Product Description

Winner of 9 Academy Awards® including Best Picture, Best Director (Anthony Minghella) and Best Supporting Actress (Juliette Binoche), THE ENGLISH PATIENT is a "fiercly romantic" (THE NEW YORK TIMES) epic where love knows no boundaries. During World War II, a mysterious stranger (Ralph Fiennes) is cared for by British allies unaware of his dangerous past. Yet, as the mystery of his identity is revealed, an incredible tale of passion, intrigue and adventure unfolds. Also starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Colin Firth and Willem Dafoe, this powerful motion picture is an experience you will never forget.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3362 in DVD
• Brand: Lions Gate
• Released on: 2012-01-31
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: AC-3, DTS Surround Sound, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Dimensions: .37 pounds
• Running time: 162 minutes

Amazon.com
Winner of nine Academy Awards and almost every critic's heart, The English Patient (based on Michael Ondaatje's prizewinning novel of love and loss during World War II) is one of the most acclaimed films of modern times. Hana, a nurse (Juliette Binoche), tends to an archaeologist (Ralph Fiennes) who has been burnt to a crisp in a plane crash. As their relationship intensifies, he flashes back to his overwhelming passion for a married woman (Kristin Scott Thomas). Meanwhile, Hana begins a new romance with a man who defuses bombs (Naveen Andrews) and Willem Dafoe almost steals the show as the thumbless thief Caravaggio. The intricately layered flashback narrative, sounding the depths of the lovers' hearts, improves with repeated viewings.

From The New Yorker
Written and directed by Anthony Minghella, from the novel by Michael Ondaatje, this long and searching movie tangles together a number of stories. First, there is an adulterous love affair between Almásy (Ralph Fiennes) and Katherine (Kristin Scott Thomas) which unfolds in the sands of North Africa before the outbreak of the Second World War. Then, as the war winds down, the badly burned Almásy is cared for in an abandoned Italian monastery by a French-Canadian nurse (Juliette Binoche), who has an affair with a Sikh soldier (Naveen Andrews). Among the other characters are the decent chaps who tried to befriend the frosty Almásy in the desert and the mysterious Caravaggio (Willem Dafoe), a scavenging thief who appears to know the secrets of Almásy's past. All these plot lines interweave and tauten right up to the unbearable romantic tension of the climax. The triumph of the film lies not just in the force and range of the performances-the crisp sweetness of Scott Thomas, say, versus the raw volatility of Binoche-but in Minghella's creation of an intimate epic: vast landscapes mingle with the minute details of desire, and the combination is transfixing. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker