An Underrated Masterpiece!

Rating: 10/10 (27 January 2015)

The English Patient is a 1996 adaptation from the book of the same name that has a reputation as being too long, boring, overrated, and one of the worst movies to win so many Academy Awards including Best Picture and Director. I agree with some of these negative claims up to a certain extent, but the movie has redemption.
The English Patient is about a mysterious man (Fiennes) with no identity who is horribly burnt after a plain crash and is cared for by a french-Canadian nurse (Binoche). He reveals that he is Count Almasy and tells the story of his affair with married Katherine (Thomas) and their journeys in the Sahara desert and the surrounding corruption and betrayal.
I will agree that The English Patient is too long. 163 minutes is a bit of a stretch and causes there to be some boring moments. If twenty minutes of the movie was cut, the result would have been better. But the length does not make for anything bad. That is what people overstate. That is why the episode of Seinfeld when Elaine hated The English Patient was so funny. Dissing this movie just because it's a bit long and has dull moments is far-fetched. Like Lawrence of Arabia and The Searchers, The English Patient is full of glamorous and lovely shots of the sun-filled desert. If you find this movie boring, it is not bad to look away from. The flashback story of the patient's pre-burn days is the better half of the movie and is wondrous. The burn days for him aren't very wondrous, but are still worth seeing.
The English Patient won many awards, beating everybody's favourite, Fargo. Fargo is a true masterpiece, but The English Patient isn't that far behind it. I watched The English Patient twice; I enjoyed it the first time, but loved it the second. It was a major leap. Just why did The English Patient win Best Picture and Best Director? Simple: The English Patient has more to it. In fact, The English Patient was more deserving of its win for Best Director. Although the Coen brothers filmed Fargo to a very high degree, Anthony Minghella provides calibre filming, enchanting shots on location, beautiful costumes, haunting make-up, unbeatable sets, and glowing music. Fargo does not have all these. What Fargo does have may outweigh everything else in 1996, The English Patient offered more than any other movie in 1996.
4/4