A friend of mine is fond of saying the title of this movie describes it perfectly: it’s in English … and you have to be very, very patient. Can’t argue with that, and it’s funny, too. The English Patient takes plenty of time to pay off. A hundred minutes of slow, methodic setup before the plot kicks into high gear for the final hour. It winds up being worth it, but yeah … you have to be very, very patient.
Don’t get me wrong; it’s a haunting, emotional story, and it’s well told in the end. Ralph Fiennes stars as a mysterious man, burned beyond recognition when he is pulled from the wreckage of an airplane in the desert. These are the last days of World War II, and he’s unable to remember his name or what happened to him. The man, known only as “the English patient,” is then transported to the Italian countryside where he is looked after in a bombed-out monastery by a French-Canadian nurse named Hana (Oscar-winner Juliette Binoche). Hana feels she is cursed, and that anyone she grows fond of or cares about dies, so who better to care for a dying man?
Soon after, they are joined by a young Sikh solider named Kip (Naveen Andrews), who is posted in the area and spends much of his time disarming bombs and sweeping minefields. He discovers a live detonator attached to a damaged piano that Hana plays in their abandoned sanctuary. Then David Caravaggio (Willem Dafoe) shows up—an intelligence officer from Canada with a hidden past of his own—and he recognizes their “English” patient right away. We learn in time that he’s not English at all, but Hungarian. Count László de Almásy is his name, a cartographer tasked in the late 1930s with mapping out the Sahara Desert. His ill-fated romance is revealed in a gradual series of extended flashbacks.
László’s upper-class expedition team includes the British couple Geoffrey and Katharine Clifton (Colin Firth and Kristin Scott Thomas). Geoffrey is affable but absent most of the time, allowing László and Katharine to get to know each other. Following an awkward start, tensions mount between them, but their chemistry is undeniable. Fiennes and Scott Thomas have never looked more beautiful on screen, and their mismatched characters soon engage in a torrid affair.
This is all well and good, if not entirely engrossing. Then, at long last, the story comes alive when Geoffrey discovers the infidelity and, in a botched murder-suicide, tries to navigate his plane with his wife on board directly into László, who stands alone on the dunes. The skidding aircraft makes for a shocking visual that drives the plot forward. Geoffrey dies in the crash, and Katherine is critically injured. László carries her into the Cave of Swimmers nearby, where he promises he’ll return to her. After their passionate goodbye, he leaves to get help, thus setting off his three-day journey, on foot, across the desert.
Half crazed from thirst and heat, he encounters British soldiers in El Tag, but when they learn his name, it’s assumed that he’s a Nazi spy. László is detained and transported to prison by train, but he escapes en route and is rescued by German officers this time. They bring him to his friend’s captured airplane, and the Nazis agree to let László have it in exchange for his survey maps of the Sahara Desert, enabling him to fly back and rescue Katharine.
By the time he reaches the cave, however, he discovers that Katharine has died. Overcome with grief, he carries her lifeless body to the airplane and takes off. This brings us full-circle to the opening sequence of the film, where László and a deceased Katharine are gunned down mid-flight. László is pulled from the flaming fuselage by several Bedouins. Eventually, he is taken to Italy and placed in Hana’s care. Knowing the truth of his sad tale, Hana is shocked when László indicates, by pushing several extra vials of morphine in her direction, that he wants her to help him end his life. It’s a powerful scene with little to no dialogue. We see her struggle then proceed to assist him as she fights her emotions.
The English Patient pays off in the end, and I’m left haunted by these tragic events from the last hour. If you make it through the “desert” of the first 100 minutes, you’ll be rewarded with an indelible conclusion. I suspect enough Academy members had the same impression when it came time to fill out their ballots.
The English Patient
Director | Anthony Minghella |
Primary Cast | Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Kristin Scott Thomas, Naveen Andrews, Colin Firth, Jürgen Prochnow, Kevin Whately, Clive Merrison, Nino Castelnuovo |
Familiar Faces | Ralph Fiennes from Schindler’s List, Willem Dafoe from Platoon |
Firsts | First digitally edited film to receive the Oscar for Best Editing |
Total Wins | 9 (Picture, Director, Supporting Actress: Juliette Binoche, Cinematography, Art Direction, Costume Design, Editing, Sound, Score: Dramatic) |
Total Nominations | 12 (Picture, Director, Actor: Ralph Fiennes, Actress: Kristin Scott Thomas, Supporting Actress: Juliette Binoche, Screenplay: Adapted, Cinematography, Art Direction, Costume Design, Editing, Sound, Score: Dramatic) |
Viewing Format | Blu-ray Disc |