The film has aged ideologically

Rating: 8/10 (19 September 2008)

It is an interesting film, but not more than that. What does it shows? That the English were particularly sectarian during WW2 on the African front. Nothing new under the sun. Anyone who had a slightly different name or a slightly surprising or uncommon attitude was at once considered as a spy unworthy of any trust. This created myriads or even legions of misunderstandings and human errors along with cruelty, barbaric acts, violence, etc. The only interest of this film is the technical brilliance in the use of flashbacks that only happen in the head of this English patient who plays the loss of his memory to protect himself against his own name and his own ascendants. Yet his survival is not possible and the nurse who is looking after him is little by little led to being convinced by him that she has to overdose him with morphine, which she does. The sentimental elements along the way for the nurse or the Sikh bomb and mine technician are there only to provide a present time line onto which the flashbacks can be woven and attached. The acting is absolutely outstanding, even if the story is rather trite.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines