REMAKING HISTORY 'THE FOUR FEATHERS' PUTS A CONTEMPORARY SPIN ON A CLASSIC STORY.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Writer

FOR A GOOD CHUNK of the last century, ``The Four Feathers'' was a reliable movie war horse. Filmed a half-dozen times - most memorably in 1939, on location in Egypt and Sudan, by Zoltan Korda, who also helmed the lesser, 1955 remake ``Storm Over the Nile'' - A.E.W. Mason's 1902 novel about the British colonial mind set has, in recent decades, seemed like a political anachronism at best.

Suddenly, however, the Victorian-era tale of conflicted Western soldiers in combat with far-flung fanatical Muslims has a certain contemporary ring. But the latest ``Four Feathers'' production, which comes to theaters Friday after a longer-than-usual postproduction delay and a shoot beset by sand and flood problems, was not made with the current war on terrorism in mind.

It was made to be something of an antidote to earlier, Eurocentric versions of the imperialist adventure.

``It is a great story,'' enthuses Shekhar Kapur, the film's Indian-born director who last examined the British Empire in his acclaimed, historical thriller ``Elizabeth.'' ``It's a story of cowardice and friendship and loyalty and love. It also has some great epic values that movies don't necessarily have anymore.

``But there were so many reasons to remake this film, one of which was to change it,'' Kapur adds. ``There are certain issues that audiences have become far more aware of now. There are very few people now who would say that a man should go to war to colonize another nation - not only people like me, and not just because I'm Indian. Even in the '60s version, they were calling (the Sudanese) Fuzzi Wuzzies. There was not another version, and of course the book, that didn't believe at that time that the British had the moral right to go and conquer the heathen and bring them into the fold. That had to be questioned this time.''

Set against the Mahdi's rebellion against the British incursion into Sudan during the last quarter of the 19th century, ``Four Feathers'' has traditionally focused on young members of the English officer class. Its main melodrama stems from the refusal of one of them, Harry Faversham, to ship out with his comrades to Africa when the call comes.

In most versions of the story, Harry's reluctance stems from a combination of love for his fiancee, Ethne, and, well, cowardice - the latter an unforgivable breach of the expansionist empire's etiquette. Subsequently, Harry receives three white feathers from fellow cadets and one, devastatingly, from Ethne, symbolic of their opinion that he's a lily-livered chicken. In response, Harry heads for the Sahara on his own, disguises himself as an Arab and tries - at great personal hardship - to rescue his friends when the Mahdi's ragtag army gains the upper hand.

In this new, primarily non-British version, Harry is played by Australian Heath Ledger (``A Knight's Tale,'' ``Monster's Ball'') while Ethne and Harry's best friend and rival for her affections, Jack Durrance, are played by Americans Kate Hudson and Wes Bentley, respectively. A new addition to Kapur's rendition, Abou Fatma, who befriends and aids the troubled Harry, is played by Djimon Hounsou (``Amistad,'' ``Gladiator''), hails from the sub-Saharan African nation of Benin.

One way the latest edition tries to shake off the chains of empire is by attempting to give Harry a clearer - and clearly more modern - rationalization for his initial refusal to fight.

``To me, it was like he had an identity crisis,'' Ledger, 23, reckons. ``He'd been spoon-fed his identity for nearly his whole life, from an early age. He'd grown up in a very systematic, regimented environment, with all of these expectations of what to become. Then he's confronted with the reality of this and it completely stumps him.

``All of a sudden, Harry realizes he doesn't know who he is, and it brings up all of these questions that he doesn't have the answer to,'' Ledger continues. ``And he acts upon it. Everyone calls him a coward for it, and he starts to believe it, too. But that action, that standing up for his instinct, was the most courageous thing he did. I mean, had he gone to war with those feelings, that would have been cowardly, I feel.''

Kapur had pretty much the same viewpoint.

``In all other interpretations, Harry's a coward,'' the director states. ``To me, he's a hero to admit he's afraid. If you're not stupid, you're afraid to die. Another reason to remake the film was that the issue of 'who am I' as an individual rather than as a member of a state is more important now.''

