The English Patient | | Cast : | Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Kristin Scott Thomas | | Director : | Anthony Minghella | | Studio : | Miramax Home Entertainment | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound | | Released Date : | November 15, 1996 | | DVD Released Date : | May 03, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 03, 2005 | | Summary | The English Patient is worth seeing many times. | Content
 | This is very drama movie. I saw this movie first time when I was 15years old. I didnt know why but I was very impressed.
I watch it around 50times so far I think, and everytime I realize new things that were not there before.
There was a neighbor who was around 50years old. She said to me
"Anne of Green Gables is worth reading many times. Everytime I realize new attractions of this book"
I agree with her and I also think this movie has lot of attractions. I wrote I was impressed this movie for the first time but I didn't know the reason.
I think the older I become the more I can understand this movie.
May be for the first, I was just impressed the romance between
Almacy and Katharine, romantic scene of Hana and Kip. But now I can understand more than before.
Why Almasy doesn't like to talk?
How can Hana be so frighten about people's death?
Why Almasy asked Hana to kill him?
I still can not understand deep meanings of this movie completely. But I will someday. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 12, 2005 | | Summary | Touching and Timeless | Content
| This is probably one of the greatest dramatic films I've ever seen- it is masterful in every way: cinematography, soundtrack, storyline.. a real masterpiece.
That being said, I'd like to address some of the critics on here and offer my thoughts. I'll admit you do have to be in the right mood for this movie, or it can drag on a bit. However, if you're willing to be patient, you'll find a beautiful collage of scenery, music, and truly fine acting especially by Ralph Fiennes and William Dafoe.
To those who say this movie is demented or silly because it glorifies adultery and the selfish whims of two morally debase people, I say you're missing the point. I think the story of the English Patient is a tragedy in the truest since of the word. Here is a guy who, like so many of us, indulged in a folly that cost him dearly. What's so sad to me is that he's so burned and mangled, all he's left with are these memories, with no way to fix it, no way to truly repent, except by confiding in his nurse. I think the main message of this film is the pain of regret. Fiennes character falls for his friend and colleagues wife, and ultimately wrecks his own life.
For those viewers that can relate to their own regrettable actions in the past, when they were maybe younger or more foolish, I think this movie really hits close to home. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 16, 2005 | | Summary | Unbearably bad movie | Content
| If you are a Seinfeld fan you may recall that Elaine preferred to be fired rather than watch this wretched movie. I fully understand Elaine's choice. It is not simply that this movie is slow, it is that it is bad and slow, a combination that eats at your very soul. I made it to the 55 minute mark and am still amazed that I was able to accomplish that. A large part of the problem here is that none of the characters you meet are to any degree likable. Nor are they interesting.
With many movies I do not enjoy, I can nonetheless ascertain why people enjoy them. I can even understand why people like Titanic, but I have no idea why anyone likes this movie. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 31, 2005 | | Summary | Rapturous | Content
| Rapturous is the one word I can think which may sum up the entire experience that is "The English Patient." The rapture can be felt at every level of its production; the acting, the editing, the cinematogrophy, the screenplay, the music, the story itself. The experience is so visceral that at times it seems to transcend the medium of the film and spread itself like an inkstain across the mind.
This is a complex, multilayered, intensely character driven epic; it is a love story, and a tragedy, one whose ramifications spread through the lives of the characters involved like ripples on a pond. Against a WWII backdrop, Fiennes plays the "the english patient," a man dying of burn wounds, whose slowly returning memories occur in a series of flashbacks that reiterate his doomed love affair with a married englishwoman (Scott Thomas), which interweaves in various ways with the stories of his eclectic companions, all of whom are emotionally and/or physically scarred in their own ways.
The directing, acting and visualization are utterly hypnotic, helping this film to reach dizzying heights of emotional intimacy. The only thing which might have been improved was further development of the supporting cast, most especially the character of Hana, beautifully played (and suitably rewarded with a Best Supporting Actress Oscar) by the luminous Juliette Binoche.
Suffice it to say, this film is a masterpiece and was recognized as such by every major film critic out there. The more I watch it, the more rich and seamless it becomes; instead of being able to pick up on errors, I only pick up more ways to fall into the story. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 08, 2005 | | Summary | The heart is an organ of fire! | Content
| Absolutely agree. Happy and wisdom statement that it constitutes the central nervous of the film. A powerful story that interweaves with impeccable edition past and present.
The triumph of the great loves can be seen only through the ravishing Perrault stories. In the fifties Hiroshima mon amour proved once more the expected possibility to reach the absolute realization due the love.
But the magnificent homage to Hemingway is all around the film. And you think in that ancient Frank Borzage's film Farewell to arms over and over. The nurse, extraordinarily played by the French Goddess Juliette Binoche, who won deservedly the academy Award will mean the weak link between the life and death when she decides to consecrate all her efforts for keeping alive to this mysterious man, seriously wounded after being attacked. The moral reconstruction is far beyond the delicate physical condition. This man is alive just to tell us his fatidic story. But the fascinating script engages us with other secondary characters as the implacable Wilhelm Dafoe who will follow to Fiennes according superior orders. Kristin Scott Thomas and Colin Firth will be the couple in disgrace who will conform the amorous triangle. The love scenes are filmed with admirable good taste and artistic rapture. There are not wasted lines in this running film of 155 min.
The desert is the big frame and also another invisible actor that will untie that huge sand torment that will allow the narrow and decisive contact of these two future lovers.
There is besides, a surreptitious homage to David Lean by double departure: A brief encounter and Lawrence of Arabia.
This will be one of the most reminded films in the distant future. I guess the multidimensional level and Shakespearian and Wagnerian dramatic roots that sustain the whole work will consent it a special place in the Pantheon of the great films.
Joseph Fiennes is a true giant actor. How many additional proofs do you want? After Schindler's list, we have besides Spider and The end of the affair. All the cast was simply marvelous.
And obviously the magnificent effort of all the production team, scripters and the sumptuous art work of Minghella who, to my mind has made to date his best film and glorious masterpiece.
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