clanciai
It's impossible to make a bad film out of this story, and that is one of the reasons it has been filmed so many times. Since each version is good in its own way, it's also interesting to compare them with each other. The 1939 version is still the most spectacular and impressing but also the most superficial. The Beau Bridges version as Harry Fasversham is the weakest one, but for Robert Powell as Jack Durrance, who is always the most interesting character, and all depends on how he is acted. In this version Durrance is played by Laurence Harvey, who is always unmatchable. He is therefore the main attraction here, and he certainly makes the whole film interesting, no matter what advantages to it you find in the other versions. Here you also find a deeper pathos than in the other versions, and the scenery from the Nile transcends all the others.The most interesting detail is the conscience issue. Harry Faversham turns a conscientious objector (20 years before the first world war) and gets labelled as a coward by his soldier friends. He feels they are right in their way and that he has to prove them wrong, whereupon he sets out on the most impossible thinkable enterprise, masking himself as a mute Arab slave to reach his friends in the Sudan to save their lives from certain death when necessary. But he can't save Durrance from his blindness.His only friend at home, Dr. Sutton (Geoffrey Keen) plays an important role here and makes a memorable character. All the finest and most sensitive scenes are with him and Laurence Harvey. This version also gives the finest music of the four, by Benjamin Frankel. Also Christopher Lee has a small part, and James Robertson Justice adds to the flamboyance.It's a remake of the 1939 version but better, but the best version is the so far latest one: the Shekhar Kapur version of 2002 with Heath Ledger, and Wes Bentley as Jack Durrance.
jakob13
In our times of seemingly endless war against ISIS and the collapse of the left over scars of European colonialism, and the big game of influence among foreign and regional powers, here's a tonic to brace up sagging spirits and wash away the feeling of gloom and doom and impotence to do anything against Islamic terrorism. 'Storm over the Nile' is a film for you then. A credible remake of 'Four Feathers', it has all the dash and stiff upper lip of those who won wars on the playing fields of Eton, perhaps. We are in the Anglo Egyptian time of the Mahdi the secret imam who has claimed the mantle of the prophet in the Sudan. Already his forces fired up by the tenets of militant Islam had beheaded 'Chinese' Gordon, the British general sent in not by the UK but by Egypt to blunt the Mahdi's thrust and destroy his hold in an age of expanding European land grab in Africa. But he didn't count on Lord Kitchner and the British army and here with Harry Fathersham, receipt of a white feather for cowardice. The film is shot in brilliant color with long and close shots. The costumes are lavish in military and upper class garb. You will see a parade of British stars mostly long forgotten but in the UK and the Commonwealth: Anthony Steele, Maria Ure, Laurence Harvey, James Robertson Justice, Ian Carmichael and Christopher Lee. The atmospherics are there, too. Will you tremble with excitement as the black flag of fundamentalism is lowered and the Union Jack raised/ In any case, it less than two hours of mindless and feel good entertainment.
Steve Riley
In addition to the re-use of old stock footage there was an error in the scenes after he returned his blind companion to the camp. They showed a troop flying a flag that was no longer used after 1867 and this event was set in 1898. The flag shown was a crescent with 1 star, this may have been either the Ottoman Egypt or the Egyptian Eyalet. The subsequent flag, Mohammed Ali, not the boxer, was 3 crescents each with 1 star and was used from 1881 until 1914, by the Khedivate, from 1914 until 1922 it was also used by the Sultanate of Egypt. After 1922 the green flag with 1 crescent and 1 star was used by the Kingdom of Egypt. There was no separate flag of Sudan until independence, from Egypt and Britain, in 1956.
Theo Robertson
One Sunday afternoon in 1982 BBC 1 broadcast STORM OVER THE NILE . Nothing remarkable in itself with this scheduling but later that evening the ITV channel broadcast THE FOUR FEATHERS remake from the late 1970s ! Two different versions of the same story broadcast a few hours within each other on the two network channels ! Amazing , and not something that was unnoticed since myself and several school colleagues remarked upon this the next day . We were all in unanimous agreement that STORM OVER THE NILE was the much superior movie . Strangely over the years every time Terence Young's version is broadcast the TV guides don't have kind words for the 1955 film version of AEW Mason's story and after seeing the original 1939 version of THE FOUR FEATHERS I understand why - It's a rip off ! In the past I have criticised movies like CRITICAL MASS and RANGERS that use extensive film footage from other movies like TERMINATOR 2 and NAVY SEALS . With STORM we see the exact same thing . The truly great battle scenes weren't directed by Young they were directed by Zoltan Korda almost 20 years earlier . To be fair I don't think the producers are claiming that this is an entirely original movie hence the credit for both Korda and Young in the directors slot but I did see the 1939 version a week earlier on channel 4 and this spoils the enjoyment of STORM since the script is identical as are most of the action scenes . If you've never seen the original you'll like this movie but if you remember the unforgettable 1939 version by the Korda brothers you'll be left with a cynical feeling watching this
AD
