Perhaps it is the eccentricity brought about by the education of classical studies. The classical elements in "The English Patient" are unavoidable for me. Once, Almásy and Katharine carried with them the works of Herodotus, the father of history, but by the end of the war, the nurse Hana had no knowledge of it (I don't know anything). At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the arts and humanities began to undergo qualitative changes like science. The Concert of Europe was broken in the flames of war, and the Second World War defined the new world order (cf. mapping). At the same time, the spiritual repertoire built by the Greco-Roman classics after the Renaissance gradually collapsed. Classical education has gradually given way to new fields from the cornerstone of personal education, basic subjects such as mathematics, and retreated to a strictly academic subject.
"The English Patient" is a modern love story, but it is always reluctant to separate from the spiritual world of the old aristocracy that intertwined with the Greek and Roman classics.
At the beginning of the film, Katharine told the story of Candaules from the history of Herodotus, setting the tone. Candaules' boasting of his wife's beauty brought himself a murderous disaster.
In Herodotus of Almásy Katharine wrote,
New lovers are nervous and tender, but smash everything. For the heart is an organ of fire.
Perhaps the audience with a little knowledge of Virgil can immediately remember his most famous verse,
omnia vincit amor et nos cedamus amori. — Georgics Book X Love conquers all and we all yield to love.
However, every teacher will remind when explaining this verse that Virgil’s verse can never be simply used as an encouragement. Virgil's term (vincit, cedamus) is militant. There are the destruction of the winner, the submission of the loser, the aggressiveness of war, and the destructiveness of war. Love in war, like war, self-destruction is like the interpretation of heaven in ancient Greek tragedy, as if fate was calculated.
The cave discovered by Almásy became the place where Almásy and Katharine parted forever. In Virgil's "Aeneas", Aeneas and Dido become husband and wife in an allegorical cave (womb). The ending of Dido's self-immolation will not be repeated, but Almásy placed Katharine in the cave and asked for help from the British soldiers. To the beginning of the film, the American soldiers who counted the wounded and sick on the beaches of Italy called Katharine as my wife my wife. Or maybe, the scene where Almásy rescued Katharine from the plane Katharine wrapped in a parachute as if in a wedding dress is not my personal guess.
Finally, Almásy said to Katharine
Every night I cut out my heart. But in the morning it was full again.
It is even more reminiscent of the punishment of Prometheus who stole the skyfire by transgression. The Skyfire Tinder secretly echoed Katharine's poem "For the heart is an organ of fire." and the raging fire that swallowed Almásy after the crash.
In this way, self-destruction seems to be the common theme of these classical elements. Observe carefully, keep the vows, shoot down the crashed plane, and destroy the shell. This tendency to self-destruct is not only reflected in the two protagonists, but also everywhere in the film.
Geoffrey, who wanted to surprise his wife on the wedding anniversary, did not choose to confront his wife after discovering the extramarital affairs, but chose to fly the plane to the end of the three. The female nurse Mary and others were excited to overtake because they wanted to rush to the town ahead. Landmines were blown up; Bermann was playing around causing the car to roll over and everyone was trapped in the desert; Caravaggio called a nurse who cut off his thumb; Madox thought that Almásy was a German spy and shot himself; Hardy was killed because of the flag being blown up.
In the current timeline, the two supporting roles Hana and Kip are also worthy of fun. Hana thought that people close to him would die, and for a while, despite the mines on the street, she wanted to retrieve her friends' jewelry. And Kip is a bomb disposal trooper, who will be wiped out by the bomb if he is not careful. But Hana played the piano and Kip saved her life, and Kip did not fail because of Hana's ride. If Almásy and Katharine show the pessimistic side of Virgil's poem, then the love of Kip and Hana may be a positive interpretation and contrast of this poem.
The last Act of the film, the part where Almásy tried to save Katharine after the crash, was full of fateful emotions, and it was very worrying to watch. After the "fate calculation" mentioned in the previous article, it is the fate of the boat running against the current to the disaster in the rolling torrent.
On the surface, there are two obvious layers that form this fatefulness itself, which is also explained by Almásy himself:
She died because of me. Because I loved her. Because I had the wrong name.
One is that people involved in the torrent actively choose, which seems to be a direct result of free will. The second is the origin and name that cannot be selected. This point was cleverly given in the first half of the film, but it wasn't until Almásy met the British army that it was fully explained. (Name and identity are also one of the themes of this film)
But this Act is not simply putting the two sides into an impossible situation, waiting and rescuing broadly, and racing against time and space and destiny. (For example, Titanic used relatively straightforward narrative techniques to attract the audience's empathic love stories under the catastrophe; for example, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon's delicate and sincere feelings erupted. They are all different.)
What Minghella does is unique in that this fatefulness is deeply rooted in man’s romanticism and mysticism towards nature. In this scene, human emotions and nature breathe together and are closely connected. The desert is not just a background and barrier for the beauty or unfeeling of tragic love. The audience may realize that the desert itself is an inseparable character in this story from beginning to end. How strong the relationship between people is, the desert and the yellow sand are just as suitable. Human feelings transcend Nature's expanse and spatiality, which in turn amplifies human feelings.
The end and the beginning of the film echo, but the tone is already different. Almásy was flying through the desert with Katharine's body, but the desert was no longer the Villain separating lovers, but the Palace of Winds. Almásy has lived at this moment and forever. He seems to be able to fly like this forever, flying to the other side with his beloved. This moment was fleeting, and with the last remaining dignity and hope, Almásy also died.
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