英国病人英文影评

The Beauty of Humanity

商管1001班罗银香20100301298 The English patient, adapted from one book which is entitled with the same name of a Canadian writer, Michael Ondaatje, is a love tragedy with the background of war and desert. It cost 27millinon dollars and over 200 people from eight countries took part in making this film. In 1997, The English patient received 9 awards in 69th Oscar, for instance, best motion picture, best director, and best film editing. Once you have seen this film, you will find it live up with its fame.

The story is told in flashbacks by Count Laszlo de Almásy who has been badly burned in plane crash, occurring just as the film opens. Almásy is taken care of by Hana, an unlucky but warm-hearted girl who lost her boyfriend and best friend in the war. With the help of Hana, Count Laszlo de Almásy gradually regains his memory. He used to be a Hungarian historian who investigated with the explorer Madox in the Sahara, where he made acquaintance with a pilot, Geoffrey and his wife, Katharine. He found that Katharine was so enthusiastic and smart that he couldn’t help falling in love with her. In the mean while, Katharine took to him because of his intelligence, alert and humorous. Since Katharine was a married woman, their love was bound to be a tragedy. At the last, though Almásy risks his life to save his lover, he could not change the ending: Katharine was dead. Ralph Fiennes, who is known for his warm smile and charming eyes, plays the Almásy role very well, especially in the scene which he walks in the desert for 3 days to find a doctor to save Katharine, his face is full of anxiety and desperation, which exactly expresses the feeling of the poor Almásy.

Kristin Scott Thomas was nearly 40 years old when she played the Katharine role in The English patient. We have to admit that though Kristin Scott Thomas is not young but she is a beautiful and elegant woman. In this movie, Kristin’s role is very paradox: Katharine loves Almásy but she can’t stand the blame from her ethics, so she makes a tough decision to break up with Almásy. She doesn’t expect her having an affair with Almásy will drive her husband Geoffrey crazy. Geoffrey wants to kill

Almásy but he kills himself and makes Katharine badly hurt. Eventually, Katharine died in a cold cave, waiting for Almásy to save her. Someone says that if he were Almásy, he would rather stay in the caves and spent the last days with Katharine. However, Almásy loves Katharine so much, and how can he bear the pain that she dies in front of him? Nevertheless, the misfortune can not be avoided in the war.

While Almásy gradually remembers what happen before his accident, his nurse, Hana falls in love with an Indian lieutenant, Kip. Since Kip’s duty is to remove bombs, Hana worries a lot when Kip goes out for work. Times go by; Hana can no longer stand these awful days, so she separates with Kip. After she helps Almásy to leave the world to chaise his lover, Hana leaves the cloister alone. It was another unfortunate love happen in the war. But nobody can change the end because the war is heartless.

This movie interweaves past and present, love and war, and memory and reality, but it is not messy at all. Every part connects with each other naturally. Betrayer Almásy, brokenhearted Hana, paradox Kip and rancorous Moose, they are all victims of the war. The most impressive advantage of this movie is the description of human soul and their subtle feeling: Katharine loves Almásy but she chooses to leave him because of her ethics; Hana escapes from Kip because she doesn’t want to get hurt. The most important thought of this movie is the idea about humanity and ethics. In front of humanity and love, frontiers drawn in the maps seem insignificant. Just as the saying that Katharine writes to Almásy in her letter: “We are the real countries. Not the boundaries drawn on maps, the names of powerful men.”And Katharine also writes that we die rich with lovers and tribes. The director Anthony Minghella shows us the beauty of humanity in a special way.

In brief, The English patient is worthy for us to watch and think.