Movies
How Many Academy Awards Did “The English Patient” Win??
How many Oscars did The English Patient (1996) win?
“At the close of World War II, a young nurse tends to a badly burned plane crash victim. His past is shown in flashbacks, revealing an involvement in a fateful love affair.”
Director: Anthony Minghella
Writers: Anthony Minghella, Michael Ondaatje
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Kristin Scott Thomas, Naveen Andrews, Colin Firth
Release Date: December 6, 1996
IMDB
How many Oscars did The English Patient (1996) win?
NINE? It won, NINE??
There is no denying that The English Patient is a robust movie. It’s grand in scale, and the story traverses two timelines with vast landscapes and multiple characters.
But with that being said…is The English Patient that good? Nine Oscar wins is tied for the fifth most all-time for a single movie. It’s tied with Gigi (1958) and The Last Emperor (1987). The short list of films that have more Oscar wins than The English Patient are West Side Story (1961) with 10,and then Ben-Hur (1959), Titanic (1997) and The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King (2003) each with 11.
That is the class that The English Patient is in. Nine wins, 12 nominations. It’s still as shocking to me now as when I first opened up the IMDB page after watching it.
As one can tell, The English Patient is not getting the sure-fire Stanko’s Stance stamp of approval. One can appreciate the grandeur that went into making this expansive love story possible, but an elaborate idea brought to life doesn’t guarantee anything.
So what the hell is The English Patient about?
The central figure of the story is Almásy (Ralph Fiennes) and we first meet the man in the backcountry of war torn Italy in 1944. Almásy is a badly burned plane crash victim, and his survival is solely dependent on the kind heart of Hana (Juliette Binoche), a nurse working for the army. Almásy’s history is a bit of a mystery. He has suffered some memory damage, and the physical belongings he has only create a deeper aura of mystery around him.
Hanah decides that it’s best to coop up in an abandoned building with Almásy, but their solitude is disrupted when David Caravaggio (Willem Dafoe) walks through the door and begins raising questions about Almásy. Caravaggio believes that the bed-ridden Englishman is hiding his true identity and his past.
The English Patient turns into a two time-line structure with a younger, unblemished Almásy galavanting around North Africa as a cartographer. While we are living in the past, in a world untouched by war, Katharine Clifton (Kristin Scott Thomas) and Geoffrey Clifton (Colin Firth) enter the picture as an wealthy traveling couple with a thirst for adventure. At first, Almásy and the newcomers don’t get along all that swimmingly, but over time the apathy turns to something different. Almásy begins to crush on Katharine, and their dance of flirtatious looks eventually crashes to shore in a steamy love affair that consumes the pair both in and outside the sands of Africa.
While Almásy’s past love and transgressions are being unveiled, Hana has her own dance with affection when she meets Kip (Naveen Andrews), a bomb defuser aiming to clear out the area of explosive danger for citizens when they finally return. Having seen many of her own friends die in the war, Hana has her own thoughts about love and connection. Her story of falling for Kip travels in parallel with Almásy and Katharine’s story of hidden romance and its repercussions.
The English Patient is big. It’s a Shakespearan drama without much comedy. It’s a character trying to map out their way in life, only to get lost along the way. In Almásy’s case, his life was all charted until Katharine walked into it, and it was the unpredictability that made him love her more and drove him to the edge for her. For Hana, she was going through the motions and pouring all her soul into this one burnt amoeba of a man, until her world was expanded by someone whose bravery and self confidence made her excited to open a different door.
So what about this Oscar-baity movie did I not like?
The entire romantic relationship between Almásy and Katharine. If the main love story, the baseline for the film, doesn’t grab the audience, then one’s in trouble. The younger version of Almásy is an asshole, yet somehow he worms his way into the brain of Katharine. The chemistry between the two characters didn’t mesh, and neither did the chemistry between the actors. The first time they are intimate with one another is odd, reminiscent of older film love making with over aggression. This may have been a purposeful choice, but allow me to say to this 12-time Oscar nominated movie, that I think it was the wrong one.
Ralph Fienes plays the flashbacks without a smile, and if we are being honest, he doesn’t give a lot of chances to actually root for the character. Katharine falls for the adventurer, but she has the husband who is doing everything he can to make her happy while also serving his country. Both ends of this love potion are in the wrong.
The far superior part of The English Patient takes place in its present, near the end of World War II with Hana caring for Almásy in a simply gorgeous Italian scenery. One can’t argue the Best Art Direction-Set Decoration Oscar win. That makes all the sense.
The two best scenes from the movie involve Kip, the unsung 17th fiddle of the movie. The cold chemistry of Almásy and Katharine is blown out of the water by Hana and Kip. There is a scene in a church where Kip asks Hana to put trust in him, and damn if it isn’t the emotional apex of the movie. According to the IMDB trivia section (which I really do love), it was this specific scene that convinced Juliette Binoche that she wanted to be a part of the movie.
The best action sequence comes in the film’s final moments. Kip is trying to disarm a bomb that is near a bridge, but raucous soldiers and onlookers are celebrating the end of the war. The shaking, rattling and commotion forces Kip to lose his tools, and makes his job of diffusing this now useless weapon of violence nearly impossible. This moment also hits with the themes of the movie; the idea of not being able to have a good thing without a bad event coming. The symbolic nature of a bridge, crossing over into a new life, being blown up. It’s all there,
The English Patient strove, and accomplished, massive success. Many members of this cast won their first, and only, Academy Award for their work, including director and writer Anthony Minghella. The man tried to replicate this same formula of success a few years later with Cold Mountain (2003). Both movies involve war, multiple timelines, traveling in beautiful nature filled areas and returning to lost love. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, I guess.
Cold Mountain did garner seven Academy Award nominations, though Minghella was not on the ballots. Speaking for myself because this is Stanko’s Stance, I prefer Cold Mountain to The English Patient. Its scale and execution may not be as consistent throughout, but it’s apexes are greater than its counterpart. The scene with Natalie Portman, Jude Law, the baby and the evil soldiers is the best thing from either movie. Nicole Kidman is a more engaging actress than Kristin Scott Thomas and Renée Zellweger, as a source of comedy, brings some levity to what’s an often heavy motion picture.
Regardless of which war-time love drama of Minghella you liked more, the sad fact of the matter is that both The English Patient and Cold Mountain are forgotten to time. Unless you are a cinephile, The English Patient is not a movie one’s going to dive in headfirst. That’s not to say it’s bad. I’ll say that it was not great, but to call it poorly made is blatantly false. Cold Mountain is most likely collecting a mountain of dust. The only reason I knew and knew of it was because I fell in love with the movie poster back in the day when we’d go rent DVDs at the store.
One has to admit that The English Patient is a piece of movie history, but it’s a chapter that’s often skipped over. Perhaps the longest lasting legacy of the movie is its proof of Harvey Weinstein’s innate capability to flourish as an Academy Award campaigner. Yes, the man is an absolute asshole, but Miramax found a way to get its projects in the awards discussion for a long time.
Here is the full list of Oscar Nominations and wins for The English Patient.
- Best Actor
- Best Actress
- Best Adapted Screenplay
- Best Art-Set Decoration
- Best Cinematography
- Best Costume Design
- Best Director
- Best Film Editing
- Best Original Score
- Best Picture
- Best Sound
- Best Supporting Actress
As of mid-April 2024, The English Patient is streaming on Paramount+.
STANKO RATING: B-
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