The English Patient

Book, movie; movie- book. Which is better? Which is most satisfying? What can you recall most quickly: scenes from the movie or descriptions from the book? A modern dilemma. The movie version came out in 1996, a while ago. The movie has a great cast of characters: Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Colin Furth, to name a few. It was produced by locals in Berkeley: Saul Zaentz, and some strong help- Walter Murch and Anthony Minghella.
The producers also had the luck to shoot on location in Tuscany and North Africa, in the desert; both memorable locations and visually interesting. The mayor has seen the movie years ago, and he can recall numerous scenes from the film: of course, the plane crash in the desert which was a spectacular creation of real and special effects. The club scenes in Cairo, pre WWII were believable and effective. The camera work exceptional with lots of closeups when appropriate.
So it was a great movie, start to finish. And the book: a best seller, of course, giving a basis for the cost of movie making. The author, MIchael Ondaatje, is a published poet, author of several other novels, a memoir: Running in the Family, and a winner of the Booker prize for the English Patient.
The book is a combination of overlapping memories of past events recalled by characters assembled in an abandoned Italian villa in the heart of Tuscany at the end of WWII in Europe. The Nazis have been defeated but the residue of the war in Italy remains in the form of landmines sewn by retreating German units as the Allies pushed them back north toward the Alps. The author did his homework in this area and the reader is instructed on the vagaries of bomb disposal, the craft of Kip, one of the 4 main characters. Kip is a Sikh, wears a turban to work, and harbors a spiritual side in contrast to his Canadian associates, Caravaggio and Hana, the 20 year old nurse.
The "English" patient is the fourth member of the group, laying in bed, unable to do anything for himself. He can communicate with words, hand movements, and eye contact, period. From him, we learn slowly, his story, his history, how he was burned so badly, and yet survive against all odds. The author mined records of the Geographical Society of London, a remnant of centuries of exploration and global investigation by Great Britain. The layered civilizations of North Africa come to 'life' as the expeditions of the 1930's fan out across the Sahara Desert, looking for signs of past occupants and their various oases. One in particular, Zerzura, is oft mentioned as the goal. These events, of course, predate the beginning of WWII, which began in earnest(shots fired), in September, 1939 with the invasion of Poland. Shortly thereafter, North Africa became its own theater of war, with Italians and Germans responding to the presence of the British in Egypt and the Middle East.
Hana, the youngest of nurses, has followed the advancing armies across the Mediterrenean to Sicily and the Italian peninsula. The endless supply of wounded has taken its toll on her mental health: her shell of personal protection has become hardened and thick, as the young men in her care die, despite her best efforts. Upon hearing of her own father's death in France, she retreats even further from social engagement, preferring to stay alone in the villa with the English Patient.
The story unfolds, layer by layer, in the Villa Giraloma, a real place in Tuscany. The cinematography is captivating, highlighted by enchanting replicas of thunder and lightning storms that roll through the Tuscan hills. The interiors, described variously by the author, provide a feeling of museum-like qualities to the villa, complete with frescoes, statuary, and religious motifs.
The time shifts are managed by chapters, with subtle shifts in time indicated in the book with breaks between paragraphs. Often, the text has dreamlike characteristics, evoking ideal images from morphine-induced states. Both the patient and Caravaggio are current and frequent users of available morphine, for pain and for pleasure.
Book or movie? It's a tough call. Read the book, see the movie. You decide. I can't.