Sir, - In the guise of film critic, Nuala O'Faolain's resentment makes no detours on the road from boring to bizarre (April 21st). The most egregious fatuity is her complaint that The English Patient lacks a moral, which couldn't be further from the truth.
The English Patient is almost Homeric in its moral scope, illustrating the tragic consequences of the "good" being achievable only by actions which jeopardise its very attainment. What is utterly chilling about the movie - what left my house emotionally seared - is that we are forced to contemplate this moral catastrophe along with the dying Almasy, in the knowledge that, for him at least there is no redemption.
Perhaps it is Ms O'Faolain's indignation at the quintessential "Englishness" of The English Patient that blinds her to this rather compelling state of affairs. Instead, as politically correct nationalists, we are invited to excoriate the movie as the degenerate progeny of all that is Brideshead Revisited. We must overcome - for the sake of the Republic - our indenture to the glamour of English aristos in linen suits. Yes, perhaps Almasy should have been surveying the Bog of Allen. I can see it now - unfolding in the muted light of cinematographer Chris Menges - the petit bourgeois Ralph cycling off into the mist, the lifeless peasant Kristin perched delicately on the crossbar. O mo bhron. - Yours, etc.
Center for Media and Public Affairs,
Washington, D.C.
U.S.A.