The English Patient - Tragic Optimism

The English Patient

Director: Anthony Minghella

Have you noticed there are chickens? In Italy you get chickens, but no eggs. In Africa there're always eggs, but never chickens. Who's separating them?
–David Caravaggio

My mother always told me I would summon my husband by playing the piano. –Hana

I have to teach myself not to read too much into everything. It comes with too long having to read so much into hardly anything at all. –Madox

So yes, she died because of me… because I loved her… because I had the wrong name. –Count Laszlo de Almásy

The Netflix DVD jacket:

Adapted from Michael Ondaatje's acclaimed novel set against the backdrop of World War II, Anthony Minghella's Oscar-winning drama stars Ralph Fiennes as a horribly burned pilot who recounts a tale of doomed romance to the nurse tending him (Juliette Binoche). As his story is revealed via flashback, so too are secrets about his identity and the depth of his passion for the woman he loved (Kristin Scott Thomas).

I'm going to be honest: I'd been dreading watching this movie (sorry, Michele) because not only is it a war movie (which is a genre I'm don't particularly seek out or enjoy), it also happens to be 2 hours and 42 minutes long. And while it's probably not a movie I'll revisit, I will admit that it was more enjoyable than I'd expected. The music is beautiful, and any time Colin Firth can grace my television with his face and voice is a time well spent.

This is a love story, wrought with tragedy, focusing on Count Laszlo de Almásy and Katharine Clifton. However, the real tragedy in this movie, if you ask me, is Hana. We first meet her as a woman cursed, having her "sweetie" die in the war, and watching her friend get blown up by a landmine. She then stays behind as her company moves on and chooses to care for a dying burn victim. He leaves her, too, and goes so far as to ask her to help him die. She falls in love with Kip and he leaves her. Alone, she seems to have no choice but to move on. Perhaps she is optimistic that she will find a new life, a new love, a new purpose in Florence. And perhaps it is this optimism which I find so tragic.

I suppose you could look at it as quite the opposite though. Each person who leaves Hana makes her stronger. Her happy idealistic view of the war is shattered when she loses her Love. And the death of her friend leaves her open and free, with no real ties, to leave her company and care for the badly burned Count Almásy. Her dependence on him for purpose, as well as for company, lasts as long as it needs to. He asks her for release from life only after he has finished his story, which restores Hana's faith in love. Having been scarred by the deaths and then healed by the story, her skin is thicker and her outlook optimistically guarded. I'd like to think that by the end, she has learned that optimism is okay, as long as you know how fragile life is. But I still think she's a tragic character.

The love story between Almásy and Katharine Clifton annoyed me. I don't appreciate that they are having an affair and betraying Geoffrey Clifton. Not to go all Moral Police on them, but it does bother me that they feel their love is above the law. This, of course, leads to Geoffrey's murder/suicide attempt. That's not to say that he wouldn't have attempted something similar even if they'd told him, but it would have made them aware of the possibility of such actions, at the very least. And at most, Geoffrey could have accepted the affair with decorum and appreciation of their honesty. Who really knows?

My takeaway: Some people possess in innate sense of optimism that cannot be crushed even by the deaths of loved ones; though I may find these people tragic, I can appreciate their sunny outlook on life, as it takes a lot of faith and conviction not to be dampened. And Ralph Fiennes's future role of Lord Voldemort was secured the moment his burnt face was unveiled in this movie.