Zhivago of Arabia

Rating: 7/10 (28 November 2012)

Burn into the mind of its audience, the film is set before & during World War II depicts the life of a critically burn English patient. (Ralph Fiennes). Ralph was great in the role, and he success portraying the burn victim, earned him yet another Oscar nomination, but his character was morality flawed. The English Patient is being looked after by Hana (Juliette Binoche), a French-Canadian nurse in an abandoned Italian monastery. Throughout, the film, the patient talks to his nurse after his life, through a series of flashbacks. The story is slowly revealed, that he was once a Hungarian, Count László de Almásy, whom cartographer job, went him to the Sahara Desert to make a map of it. While there, he had an secretly affair with a married woman, Katharine Clifton (Kristin Scott Thomas). This is where the sore good rule of thumb comes in, it's hard to root for a protagonist like Almasy. He's cold, annoying and hardly deserves to fall in love with Katherine (Kristin Scott Thomas). Katherine is plagued with the guilt of infidelity, while the Count shows a streak of jealousy along with an imbalance that will later haunt him. The problem with this movie is that it centers on the adultery between the two lead characters and Almasy had cause so much pain to others. David Caravaggio (William Dafoe), a Canadian intelligence operative and former thief, is one of those. Caravaggio lost his thumbs while being interrogated by a German army officer and it was the patient's actions that had brought about his torture. Katherine's husband get wind of the affair, and sudden and dramatic revenge. He crash his plane, with Katherine aboard, into the Count's desert camp, seriously injures Katherine while killing himself. Since the desert camp was in the middle of nowhere, the English patient is forced to live Katherine in a cave, and scorch three day walk to the nearest civilization for help while not falling in the enemy's hand during the oncoming North Africa war between the English and German. This is where the "hero" deliberately sells out the British — the West — to the Germans in order to secure the plane necessary to save Katharine. He gives the Nazis (the Nazis!) crucial maps. Afterwards, when he's informed that this act likely caused the death of thousands of Allied soldiers and civilians with a chilled replied. Love remains a ghost in this film, an invisible force that pushes the man to act and to react - without that it can lead, defeat, succeed; the man is the victim of this mysterious power of love... It is a severe message and hard to accept. The patient's story lost some motiving to feel enthusiastic, interested, and committed to something, when it introduces and intercuts sub-plot of Hana and her romance with Kip (Naveen Andrews), an Indian Sikh bomb defuser in the British Army. Due to various events in Hana's past, their romance full of tension and brings more drama in already drama full movie. Juliette Binoche would win for her role, but it felt like a different movie. Hana was warm contrast to the war-blasted backdrop. It should have been. The movie is call 'English Patient' not 'French Nurse'. It doesn't help, move on the story along. The pacing of the movie is so long, that the movie clocks in 2hr 40min. (nearly 3 hours). The English Patient is a story of love, fate, misunderstanding and healing. Told in a series of flashbacks, the film can best be explained by unwinding it into its two chronological phases: before and after the plane crashes. I dislike movies that show you the end of something first. You can pretty much predict what will happen next. The movie also sport narcissism and nihilism ideas while filled with poetic dialogue, lush cinematography, some truly extraordinary scenes. One is the curves of a naked woman are seamlessly transfigured into the erotic contours of a desert landscape. The film stood out on its own merits rather than an adaptation. This film is based on a fairly difficult novel by Michael Ondaatje which doesn't have much dialogue, jumps around in time and takes place all over the world. Whatever possesses someone to try and adapt such a work is beyond my comprehension. Once again, not really an adaptation, but has the sensitive and lyrical charm of Anthony Minghella. The music from the film is heaven, simply incredible achievement. Minor composer as Gabriel Yared could have written one of the most beautiful film scores ever, so touching, so powerful and yet so intimate. The Bach's Aria of Goldberg Variations is very suitable for the story: difficult, excessive, beautiful. The movie has it all, so check it out. It's the kind of film with a prestigious tragic love story, set against an exotic background. It one Best Picture for a reason.