The English Patient

The late 90’s was apparently a very romantic time for the Academy because this is the first of three romantic movies to win in a row. This is also the first movie on my Best Picture Quest that I finally got somebody to watch with me. My mom was in town so I made her watch it with me. I had started it before she came but watched from the beginning after she got here which worked out better since the beginning is a little confusing.

The English Patient is about a man who is badly burned in a plane crash in an African desert during WWII. After being found he is brought to a Canadian Military Hospital where he is taken care of by a nurse Hana (Juliette Binoche). When there caravan drives into a mine field in an Italian town Hana decides since there is no hope for her patient it is best just to let him die in piece and she takes him into a nearby deserted monastery. Claiming he has no memory of who he is or what happened to him he begins to have flashbacks of his life. We learn that he was a map maker on an expedition in Africa. After falling in love with his partners wife begins a secret affair with her. But as Hana is taking care of him she begins to fall in love with a soldier on the bomb squad who is trying to disarm all the mines in the area. Then there is also a mysterious visitor who stays with them and claims he knows her patient from before his accident.

At over 3 hours it is just long, boring and confusing. The confusion comes from all the back and forth between flashbacks and present day. Ralph Fiennes who plays the patient is very good in the flashback scenes(he doesn’t have much to do in the present day scenes except lay in bed with makeup on). The problem is that the flashback scenes are not as interesting as the present day scenes. The story of Hana and Kip and the mysterious David are more compelling that the love story of the flashbacks. To me it was like watching a movie with a split personality one good and one bad. The best things about the flashback scenes were it was beautifully filmed and the scenery was great. The movie ended up winning 9 Academy Awards tying it for third most at the time. Most of the awards it won was technical awards including Cinematography, Art Direction, and Costume Design. Juliette Binoche won Best Supporting Actress and Anthony Minghella won Best Director but it lost Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Winner of Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress (Frances McDormand) was the movie I think should have won Best Picture Fargo. The Coen Brothers black comedy about a Midwestern kidnapping that goes all wrong is both funny and violent. I was glad it won Best Original Screenplay since it was one of the more original written movies. It is actually one of the reasons why I started paying more attention to the Best Original Screenplay category. It turns out that a lot of the more original movies that don’t fit the usual Academy fare gets nominated (but doesn’t always win) Best Original Screenplay. Other winners that year included Billy Bob Thornton for writing Sling Blade (he lost Best Actor) and Cuba Gooding Jr. in a surprise win for Best Supporting Actor for Jerry Maguire. And one of my favorite movies of 1996 Independence Day won Best Special Effects.