which is populated by blacks.)

The plot marches on, and Harry, still in disguise, catches up with his former troop and launches a series of devilishly daring, undercover attempts to save his old chums from the incipient carnage, at the same time hoping to prove that he isn’t a coward.

Harry is assisted in his adventures by the only major black character in the film, a former African slave named Abou (Dijimon Hounsou), who before latching onto Harry, somehow managed to pick up a North London accent.

The only thing the film tells us about the British occupation of Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, is that the troops and their masters believed they were doing God’s work in civilising the heathen masses.

The film does probe this idea superficially, in a scene juxtaposing the two sides praying before battle – emphasising that both armies believed they were acting on behalf of God, truth and justice.

But disappointingly, the plot steers clear of mentioning what the British actually were doing in Sudan in the first place, and avoids addressing the less holy reasons why it would have been useful to crush the Mahdi. Like, for instance, Egypt’s recently completed Suez Canal, which was of crucial importance to British trading and would be threatened by the Mahdi’s dervish hoards.

Of course, this is a feature film and not a historical documentary. We need a love interest, and we are supposed to sympathise with the hero. That much we can allow the director. But what is difficult to stomach is the way he laces his film with what looks like an endorsement of the Imperial way of life.

Not only does Kapur avoid tackling the historical issues of colonial Sudan, he also sits daintily at the sideline and cheers coyly for the favourite team.

A long sequence at the opening of the second act, for example, seems carefully designed to assure us that the British soldiers are all jolly good blokes.

This is the first time we see our boys on duty in Sudan. A lone native sniper takes pot shots at the British soldiers, who then pursue and surround him. He is given multiple opportunities to surrender, and the commanding officer repeatedly orders his men to hold their fire.

Only after all of these warnings (in English and native translation), and only after the sniper loads his rifle and takes aim, does the officer shoot him down. The sniper was aiming at the officer, so the killing is purely an act of self-defence.

How thoroughly decent.

What confirms this film as a celebration of the Empire, though, is its central character. By the end, Harry has experienced first hand the torments and beatings that the natives suffer at the hands of the British. His life has been saved on numerous occasions by the black Abou, who is the most selfless and humane figure in the whole film.

But does this teach Harry anything? Does he have an increased empathy for black people? Does he show any hint of increased insight into the situation of other races? Nope. Having exonerated himself by posing as a native to save his buddies, he just returns to his former position in the society that had mistreated him while in disguise.

If we can set aside this rickety ideological framework, The Four Feathers is actually an enjoyable adventure film. What Kapur does well is give the epic-movie consuming public what it pays for: battles, scenery and daring-do.

The main objective of a Hollywood movie, of course, is to make money, not to give a historically accurate picture of events. But for Africa, which outside Hollywood and news reports of famine and war gets very limited media exposure in the West, the effect is to strengthen negative stereotypes. (END/IPS/NA/AE/CR/GP/ML/02)