1996--The English Patient, Anthony Minghella

 

1996--The English Patient, Anthony Minghella

Nominated: Fargo, Jerry Maguire, Secrets and Lies, Shine

Should Have Won: Fargo

Be sure to see: Diabolique, The Frighteners, Kingpin, Ransom, Sling Blade

“You speak so many bloody languages and you never want to talk”--Karen Clifton

     Seinfeld fans might remember Elaine Benes suffering through The English Patient along side her friends and her boss who are mesmerized by the movie. “Stop telling your stupid story and just die!” I didn't hate it as much as Elaine did; in fact I didn't hate it at all. But when it ended I thought about how it beat Fargo and how Sling Blade wasn't even nominated and had my head-scratching moment of the day.

    It is Italy during World War II and a badly burned man is taken in by a nurse, Hana. As he begins to recuperate, he tells Hana stories of flying over the desert and his love and affair with a married woman. Hana eventually cares for the man but is in love with a soldier who is staying at the camp whose job it is to locate landmines and defuse bombs. Also a Canadian man is staying with them whose thumbs were cut off for committing adultery, though I don't remember why he was important to the plot.

     The movie has one of those moments where something happens at the beginning and is forgotten and you wonder what the point was, then later it comes back in a revelation, like the bookcase blocking the closet in Rosemary's Baby or the car crash at the beginning of John Q. In this case, it is a painting of swimmers on a cave wall. In the best scene, the soldier, Kip (Sayid from Lost) shows Hana the paintings via make-shift swing he pulls to raise her to the ceiling.

     Watching this movie I was reminded of my experience while watching 1985's winner Out of Africa. A lot of the technical aspects of the film were great but as a whole I didn't care as much. But it is a good love story that balances the war plot well. Think of how bad Titanic was. It is truly one of the most overrated movies of all time and certainly one of the worst to win best picture. Where it goes wrong is it tells a great tale of the unsinkable sinking ship that could have been one of the best historic tellings of any movie ever. It was ruined by focusing on a love story for three hours before the boat sinks instead of finding out about the other  passengers' lives. The English Patient does not suffer the same fate as this. Through the romance plot, there are still plenty of scenes dealing with the war and worldly events. It balanced the stories well. 

     I did not care for this movie but did not really dislike it. Perhaps it is saved because of the visual and technical aspects are very solid. But like Forrest Gump I'd put this movie third of the year for what should have won best picture. The non-nominated Sling Blade getting the silver and the obvious choice for best picture is the always entertaining gem of a crime story Fargo. Along with Annie Hall beating Star Wars, and the movie next up on this blog beating Saving Private Ryan, The English Patient beating Fargo is among the worst decisions in Oscar's best picture award history. I'd even put Fargo in the top 10 best movies of the decade. You betcha.