Years ago, I saw an episode of SEINFELD in which Elaine described this movie as a colossal bore that seemed to go on forever (though less than 3 hours long, it did seem to go on for an eternity). I should have taken her advice and avoided this movie like the plague. The first tip-off that it would be a bore-fest was that it had won so many academy awards. In recent years, several amazingly dull films have been the recipient of arm loads of awards but were box office poison because the public couldn't stand them (another example of this would the the sterile LAST EMPEROR).
My wife and I were amazed at how much we disliked the film. The "love" affair between the leads was completely unbelievable and stupid. One minute, they hate each other and the next they are copulating like crazed weasels! And, to top this off, these were perhaps the ugliest stars ever seen naked on the screen. I kept wanting to shout "put it BACK on--PLEASE". In fact, they were such an unappealing couple that I strongly recommend parents send their teenagers to watch this film. The sight of their naked bodies is perhaps the strongest enticement towards abstinence known to mankind!
However, the ugliness of the film doesn't end there. Towards the end, in order to try to save his lover's life, the male lead makes a deal to help the Nazis....yes, Nazis!!! Who cares that they were trying to take over the world and liquidate a few million?! All his character cared about was his sweetie. Oh, and did I mention that along the way they ended up killing her husband? Nothing says romance like this film!!
The English Patient
1996
Action / Drama / Romance / War
The English Patient
1996
Action / Drama / Romance / War
Keywords: world war iidesertairplaneamnesiaegypt
Plot summary
October 1944 in war torn Italy. Hana (Juliette Binoche),a French-Canadian nurse working in a mobile army medical unit, feels like everything she loves in life dies on her. Because of the difficulty traveling and the dangers, especially as the landscape is still heavily booby-trapped with mines, Hana volunteers to stay behind at a church to care solely for a dying semi-amnesiac patient, who is badly burned and disfigured. She agrees to catch up to the rest of the unit after he dies. All the patient remembers is that he is English, and that he is married. Their solitude is disrupted with the arrival at the church of fellow Canadian David Caravaggio (Willem Dafoe),part of the Intelligence Service, who is certain that he knows the patient as a man who cooperated with the Germans. Caravaggio believes that the patient's memory is largely intact, and that he is running away from his past, in part, or in its entirety. The patient does open up about his past, all surrounding his work as a cartographer in North Africa, which was interrupted by the war. He may not be running from his work as a spy for the Germans as Caravaggio believes, but rather the memory of an affair he had with married Katharine Clifton (Dame Kristin Scott Thomas),the love of his life, and the memory of a promise not totally fulfilled. Hana may also test her theory of her fates with love and death as she embarks on a relationship of her own with Kip Singh (Naveen Andrews),a Sikh from India, whose unit has camped on the now overgrown lawn of the church. Their work entails sweeping for and diffusing mines, the discovery of one such mine which had earlier saved her life.
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why is this film so popular?
Intensely moving and beautifully shot
I personally have never understood the backlash The English Patient gets. I can understand why it might try someone's patience, as the pace is very slow and perhaps purposefully so and the film is very long at over two-and-a-half hours, but I do think it is unfair that there are those who consider one of the worst Best Picture winners(I personally think Crash, Cimarron, Braveheart and The Hurt Locker are worse, I have never understood the hate for Shakespeare in Love either as in my opinion that's better than the movie-Saving Private Ryan- that almost everyone says should have beat it). Fargo is a great film as well, whichever film won made no difference to me, as long as they are great movies which they are.
The English Patient may be a slow movie, with all the dates, character relationships and events unfolding at a purposefully leisurely pace, but it is also intensely moving, beautifully shot and compelling. The film looks stunning, the dessert scenes especially are reminiscent of the epic sweeping feel that Lawrence of Arabia had. The cinematography is incredibly beautiful, and the costumes and scenery are wonderfully lavish and evoke the period seamlessly. The English Patient has a truly haunting and heart-wrenching score, particularly in the end credits, complete with some fitting music choices. The film also has a poetic and thought-provoking script, a compelling story that conveys the characters' predicaments wonderfully complete with flashbacks that enhance rather than jar and superb direction by the late and very talented Anthony Minghella.
The English Patient has a strong emotional impact as well, the climatic sequence in particular moved me to tears that stayed long after the movie was over. The characters are richer and more complex than one might think, Almasy especially is very haunted and pained, and dealt with in an incredibly subtle way. The acting does perfect justice to these characters, Ralph Fiennes is absolutely brilliant in one of his best and more complex performances(I'd say only Schindler's List is better),and Kristen Scott Thomas shows a great chemistry with him, the scene where she is carried out of the cave by him is one of extreme pathos. Juliette Binoche is equally affecting, and Willem Dafoe and Kevin Whately are as strong as ever.
All in all, a moving and beautiful film, cinematically and emotionally. 9/10 Bethany Cox
Pressure sores?
I saw this at the cinema. It seemed to go on and on and I'm sure I got pressure sores as a result. It soured me on Fiennes and Scott Thomas for life, so earnest are they, so unrecognisable to ordinary people. The historical trappings and backdrop is fine but the highbrow nature of the production feels false and artificial to me.