While it’s been nearly three decades since its release, The English Patient is showing no signs of slowing down as it’s now featured on streaming platform Amazon Prime.
The star-packed and widely acclaimed WW2 movie won nine academy awards, including Best Picture, and remains a highly respected entry in the genre.
Set mainly set between Italy and Tunisia during the closing months of the second world war, the film also takes us to the Sahara Desert and Cairo.
The 1996 film intertwines the past and the present as a nurse tends to a badly burned plane crash victim who was injured after a British biplane, flying across the desert, was shot down by German gunners.
He begins experiencing flashbacks that also reveal details of a fateful love affair.
While the victim, played by Ralph Fiennes, begins remembering bits of his past, including his work mapping out the African landscape, the nurse – played by Juliette Binoche – learns to heal her own scars.
The film stars Fiennes and Kristen Scott-Thomas alongside Binoche, Willem Dafoe and Colin Firth in supporting roles.
Juliette Binoche’s performance was a stand out as she picked up Best Supporting Actress in the 1997 Oscar Awards ceremony.
The film’s director, Anthony Minghella, who also picked up the Best Director accolade, wrote his own script based on the 1992 novel by Michael Ondaatje.
The WW2 drama also picked up six BAFTA awards and two Golden Globe awards, also appearing in the British FIlm Institute’s top 100 British films of the 20th century and the Guardian’s 25 best British films of the last 25 years list in 2009.
The English Patient became the highest-grossing film in Miramax history. With a box office success that grossed $231.9 million worldwide.
It has also had further success in its wide theatre release and long theatrical run, which exceeded 412 days.
The English Patient is now available to stream on Amazon Prime and Apple TV.