The English Patient is a 1996 film that tells a romantic and war story. It was directed by Anthony Minghella, who wrote the script based on a 1992 book by Michael Ondaatje. The film was produced by Saul Zaentz. The main actors are Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas, with Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Naveen Andrews, and Colin Firth in smaller roles.

The main character is a man who is severely burned and cannot be recognized. He speaks with an English accent and shares his past through flashbacks, showing his true identity and a love story from before the war. At the end of the film, it is stated that the story is a fictional version of real people and events, including László Almásy, who died in 1951. The film was widely praised by critics and became a major box office success.

At the 69th Academy Awards, the film received 12 nominations and won 9 awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for Minghella, and Best Supporting Actress for Binoche. It was the first film to win an Oscar for Best Editing for a digitally edited movie. Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas were also nominated for their acting. The film won six BAFTA Awards and two Golden Globes. The British Film Institute listed The English Patient as the 55th greatest British film of the 20th century. The American Film Institute ranked it the 56th greatest love story of all time.

Plot

German soldiers shoot down a British biplane flying over a desert. A group of Bedouin people pull the badly burned pilot from the wreckage and rescue him.

Hana, a nurse from French Canada working with the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps, learns from a wounded soldier that her boyfriend has been killed. In October 1944 in Italy, she cares for a dying, severely burned patient with an English accent who cannot remember his name. His only possession is a copy of Herodotus's Histories, which contains personal notes, pictures, and mementos.

After a fellow nurse is killed in front of her, Hana believes she brings harm to those she loves. She asks for permission to stay in a bombed-out monastery with her patient, as he is struggling during the hospital’s move. She is joined by Lieutenant Kip Singh, a Sikh sapper in the British Indian Army who works with Sergeant Hardy to clear German mines and traps, and David Caravaggio, a Canadian Intelligence Corps officer who was tortured by the Germans. Caravaggio questions the patient, learning details about his past, while Hana and Kip begin a romantic relationship.

In the late 1930s, Hungarian cartographer László Almásy explores a part of the Sahara with a Royal Geographical Society expedition. His group includes his friend Peter Madox, an Englishman, and a British couple, Geoffrey and Katharine Clifton, who use a plane for aerial surveys.

Almásy discovers the ancient Cave of Swimmers, which has cave paintings. As the group documents the find, Almásy and Katharine fall in love. He writes about her in notes folded into his book, which she finds when he awkwardly accepts two watercolor drawings of the cave and asks her to paste them into the book.

They return to Cairo and begin an affair, while the group plans more detailed surveys of the cave and surrounding area. Almásy gifts Katharine a silver thimble. Geoffrey secretly watches her from his car and realizes she is cheating. Later, Katharine ends the relationship, fearing consequences from Geoffrey. When the war begins, the archaeological projects stop, and Madox leaves his Tiger Moth airplane at Kufra Oasis before returning to Britain.

Caravaggio seeks revenge for his injuries, killing the German interrogator who cut his thumbs and the spy who betrayed him. He also searches for the person who provided maps to the Germans, allowing them to infiltrate Cairo. Caravaggio confronts Almásy about the Cliftons’ deaths, and Almásy admits, “Maybe… I did.”

Hana overhears Almásy telling Caravaggio about packing camp in 1941 when Geoffrey arrives in the biplane. Geoffrey aims at Almásy, who jumps out of the way, and crashes. Almásy finds Geoffrey dead at the controls and Katharine seriously injured in the front seat. It was an attempt to kill both of them, as Geoffrey discovered their affair. Almásy carries Katharine to the Cave of Swimmers and notices she still wears the thimble he gave her. She tells him she has always loved him.

Almásy leaves her with supplies and his book, then walks three days across the desert to British-held El Tag. He asks for help for Katharine, but a young officer detains him, suspecting him of being a spy. Transported by train, Almásy escapes and meets a German unit that takes him to Kufra Oasis, where Madox hid his plane. After trading maps for fuel, Almásy flies to the cave, finds Katharine dead, and is shot down while flying her body away. After hearing the story, Caravaggio stops his quest for revenge.

Kip is reassigned after clearing explosives and agrees with Hana to meet again. Almásy tells Hana he is ready to end his life by pushing vials of morphine toward her. Though upset, Hana agrees, giving him a lethal dose. As he sleeps, she reads him Katharine’s final letter, written while she was alone in the cave. The next morning, Hana goes with Caravaggio to Florence, holding Almásy’s book.

Cast

Additionally, Torri Higginson plays the character Mary, and Liisa Repo-Martell plays the character Jan. They appear for a short time as colleagues in Hana's nursing corps.

