Product Description
The English Patient (1996)(#ad)
Plot
The movie starts at the end of the Allies’ Italian Campaign during World War II. A French-Canadian nurse named Hanna is working in an Italian monastery is a caregiver for a badly burned man who speaks English but can’t recall his name.
They’re joined by a Sikh man in the British Army named Kip whose job is to defuse bombs. Meanwhile, David Caravaggio is a Canadian soldier whose thumbs were removed during a Nazi interrogation. The British patient tells the story of his past as Caravaggio questions him.
The English patient explains that in the 1930s he was tasked to explore Libya’s deserts. He was a Hungarian mapmaker who made maps for the Royal Geographical Society.
His expeditions were conducted in Egypt and Libya and the group is joined by a British couple of Geoffrey & Katherine Clifton.
The patient named Almasy ends up falling in love with Katherine and includes her in the writings of his book. He has a love affair with her that Katherine later ends.
Geoffrey finds out about the affair and attempts a murder-suicide when Almasy is packing up the base camp. Katherine is severely injured during the crash. Almasy takes her to a cave then starts a 3-day walk to find medical help.
He flies the plane of his colleague Maddox back to the cave after giving his maps to the Germans in exchange for gasoline. When Almasy returns Katherine has died.
While flying away with Katherine’s body his plane is shot down by Nazi aircraft guns. He’s burned badly and a Bedouin then rescues him.
This is one of the various free movies online you can pick if you want to watch a free movie via the Internet.
Background
Anthony Minghella was a candidate for directing the movie after his film “Truly, Madly, Deeply” (1990). Michael Ondaatje was the Sri Lankan-Canadian author of the novel of the same name who worked with the filmmakers.
The director reported that the 20th Century Fox wanted big actors for the movie as a form of insurance. For example, they recommended casting Demi Moore in the movie. However, when Miramax Films took over the project the director’s wish for Scott Thomas to be cast in the film was accepted.
The Amazon prime video was filmed in Tunisia and Italy and the production budget was about $31 million. There were 2 kinds of biplanes used to film the movie. Meanwhile, the camp crash scene including a ½-size scale model.
Review
“The English Patient” is a long and complex movie that’s an adaptation of the novel of the same name. It’s set in pre-WW2 North Africa and towards the end of fighting in Italy. The movie focuses on the lives of several characters.
There are several themes in the story including loyalty, betrayal, passion, and healing. Ondaatje’s book won the Booker Prize (1992) and was likely one of the most difficult books in 1990 to bring to the big screen.
The producer carefully brought together various artistic elements in order to give the movie appeal to a wide audience.
However, it could be argued the adultery has focused on melodrama since the romance was made relatively restrained in terms of emotions.
It’s somewhat ironic that the story is quite cerebral even though the characters are experiencing the tragic historical events of WW2.
The movie includes several interesting flashbacks that reveal the odd yet tragic story of Almasy. It turns out that the “English” patient is actually Hungarian and was based in Cairo in the late 1930s.
When Almasy and Katherine meet they first fight their attraction to each other. However, they’re later stranded in the deserted that makes their romance reckless.
The writer/director Minghella has put the romance between Almasy and Katherine more at the center of the movie in order to make the movie more emotional.
This would normally be a good option. However, due to Almasy being very reticent it makes him a mystery but also makes it difficult for him to connect with an audience as the movie’s romantic lead.
The result is that Almasy is motivated yet has difficulty sharing his heart. The result is that the focus of the movie seems to study a complex life/romance instead of sharing it.
Meanwhile, Katherine is more outgoing than Almasy. Scott Thomas represents a direct character and bold woman whose personality causes some problems.
The main problems in terms of character development take place in the Italian region. In the novel, the Hana character is more haunted than in the movie.
Meanwhile, Caravaggio isn’t a very complex character as an angry thief and is basically one-dimensional. However, one of the main problems in terms of characterization is Kip. He’s a much more interesting and complex character in the novel.
The movie includes many exotic and interesting backgrounds. This helps to improve the movie through the different filming locations. The movie is quite long.
One issue is the motivations of the characters are more direct in the movie than they were in the novel. There can be a debate about whether or not this was the best option.
The goal was to make the film clearer. However, the story is somewhat obscured by the hearts of the characters being hard to access.
Reception
“The English Patient” won 9 Academy Awards and was nominated for 12. It also won 2 Golden Globe Awards and was nominated for 7.
The movie has an 84% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based a total 75 reviews. It also received an 87% rating on Metacritic.
If you want to download full movies this is definitely one of the best options. The movie received mostly positive reviews from critics and did very well at the box office. It’s still an excellent title to pick two decades after it's theatrical release.
