MovieChat Forums > The English Patient (1996) Discussion > Very well made movie, but I couldnt like...

Very well made movie, but I couldnt like it.

posted 13 years ago by JJdaPK
6 replies | jump to latest

In the past month I've been trying to see all of the "Best Pictures" and the English Patient is one I've heard mixed reviews on.

If there is one movie that fits the bill of "Oscar Bait", I think this would be it. An epic romance, period setting, beautiful cinematography, long length...it's got everything the Oscars drool over. Now to be fair, the English Patient is really good at all of it's individual elements. The acting is excellent, the direction is top notch, the sets and costumes are perfect, etc.

But I just didnt think this movie worked as a whole. Despite it's long length, I felt the romance between Almasy and Katherine underdeveloped. All I really saw from the pair was lust-not love. Because of this, I felt more sorry for Katherine's husband, and I only felt sorry for Katherine because she died in such a lonely way...not because Almasy lost the woman he "loved". Also, maybe it's just me, but I found Almasy to be rather creepy in his advances toward Katherine.

More time could have been spent developing the pair had the movie not spent so much time on it's subplots (Hana's relationship with Naveen Andrews's character, Caravaggio's backstory, etc). I felt the movie was trying to do too much with all of these characters that it lost focus. Less time should have been spent on Hana and more time on Almasy's relationship with Katherine. Not that Hana's a bad character, but her storyline is part of the framing device and it shouldnt take away from the main focus of the movie.

I am not upset with this film winning the Oscar because it has several excellent qualities to it. But emotionally, I felt too detatched from it.

[–] Rob4001 13 years ago

I don't agree with you on the lust aspect - there was an element of that but there was much more to it i think. I don't agree the relationship was underdeveloped either. I think it was touched on just the right amount - in fact i thought it drifted in and out of that story masterfully. Remember it's meant to be told from the point of view of a dying and regretful man.

Almasy being a bit creepy was half the point of his character too. He was a closed and introverted person, obsessed with his map making. Katherine become a beacon in his disinterested life.

I agree that the sub plots were a bit half-arsed. Caravaggio's was alright, but the relationship between Hana and the Sapper kinda needed a bit more attention, or left out.

This is definitely a film that the Oscar choosers would lap up but i don't think they were going out of their way to win oscars, i just think it's the kind of film that would be likely to win them. I don't pay too much attention to the Oscars myself anyway.

[–] jingizu_z 13 years ago

I agree with you Rob4001. You also described Almasy's character very well, he couldn't really communicate with people, lived an isolated life except for his fellow map-makers and his only friend was Maddox [who I think was in love with him, his gay tendencies was definitely referenced although nothing was ever said out loud, in keeping with the time period]. As to Katharine, she loved her husband who used be her best friend before they got married, but the love of her life, her great passion, was Almasy. I thought it was clearly shown.

That said, this film was not Oscar-bait as such, it was made from a book by the same name. In the book the Katharine/Almasy love story is the sub-plot and the Hanna/Caravaggio/Kip story is the main plot.

Yup, don't pay too much attention to the oscars, too many mess-ups through the years IMO, and I do think the oscars is really in the end nothing BUT opion. We all like different movies, and find different things beautiful and worthy in movies.

[–] pmedmoe 13 years ago

Maddox [who I think was in love with him, his gay tendencies was definitely referenced although nothing was ever said out loud, in keeping with the time period]

That wasn't Madox. That was a different guy with them.

[–] jingizu_z 13 years ago

No, it was Almasy's friend Maddox, who was clearly having it off with the Egyptian servant boy. Also his comment to Almasy in the very beginning about life being different in the desert. And Maddox committed suicide when he thought Almasy had been a spy for the Germans all along.

[–] elpida18 12 years ago

For me it was all about the Almasy/Katherine relationship that was the most fscinating. The Kip/Hanna story bored me.

[–] pmedmoe 11 years ago

No, it was Almasy's friend Maddox, who was clearly having it off with the Egyptian servant boy.

Just watched the movie again. It is not Maddox but one of the other Englishmen (Fenelon-Barnes maybe?) who says that things are different in the desert and who is "having it off" (in your words) with the Egyptian boy.

What's rather ironic is that the real-life László Almásy was suspected of being homosexual: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A1szl%C3%B3_Alm%C3%A1sy