Production

Saul Zaentz wanted to work with Anthony Minghella after watching his film Truly, Madly, Deeply (1990). Minghella introduced Zaentz to the project. Michael Ondaatje, a writer born in Sri Lanka and living in Canada, helped create the film. Minghella said that during development with 20th Century Fox, the studio wanted to use well-known actors. Zaentz remembered that the studio asked, "Could we cast Demi Moore in the role?" After disagreements with Fox, the studio left the project three weeks before filming was to begin. Harvey Weinstein then joined and bought worldwide rights for Miramax Films for $27.5 million. When Miramax became involved, Minghella’s choice of actress Scarlett Johansson for the role of Katharine was respected. To help make the film, the cast and crew agreed to delay receiving part of their salaries, totaling $10 million. Zaentz covered the rest of the production costs. Including the delayed payments, the total production cost was $43 million. The delayed payments were to be made after the film earned enough money to cover its costs. However, after more than three years since the film’s release, some actors still had not received their delayed salaries, pending an audit of the amounts. Zaentz sued Miramax Films in 2006 for $20 million, but the case was still ongoing when Zaentz died in 2014.

The film was shot in Tunisia and Italy.

The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film, written by Michael Ondaatje, includes discussions between the author and film editor Walter Murch. Murch, who had previously worked on complex films like The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now, found editing this film challenging because it included many flashbacks and time changes. As he worked, he discovered new ways to arrange scenes that differed from the original script. A version of the film without sound was created to ensure visual transitions matched the quality of the audio. The final version includes over 40 changes in time. During this process, Murch met Ondaatje and shared ideas about editing the film.

In the film, two types of aircraft were used: a De Havilland D.H.82 Tiger Moth and a Boeing-Stearman Model 75. Both are biplanes. The scene showing a plane crash was made using a half-scale model.

The Hungarian folk song "Szerelem, Szerelem," performed by Muzsikás with Márta Sebestyén, was included in the film.

Reception

The English Patient received a lot of praise from critics and was very successful at the box office. It won nine Academy Awards, six BAFTA awards, and two Golden Globe Awards.

Janet Maslin from The New York Times said the movie was an impressive adaptation of a book and a great cinematic achievement. Anthony Lane from The New Yorker wrote that the film's success comes from strong acting and the way director Anthony Minghella combined large stories with small, personal details to create something very interesting.

The movie has an 86% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 91 reviews, with an average score of 7.90 out of 10. Critics say the film is complex, powerful, and moving, even though some think it is too long. On Metacritic, it has a score of 87 out of 100, based on 31 reviews. Roger Ebert from the Chicago Sun Times gave it four stars, saying it is a movie worth watching twice. Leonard Maltin in his movie guide gave it 3.5 out of 4 stars, calling it a very engaging adaptation of the book and praising the acting of Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas. In 2021, The Boston Globe called the movie a "masterpiece" during a 25-year anniversary review.

Audiences who saw the film gave it an "A−" grade, which is a high score on a scale from A+ to F.

It became the highest-grossing film in Miramax's history, earning $232 million worldwide.

The movie is also mentioned in a Seinfeld episode called "The English Patient," where a character named Elaine is avoided by her friends and coworkers because she dislikes the film.

Accolades

In 2009, the film The English Patient was listed as one of the top 25 British films from the past 25 years by The Guardian.

Home media and rights

In the United States, The English Patient was first released on VHS on September 23, 1997, by Buena Vista Home Entertainment, which was part of Miramax Home Entertainment at the time. The film was also released on LaserDisc twice in the U.S.: the first on October 1, 1997, and the second on November 12, 1997. The first LaserDisc used a special sound technology called DTS Digital Surround, while the second was a special edition produced by the Criterion Collection. In 1997, the film was also released on LaserDisc in France, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Spain. The film’s first U.S. DVD release was on March 24, 1998, in widescreen format. A second DVD release came on June 29, 2004, and was part of the "Miramax's Collector's Edition" series.

In December 2010, The Walt Disney Company sold Miramax, a company they had owned since 1993. That same month, a private company called Filmyard Holdings took over Miramax. Filmyard gave the rights to release Miramax’s most famous movies on home media to Lionsgate, while giving rights to less well-known movies to Echo Bridge Entertainment. On January 31, 2012, The English Patient was released on Blu-ray by Lionsgate Home Entertainment. In 2011, Filmyard gave Netflix the rights to stream Miramax’s movies, including The English Patient. This streaming deal lasted until June 1, 2016.

In March 2016, Filmyard sold Miramax to a company from Qatar called beIN Media Group. In April 2020, ViacomCBS (now known as Paramount Skydance) bought the rights to Miramax’s movie library after purchasing a 49% share of the company from beIN. The English Patient was one of 700 movies included in this deal. Since April 2020, the film has been distributed by Paramount Pictures. The deal also included Miramax’s smaller library of television shows and gave Paramount the right to release future projects based on Miramax’s movies.

In late 2020, Paramount Home Entertainment began re-releasing many of the Miramax movies they had acquired. On February 23, 2021, they released The English Patient on Blu-ray again. In March 2021, Paramount also included The English Patient in a ten-film Blu-ray collection that featured other Paramount-owned movies that won the Academy Award for Best Picture. These included American Beauty and Gladiator, which Paramount had acquired in 2006 through their purchase of DreamWorks’ live-action film library.

The film is now available on Paramount’s subscription streaming service, Paramount+, which launched in March 2021. It is also available on Paramount’s free streaming service, Pluto TV.

Television adaptation

In August 2021, a new adaptation of the novel was announced as part of early planning for a BBC television series, produced together with Miramax Television and Paramount Television Studios. In March 2023, it was announced that the project was no longer continuing.