Welcome to the British Empire at the turn of the century. Meet a group of jolly lads who are about to be shipped off to the Sudan to fight for queen and country. Say hello to Lieutenant Harry Faversham (Heath Ledger). He's a chicken--in the cowardly sense, not the egg-laying, feathered sense--and when he resigns his commission with the British army on the eve of his regiment's departure for the Sudan, his friends and fiancée give him four white feathers to tell him they know he's a coward.…

Nice touch opening this period epic with a football game featuring Heath Ledger and a cast of studs going at it as if they were in training for Super Bowl 2003. But director Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth) can't con us for long. The game is rugby, the actors are playing British officers, and The Four Feathers, based on A.E.W. Mason's 1902 novel, is focused on the 1884 British campaign to grab a piece of northern Africa.

Ledger gives his all to the role of Harry Feversham, the general's son who…