The English Patient

This month the DDO gave me the film The English Patient to review. It is part of the Ordination Criteria of Personality and Character. The idea being that I watch the film making notes as I go, and then follow up with a brief review of the theme of the film and and identify any characters that resonate with me and why. I had not read the book, so perhaps I need to do so to compare with the films interpretation of what I understand to be a modern classic.

Having never seen the film (despite it winning 7 awards) I was pleasantly surprised by its depth and coverage. The Characters are expressive and speak volumes, even if not in words. So does the setting of the Libyan Desert and the times just before and during WW2.

The film is basically about love (forbidden or unrequited) broken people, forgiveness and renewal. But I actually found it to be full of hope, that despite some desperate circumstances, something good can come from hard situations. Almasi the central character is complex as is Katherine as his lover and another man's wife, but the most complex character is Hannah. She appears to be a victim from several bereavements (a good friend dying right at the start) who takes Almasi, her patient and see's something Christlike in his suffering. Her relationships with everyone she encounters appear to work out on several levels, even with Kip the Sikh Sapper, who becomes her lover. She believed that she was cursed, due to the bereavements she suffered personally, and also allowed her compassion to overwhelm her, becoming much to emotionally involved with those she treated, leaving her extremely vulnerable to their suffering, perhaps helpless to do anything effective to help them. So taking Almasi, who was going to die whatever she did and allowing him to die in peace, medicated and lovingly cared for seemed to be the solution to her problems. Off course, it wasn't the solution for her, but it was for Almasi, who having learned who he was, asked to be put out of his misery. Her developing relationship with Kip allows her to become once again fulfilled both as a women and a lover and to cope with her vulnerability.

Another very understated character was Sgt Hardy. From saving Hannah's life in the minefield, throughout the film, his trust in, love and respect for Kip as his superior, friend and commander, gained from years working together in dangerous situations seems to be me to speak of a selfless, sacrificial love and life. Only after his unfortunate death by a booby trap bomb, did Kip discover that Hardy actually had been courting a local italian girl and was actually engaged.

Another character David Carrigio, a vengeful, anger filled man, who had been mutilated by a German interrogator after being betrayed as a british agent, came to Italy, looking for Almasi, convinced that he had been responsible for his betrayal. After encountering Almasi and listening to his flashback memories, comes to accept that he might not have been directly to blame and is able to forgive. Wonderful to think that God works in people in such ways.

Off course, the love story between Almasi and Katherine is central to the story, revealing aspects of both of their characters. Almasi, very much a thoughtful, self contained loner, coping with new feelings of love of the unobtainable. Katherine, an self centered, slightly impractical, hut educated socialite married to Geoffrey and explorer and british agent, taking what she wants with Almasi, an affair, which is not just about the sex, but is about a deep and profound love and affection between them. Eventually sacrificing the affair for the sake of her marriage. The explosive outcome of Geoffrey discovering the affair and killing himself while also trying to kill Almasi and Katherine leads to the poingant ending of Katherine, injured left in a cave to die alone, while Almasi seeking help is imprisoned as a German spy. Almasi eventually returns to find Katherines body and takes it in a plane, which is shot down with Almasi being terribly burned, losing his memory and ending up as the English Patient.

A thought provoking film indeed, giving me much to reflect on. Now for the essay.