Cinematically beautiful, well paced and superbly acted drama that kept me well engaged throughout. Despite this though, I was a touch underwhelmed due to the reputation this has as an Oscar-winning tearjerker. What holds this film back from greatness is the lack of likeability of the lead character. Don't get me wrong, Ralph Fiennes is on incredible form with the script he's given, but am I the only one that can't quite get behind a character that so blatantly and unscrupulously makes a play on a married woman? I was rooting more for Colin Firth to take him out with the duster than for the romantic leads to 'live happily ever after'. I just can't shed any tears for the woes of a pair of romantic leads that are so boldly engaging in adultery. That so many people have done I think speaks more about the decline in moral standards in society than anything else.Wonderfully made picture, but the questionable morality holds it back from true greatness. The production code used to get stick back in the golden age, but it was there to make sure pictures were made to deliver the right messages.

I completely agree with other comments here: hopelessly romantic, filmed in a similar pace to the original writing, wonderful panoramic scenes, nice romantic theme throughout and steeped in steeped in pseudo-historical reference. But ultimately a cinematic disaster with so many mistakes, technical and cinematic errors, which is why it is often a bye-word for disaster amongst cinema lecturers and students. And still it won 9 Oscars, including: -Best Picture Saul Zaentz -Best Director Anthony Minghella (before cutting off Caravaggio's fingers, one of the German officers asks in German "what about the Geneva Convention?" which is curious considering that the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners wasn't signed until 1949 and came into effect in 1950) -Best Cinematography John Seale (despite crew or equipment or shadows of same being visible in almost every filmed scene) -Best Art Direction-Set Decoration Stuart Craig Stephenie McMillan (US flags in 1942 would not have 50 stars but 48) -Best Costume Design Ann Roth (despite US soldiers wearing Russian WWII army helmets and 3 German officers wearing conflicting badges and rank insignia (one being a Waffen SS officer, none of whom served in North Africa)-Best Sound Walter Murch Mark Berger David Parker Christopher Newman (despite thunder incorrectly and unnaturally added to a sequence of a thunderstorm, and the flash, bang and shock-wave of an exploding bomb being experienced simultaneously at a distance) -Best Film Editing Walter Murch (Despite 3 scenes being sequenced incorrectly in the final movie)One must ask why Ondaatje/Minghela were so sadistic? An apparently injured (terminally) pilot is found with horrific burns in North Africa (Libya?)) and is carried by road to Egypt where he is put on a hospital ship and transported to Sicily and proceeds to follow the front line up through Italy until a Canadian nursing officer takes it upon herself to leave the convoy to save the patient any discomfort etc etc WHEN IT WOULD HAVE BEEN EASIER TO simply place the patient on board the hospital ship in Tobruk or one of the many functional Allied ports in North Africa and send him directly back to Britain (as they thought he was English)...seems a little mean to the poor guy? The scriptwriter should have known that Ethiopia is not, as Katherine observed, in North Africa...tsk tsk! A disaster if a movie it may be, but it still strums the heart-strings....gets a tear every time...and I must have seen it 15 times in all

The extramarital affair of two rich pompous and pretentious people who indulge in their own delights whilst others fulfil their duty to the war on the frontline, is the centre to this story. They are an utterly boring pair, especially the English patient himself, who proudly proclaims "I do not bargain (with the local market merchants)" in a disdainful tone. They are a construct always speaking as if they are reciting pretentious poetry. The historical chronicles of Herodotus are referred to by the pair repeatedly as if to remind the viewer that these people are oh so learned. When playing spin the bottle with others singing funny songs and having fun around a campfire, the female protagonist (the only woman in the company of about 5 men) recites a boring story of Gyges lusting for Candaules and her nakedness. That's when we first glimpse her narcissism and flirtatious personality.The most preposterous part is when our poetic lovers are stranded in the desert due to a plane crash involving the grieving husband. As she is injured, and her husband lies dead, her besotted lover leaves her alone with a flashlight and her precious Herodotus in a cave in the middle of the desert and walks to get help. Yes, that's right. With an ankle fracture her fate is sealed when he leaves her alone, whilst he embarks on a 3 day journey through the desert to return with a car. He is unsuccessful (there is a war after all). After a substantial period of time, he returns to the cave. Her body would be either desiccated or bloated, yet she is shown as fresh as the moment he left her when he lifts her in his arms and puts her in a plane again. Taking off, he crashes again in the desert and is burned to near death, but taken by passing Arabs to a hospital (through the desert again). A nurse, abandons her duties to wounded soldiers to feed and administer morphine repeatedly to this one selfish man for a substantial period of time, and she is portrayed as an angel.This movie sentimentalises and romanticises war. The love story is puerile and gross. I think lovers of cinematography might like it.

Late-WW2, Allied-occupied Italy. A nurse at a field hospital is tending to a badly burned English pilot. He has no identification so is referred to as "The English Patient". Slowly she starts to piece together his background, including a passionate yet doomed romance with a married woman.9 Oscar wins, including Best Picture. You have got to be kidding! I really don't know what all the fuss was about, as the movie is pretty dull. Empty, style over substance and pretty much schmaltz for schmaltz sake. One of the worst Best Picture Oscar winners.It wasn't like it was such a bad movie year - you had Fargo, Jerry Maguire, Sling Blade, Trainspotting, The People vs Larry Flynt, all of which are infinitely better than this.