TRY TO UNDERSTAND IT. DON´T BE OBTUSE.

Rating: 10/10 (13 May 1999)

I Love the Internet Movie Database, it's the best site for movie freaks like me. I also love to read comments of my favorite movies; I'm very objective in that matter, everyone is free to say his own opinion. And in the comments of movies like Star Wars, A Clockwork Orange, 2001, Alien, Titanic, Citizen Kane (some of my favourite movies) I've read some likable comments and some disgusting points of view, but I accepted their opinion. But When I got to read The English Patient (Which, if you read my name at the title of this comment you'll see how fan I am) comments I couldn't stand it anymore, I have to make you all understand why this movie deserves NINE Oscars. This goes out especially to the people out there that sympathizes with Elaine (from Seinfeld) opinion of this movie. When 2001 hit the theaters in 1968, many people hated it, they said it was boring and too long. Ok, it didn't win nine oscars but its considered the best science fiction film of all time; its funny the fact that it was a boxoffice success because of the hippies who loved the coloured psychedelic journey. What I mean by this is that when you see a movie first of all you gotta know previously what kind of movie you are going to see. If is a movie like Independence Day or Twister you should expect explosion, great SFX, cool dialogues, and an acceptable running time. But if you´re going to see a movie named TEP, 2001, The Godfather, The Thin Red Line, you got to have a open mind about the whole context of it. That´s why I can see almost every kind of movie they´re showing, except musicals (I hate musicals).
The English Patient opens with a beautiful image of a brush painting a figure we don´t know what it is yet. A woman's voice begins to sing---Szerelem, szerelem, she cries in a haunting lament for her loved one. After the credits we realized the figure is a man swimming (we´ll see where that comes from later). Then we change our view to THE DESERT seen from the air. An ocean of dunes (remember the swimmer) for mile after mile. The late sun turns the sand every color from crimson to black and makes the dunes look like bodies pressed against each other. An old AIRPLANE is flying over the Sahara, there is a woman who appears to be asleep, behind her the pilot , a man, wears goggles and a leather helmet. He is singing, too, but we can't hear him or the plane or anything save the singer's plaintive voice.
This are the first images of TEP and believe me it captures my attention simply because of its beauty; maybe because I love the desert. I own this movie on DVD and every frame of the cinematography is worth pausing and admiring. TEP is a movie about mature and intellectual people who are caught up in a time of barbarians who only think about making history by obtaining power over the world. The team of International Explorers are only thinking about making history by contributing with proofs of ancient civilization. They don´t care about countries, or frontiers. You have to be very observant in a movie like this. Watch every frame, it doesn´t matter who long does it last on screen, in a movie like this is not there just because of a bad editing. Think about Hana for a moment, she´s the most naive character in the movie "I don´t know about anything" she say to TEP when he´s talking about Herodotus, but despite of this she´s the most sympathetic character in the film. Catherine and Count Almasy are the main love story, they are intelligent and passionate characters. She´s married to a clown and sees in Almasy a mysterious man who talks many languages (but doesn´t like to talk), knows many cultures, doesn´t have a home, has got a beautiful handwriting, wrotes poems and its passionate about beauty and art, and if that wasn´t enough he´s handsome; what more do you want?. Many people just sees those two like a lustful couple who have no really interest in the other but in sex. That´s an easy answer for somebody who don´t understand them. When they met they have a discussion about an essay Almasy wrote, there they have their first chemistry shock. When they are telling stories in front of the fire everybody male (except Almasy) is telling a funny and shallow story, but when Catherine´s turn is up she impresses everybody (especially Almasy) by telling a story from Herodotus about a king named Candaules (who is a metaphor of Clifton) who is too proud of his wife and he´s showing her to a subject naked and by that shaming her. Almasy is mighty attracted to her and that´s why he doesn´t want her to stay when Clifton leaves for an errand, and that´s why he´s rude why her whenever she tries to talk to him or give him the paintings of the swimmers from the credits. This is not an ordinary couple, this is a mature couple of two adults who feel an enourmus attraction and by that betrays everything they know by being together, although she (being a woman) has more integrity at betrayal and leaves him because she knows that´ll never work. I don´t know about you but I have 21 years old and I´ve been in those situations when you are so attracted to a girl, and also is she but cannot be together because she is already taken and cannot betray the man that she loves (or once loved for that matter). The Ending is what I call total climax. There is our Count Almasy running in the desert to save the woman he loves, and maybe he´s thinking that if he does they can be together, and believe it or not they die together (metaphorically). Honestly, If I was going to die of love, I hope it´ll be like that. I´m not going to tell the whole meaning of every part of the movie, I will leave it here. I hope it makes you think more about movies and especially this one. Why if any of you people didn´t like "2001, The Thin Red Line, and The English Patient" think it won so many Awards?, you just have to look further deep. You cannot expect to be told everything in the script or in the images (although they have).