As for those other reasons: Although both the director and the actor who plays him characterize Abou Fatma as a kind of guardian angel for the confused white guy - a role black actors repeatedly find themselves playing in modern Hollywood productions - Hounsou agrees with Kapur that he at least represents a voice for the colonized that was sorely missing from earlier ``Feathers'' productions.

``I think the film does question the colonialists' motives, does question to a great degree the integrity of going to here and there, the sense that they walk too proudly on the face of the Earth,'' says Hounsou, who grew up in a former French colony. ``But we're not trying to fix what was done.

``Obviously, the film does have a different resonance now, given what is going on today,'' Hounsou continues. ``Thank God, the resonance that we wanted to capture was not of colonial rule in all parts of the world. We're talking about the integrity of a man.''

As far as Ledger is concerned, that's all the film is talking about.

``I haven't seen any previous versions,'' Ledger admits. ``But at the end of the day, the politics are such a backdrop to the story. The movie is so grand and it's such an epic adventure, but the story is so small. It's a story of human emotions and qualities, and that's it. So I surely have no opinion on that; I think it's just a backdrop.''

Even though the film, which was shot in Morocco in the spring of 2001, is coming out amid another clash between elements of the West and Islam?

``No,'' Ledger says when asked about the parallels.

You don't even think about that?

``No, I don't,'' says the star of such politically based historical films as ``The Patriot'' and an upcoming production about Australian outlaw hero Ned Kelly. ``Until you asked me, no.''

Kapur has certainly thought about it, however.

``A lot of people ask me whether I made this film after 9-11,'' says the director. ``No, I did not. But it's interesting that I'm asked this question because it means that history is alive. It's amazing to be able to relate to current events something that happened 120 years ago in a totally different country and environment. It just means that history teaches us, and we should look at it and learn from it.''

Whether the connection to current events makes his film more accessible to the young audience it's obviously aimed at seems less important to Kapur than exactly how it will color an audience's experience.

``The events of 9-11 and what is happening now will impact the perception of this film,'' he knows. ``Even a line like, 'A Mohammedan fanatic has declared jihad against the British forces in Sudan' has sent ripples through audiences. But I think that there is so much else going on in this film - the story itself has so much interpersonal resonance - and the actors are so good that they will never allow the politics to overwhelm the film.

``It's terrific to see how you can understand it and relate it to the current situation. But that's not all the film is about. It might overwhelm certain conversations, though.''

If it survived the production, it should make it through that. ``Four Feathers'' looked like the classic troubled shoot, what with desert storms (of both the sand and rain variety) washing away sets, locations and entire shooting days on a regular basis.

``We went out on an adventure to shoot an adventure,'' says Kapur, who at one point tried to get Moroccan air force helicopter pilots to groom dunes for filming by hovering low (it didn't work). ``We went out in battle shooting a battle, and that really affected us. I think everybody enjoyed the panic, enjoyed the fact that every morning when we got up we didn't know what was going to hit us.''

``There were always production problems,'' Ledger confirms. ``But I think all that chaos just added to the environment. It was so grueling out there, and my character's journey was grueling, so it just made my job easier, I think. And being amongst chaos forces you to focus because you want to do a good job.''

But even though ``Four Feathers'' boils down to a Christians vs. Muslims story, the Hindu-raised Kapur wanted to do the job, and do it well, for deeper personal reasons.

``I've discovered that I've wanted to shake the burden of colonization off my shoulders,'' the director says of the cathartic dimension of his work. ``India had just become free when I went to school, so that's very much a part of my psyche. My mother's family was very much involved in the freedom movement, so I grew up with this and I have to shake it off. With each film you do, you shake off something. When I did 'Bandit Queen,' I shook off my sense of machoism. In 'Elizabeth' and this, I certainly shook off a lot more.''

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) TUG OF WAR 

Conflicted morality, search for redemption pull HEATH LEDGER into action of `Four Feathers'

(2) Djimon Hounsou, center left, befriends Heath Ledger, center, who plays a British officer in ``The Four Feathers.'' Hounsou's character is an addition to the 100-year-old story, intended to bring balance to the tale's colonial perspective.

(3) Shekhar Kapur