The English Patient

The English Patient...the book by Machael Ondaajte.

I just finished reading this book, and it is a beautiful, beautiful book. Of course I had seen the movie before and was very impressed, and yet again, i feel the pathos of a fantastic book being converted into a rather obscure shadow of itself in a movie...

The book is all about Hana, Caravaggio, Kip and Almasy. Catherine, and the husband play such a small part in that. And in the movie, its all changed; and not for the better. What pains me most is that a brilliant story about human beings has been turned into a story of doomed lovers.

Must we all always think in cliches?

That good books are seldom great movies is well known, and yet, this movie in particular being as fantastic as it were, I had expected it to be more loyal to the book. The book could perhaps have been more easily transformed into a movie if the story line and the importance of the characters had not been played with.

Where does it go then?

Do we never get to see a movie so honest to the book that it surpasses itself? Afetr all, a movie should be able to add on to the value of a book, and not limit it to banalities.