Wow!

Rating: Null/10 (12 September 2003)

I JUST finished watching this film about an hour ago, and - not surprisingly - a lot of the images, music, and performances still remain etched in my brain...It will probably end up that way for a long time, as this film actually holds a rather special significance for me: in my experience this was the first motion picture that familiarized me with and got me interested in watching the annual Academy Awards telecast! I can vividly remember all the near-unanimous critical praise this epic masterpiece had been receiving back in 1996, for everything from its direction to its screenplay to its passionate exchanges; I also remember the truckload of Oscars that was bestowed upon it the following year as well. Viewing the film now, for the first time, it is quite simple to see why this film managed to appeal to the critical masses. "The English Patient" truly is one of those films that has "everything" (i.e. action, adventure, romance, etc.) in my opinion. It is an impressively told, and superbly adapted film version of the Michael Ondaatje novel (which, incidentally, I had just finished reading a few weeks prior). Obviously it is not a totally flawless work when it comes to interpreting the order of some scenes (although it comes pretty darn close at times) - yet I still have a phenomenal amount of respect and admiration for all the cast and crew involved to translate this seemingly difficult-to-translate novel into a movie. Believe me. Those like me who have read the novel will probably agree that it couldn't be easy to film something like this - much less film it WELL.
If there's anything however that's really worthy of singling out to congratulate endlessly, for me it would have to be the unbelievably brilliant casting. Whoever put such a rich and talented group of actors together (all of whom were pitch-perfect for the roles) should be given a lot of credit, because these people pulled it off to shocking perfection! For me they were all very well reflective of the general way I imagined the characters in the novel (although you could say that I knew a lot about the film and its actors far before I even read the novel, but that's besides the point). They were engaging, they were beautiful, they were radiant...the ideal cast for such an old-fashioned, uplifting award-sweeping romance as this one. I loved it!
"The English Patient" is a dazzling, fine work of art that more than deserved its staggering number of Oscar wins (including the Best Picture of 1996!), and I highly recommend it. A truly well-crafted film.