The English Patient (Miramax Collector's Edition)

Rating:
Summary: My favorite movie.
Review: I can watch this movie over and over again. It is the best.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: I love this movie. In fact, it was the first movie I ever purchased (VHS) many moons ago. I first saw it in a theater with a hard-bitten accountant friend of mine (male, straight). I'm an engineer (male, straight). We are not weepy types. We were both moved very much by this movie. I don't agree at all that this is a chick-flick.

This is a movie aimed at adults. If you want: constant action, simplistic plot, black-and-white relationships, car crashes, shoot outs (OK, it does have some crashes and shooting), then you probably want to look elsewhere. Casablanca, to which this movie has been contrasted, (though a good movie) could fall into the category of propaganda: produced during WWII, everyone conformed to the main line. Real people had real lives going on during WWII.

I find that the negative reviews of this movie fall into two categories: 1) those who are (terribly) morally offended by extra-marital affairs, and 2) those that can't follow a complex plot and set of characters. If you can see beyond those issues, and you like a good, complex tragedy, you should enjoy this movie. The first type of critic needs to grow up an realize that people are more complex than black and white caricatures. John Wayne was realistic?!? The fact that both lovers die, painfully, in the end isn't enough tragic retribution for you? Some folks will never be satisfied until everyone agrees with them and conforms. For the second type of critic: best to stick with action movies.

This is a wonderful movie. The cinematography is gorgeous, music is fantastic, story is complex and compelling, the characters diverse and engaging. Everyone I know liked this movie a lot. Two love stories, plenty of tragedy and twists. Great actors and acting. The story is revealed slowly through flashbacks, it's a great dramatic device and works very well. I am a voracious reader and I have read the book as well: I prefer the movie (I can only say this about one other novel/movie: Dr. Zhivago). Like I said, everyone I know liked it very much. Enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: Incredibly BORING AND SLOW!
Review: I HATED this film. To quote a reviewer who actually liked it:

"Through flashbacks, the filmmakers slowly unravel the secrets of the burned man: who he is and his past."

The operative word here is SLOWLY. To make matters worse, it wasn't even a love story. Since when is going after your own selfish desires at the expense of others love? It is one of the worst films I have ever had the misfortune to see. Trying to romanticize these people's selfish behavior did NOT work. I felt no sympathy for the English patient or his lover. The Bridges of Madison County was much better -- at least you could sympathize with the characters, unlike this film. So many of the scenes were so long and drawn out I nearly fell asleep. The plot was not hard to follow, it was just boring! I don't need a lot of action in a film. I do need a story that will hold my interest. This did not. Don't waste your time on this extremely bad film.

Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece of a Time From A Bygone Era
Review: I don't know what film the other reviewers were watching. This, for me, as an avid filmgoer, was one of the best films of the last decade, among such other masterpieces as Jane Campion's The Piano (1993), Kaige Chen's Farewell My Concubine (1993), and Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter (1997). There certainly is an adulterous affair in the film, but when I watched it, that was not the central plot of the film. Several people, in the aftermath of World War II, each emotionally wounded and each with a painful past, become observant listeners to each other's personal stories of loss as a result of the tragic war. Count Almásy (Ralph Fiennes) is a burned, nameless patient of Hana (Juliette Binoche), a Canadian nurse who is deeply hurt that the men whom she loved were killed in the war. Caravaggio (Willem Dafoe) is a thief who possesses mutilated hands as a result of the Nazis and seeks revenge upon all those who have wronged him. Through flashbacks, the filmmakers slowly unravel the secrets of the burned man: who he is and his past. We see that he was a Hungarian count who fell in love with a married woman, who sacrificed morality in trying to save his love, and who acknowledges the mistakes of his past. You see, this film is really about people, in the aftermath of a gruesome war, coming to terms with their inherent imperfections and mistakes as human beings. It's not about an affair and it is simply childish to trivialize this film based on politics. The original score is hauntingly beautiful as well. The acting is superb, with fine performances from Kristin Scott Thomas, Ralph Fiennes, Willem Dafoe, and in particular, Juliette Binoche.


Rating:
Summary: Old School Passion & Filmmaking
Review: I'm one of the people who was completely taken with THE ENGLISH PATIENT when I saw it in theatres, but was also amused when Elaine Benis on "Seinfeld" goofed on it later. Or, should I say, goofed on everyone who loved it.

The non-linear story structure, the superb acting, the gorgeous photography, the unfolding mystery of what happened to the doomed couple--all of it hit me just right. While other people complained at the film's slow pace, I was soaking up the period details and authentic locations. I played the soundtrack CD for months afterward (and still do sometimes), finding myself lost in the distant and sometimes-haunting music.

There were so many terrible movies in the 1990s, just mere product crafted by committee and focus groups, that the intimate--though tragic--feel of this story felt very personal and real.
You know the couple played by Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas are in BIG trouble from the moment they meet. Just watch their eyes and expressions. Allowing a passion to spread like that has major implications on everyone around them and, in this case, also has major implicactions on a world on the brink of war.

(One footnote: the church I attend put out a list of Top Ten Reasons to Boycott Disney shortly after the film came out. Perhaps scraping for a reason to fill out the list, number 10 was "Boycott Disney because it funds Miramax, which produced THE ENGLISH PATIENT, a film that glorifies adultery." Huh? How anyone can watch this film and believe that these characters, tormented by guilt and confusion, indulging in a passion that not only kills them all but also contributes to Nazi victories in Africa, completely escapes me.)

