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Anthony Minghella transforms Michael Ondaatje’s prizewinning novel into one of the most breathtaking romances ever put on-screen, a film that captured both the cultural imagination and the Academy Awards (winning nine Oscars, including Best Picture). Rescued from a crashed plane in the Sahara during World War II, a badly burned, unidentified man (Ralph Fiennes) comes under the care of a compassionate nurse (Juliette Binoche), as he pieces together the memories of an affair that led him to a life-shaking reckoning. The English Patient is epic filmmaking of rare intelligence and delicacy, and a piercing reflection on the barriers that war creates and love transcends.

Film Info
United States, United Kingdom
1996
162 minutes
Color
1.85:1
English
Spine #1338
4K UHD SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director of photography John Seale, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the special features
New program featuring Seale and script supervisor Dianne Dreyer
Two audio commentaries, featuring director Anthony Minghella, producer Saul Zaentz, and author Michael Ondaatje
Documentary on the making of the film
Interviews with Minghella, Ondaatje, Zaentz, editor Walter Murch, production designer Stuart Craig, stills photographer Phil Bray, and historians Robert Collins and David Hall
Deleted scenes with commentary by Minghella
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
PLUS: An essay by critic Bilal Qureshi

New cover by Robert Hunt

A lot of people seem to dislike this film, but I've always thought it to be one of the better epics to come out of the 90s. It's got surprising narrative agility, the romance is given the right amount of space to feel authentic, and Binoche's present-day arc is involving and her role quite moving

I’ve been saying this for decades, but I always maintained this was too artsy for the normies and too classic Hollywood for the 90s indie kids, and despite the Oscar sweep it was never fully loved by either faction.

As a huge fan of the book, I thought Minghella really pulled off a magic trick from an impossible task turning stream of consciousness into something tangible. Having a brilliant editor in Walter Murch didn’t hurt but he’s a beautiful writer and visualist.

Thankfully the tide has turned over the years and a lot of cinephiles have been showing up for this and The Talented Mr. Ripley, which I hope gets a similar Criterion treatment one day.

My wife loves this film. She saw it in theaters multiple times and watched it endlessly on video, though I don't think we've watched it in years, not since I picked up the Blu-ray at any rate. I think it's fine and my only annoyance with it really is that I thought Fargo should have won.

I’ve always liked it too, from when I went to see it opening week as a college freshman, feeling like it was basically going to be a homework assignment.

If nothing else, it’s a really great movie-star movie, with all of the major characters being really well cast and the actors giving really great performances.

Historically, it also feels now like the end of a Hollywood era. Afterwards, for better or worse, they mostly stopped making historical epics like this at all. I guess you had stuff like Titanic and Gladiator after, but it still feels like the last of its particular kind.