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Drama, Romance, War 162 min R
Rotten Tomatoes86%Metacritic86IMDb
In love, there are no boundaries.
In the 1930s, Count Almásy is a Hungarian map maker employed by the Royal Geographical Society to chart the vast expanses of the Sahara Desert along with several other prominent explorers. As World War II unfolds, Almásy enters into a world of love, betrayal, and politics.
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Contemplative, meticulous, prestige and bleak.
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Written by TMDB members; each links to the original. Not part of Taste Buds's numbers.
"Hana" (Juliette Binoche) volunteers to remain in war-torn Italy to look after her badly burnt patient. Who is he? Well nobody knows. All he recalls is that he came from England and that some time ago he was married. The arrival of the enigmatic Canadian "Caravaggio" (Willem Dafoe) starts to unravel the mystery as his suspicions as to the bedridden man's true identity, along with that man's gradually more lucid recollections take us back to a time when he first arrived in North Africa. He is "Count Almásy (Ralph Fiennes) who has come to draw maps. The onset of WWII interrupts his cartography, but "Caravaggio" suspects that he proceeded to assist the Nazi occupiers. Did he? It's also clear that he had a deeply intense relationship with "Katherine", (Kristen Scott Thomas), a married pillar of the local colonial society. Slowly, but surely, Anthony Minghella ensures that the threads start to come together - but tragedy seems to follow the Count wherever he goes, and it isn't long before we fill in the blanks that led him to his present, terminal state. Meantime, "Hana" is falling in love with "Kip" (Naveen Andrews), a bomb disposal expert who, with his squad, has taken up residence on
Read the whole review on TMDBAlso remembered for a rare full frontal scene involving Kristin Scott Thomas' hairy triangle, The English Patient serves as a poignant critique of how nationalism and colonial borders dismantle human connection. The desert’s "mapless" freedom offers a romantic sanctuary, yet this ideal is ultimately crushed by the rigid, lethal identities imposed by WWII. Through Kip, the Sikh sapper, the film exposes the racial hierarchies inherent in the British Empire, highlighting how Western narratives often marginalize colonial contributions. By juxtaposing private passion against state loyalty, the film illustrates how global politics transform intimacy into treason. Ultimately, it portrays a world where geopolitical maps obliterate individual identity, leaving only displacement and grief.
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Companions we picked from the closest works, and how to take them.
Closest on the same fourteen dimensions, from everything scored on Taste Buds. Other media included when they land close.
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45 profiled raters. Loved most by The Prestige Hunters; disliked most by The Thrill Chasers.
If you loved this film, the television, the book, the music, the game.
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