Rating:
Summary: Not just excruciating, but offensive too.
Review: This is a tampon film for those candy-headed women who possess just enough intelligence (barely) to deceive themselves into believing they are "mature-minded grown-ups." (A phrase that would never be used by an actual mature-minded grown-up.)

Not only is this film clinical, dry, and ponderous to sit through, but I was appalled by the obliviousness, self-absorbed narcissism and outright selfishness that an individual would need to possess in order to be moved by this dreck. In the face of one of the greatest atrocities in the history of humankind (the backdrop of WWII), we, the viewers, are asked to sympathize with these two obnoxious brats whose only concern is their ability to hump each other in a bathtub. So much for Casablanca's famous line about the problems of two people not amounting to a hill of beans.

And what about Kristin Scott-Thomas's husband? The insensitivity towards his character can only be described as offensive. The film's attitude towards him is strictly, though subtly, derisive, daring to portray him as puerile because he possesses enough temerity and depth of feeling to object to his wife's adultery. Firth is great as the husband, but his performance of this material is a corruption of his talent.

The only other reason, apart from Firth, to see The English Patient is the sub-plot involving Binoche and Dafoe, which I actually found to be rather sweet -- and which the Village Voice stupidly dismissed as expendable. Fitting irony that the best part of the film would be unappreciated by those who fawned over it.

In short, if the spectacle of two unfeeling empty-shells, oblivious to the feelings of others and the plight of humanity, and raging at the impertinence of an inconvenient war that dares to intrude on their illicit affair, is your idea of a heart-rending love story, then by all means, help yourself.

Rating:
Summary: Snore
Review: What a snore fest this movie was! I watched this with my sister-in-law and she was transfixed. This movie went on and on with these dream sequences (or memories?) that made no sense. After an hour and half of these unrelated boring sequences (with WWII in the background) I couldn't take it anymore and had to leave. Even the music couldn't make up for it. I personally hated this movie but my sister-in-law loved it. She watches soap operas and Oprah, so maybe she posesses a sensitivity and understanding of something in the movie I didn't get.

Rating:
Summary: Elaine Bennis was Right!
Review: Elaine Benes was right! She couldn't stand it and neither could I!

Let's call a spade a spade... "The English Patient" is a "Chick Flick" from beginning to end. It's not an epic - it's a 3-hour soap opera! Watching "The English Patient" was like opening a jar of caviar only to find a swarm of ants embedded in a carmelized lump of corn syrup... I hated it!

Ralph Fiennes portrays an English pilot who becomes disfigured while flying a burning biplane over the Sahara. World War II is in its infancy, but that's just a moot point, since this film has very little historical legitimacy, anyway. In a series of flashbacks, we see the events leading up to that point in time. Once the flashback sequence ends, we return to present time, and after a few years, oh by the way, the war ends.

By that time, it's hard to care what happens, because it's all so implausible. None of the characters portrayed in the film remotely resemble human beings, at least in the way they react to given situations. Each seems about as two dimensional as the life-size cardboard silouhettes of movie stars you'll see in the lobbies of theatres from time to time.

Much of the story line seems to be rather arbitrary; The only apparent reason that some sequences in the movie take place is so that the running time of the film will be longer. You have subplots that go nowhere and add nothing to the story, minor characters who appear and disappear for no apparent purpose. Any meaning underlying this film is obscurred by a runaway script. With the screenplay out of control, the film seems to revel in its own awfulness.

I watched "The English Patient" all the way through and the only feeling that I had afterward was that I had just thrown away three hours of my life. For another review of this movie, see "Elaine Benes says it all", January 10, 2004 Reviewer: schtinkyfrom Bakersfield, CA USA


Rating:
Summary: Beautiful, Heartbreaking movie for grown-ups.
Review: It's a masterpiece, not just a hollywood sentimental romance flick, elaborated with gorgeous music by gabriel yared, what an exotic, passionate music making! When movie was ended, that sad feeling was so painful, but great.
This movie is all success for mature-minded grown-ups. Bravo!

Rating:
Summary: Good God, man, pull yourself together.
Review: Yet again another example of a year when a small independent film should have taken home the golden statue known as Oscar, but instead a bigger budgeted independent film (if you can call it that at all) swept it all. This film was none other than The English Patient.

I know this was actually an independent film, but it surely didn't look like one when I went to go see it in the theater. Big sound, big big budget, and beautiful (expensive) scenery, leaves only the actors to be the "independent" of the entire scenario. Ralph Fiennes, Kristen Scott Thomas, and Juliette Binoche, and Willem Dafoe round out this seemingly independent production. Minghella pulls out no stops as he takes us on a whirlwind tour of ... World War II?

Love is a power theme as the human spirit is explored through eating peaches and talking about the "one that got away". While this was enjoyable the first time I watched it, I do not thing I could force myself through another viewing. It was interesting, but not provocative. It was enjoyable, but not powerful. It was emotional, but not gut-wrenching. In essence, it was lacking the "umph" to get to the next level. I really think this could have been a decent film, but sadly, Hollywood caught it way too soon!

Grade: ** out of *****