MovieChat Forums > The English Patient (1996) Discussion > Timing of Seeing Germans in the Desert

Timing of Seeing Germans in the Desert

posted 9 years ago by agracier-574-436194
4 replies | jump to latest

One thing about the timeline of the story has me somewhat confused.

I have the impression that when Maddox crashes the plane with him and Katherine in it, at the Cave of Swimmers, that it supposed to be somewhere around the end of 1939, just after declaration of war.

But when Almasy leaves injured Katherine behind in the cave and then escapes the British train, he comes upon a detachment of German soldiers who give him fuel for the plane. However, it wasn't until March 1941 that German soldiers began operating in North Africa.

So that is almost a 2 year passage of time between those events. It doesn't add up with what happened on the ground in real history.

Or am mistaken about the times some of the events are supposed to have taken place?

[–] alloneword950-948-598356 9 years ago

It isn't made clear in the film, but from what I remember from the book it does indeed take Almasy 2 years to return to the cave to retrieve Katherines body. Obviously this isn't the case in the film as when they are shown flying out of the desert (prior to being shot down) Katherine doesn't look like she has been dead for any amount of time. However I wonder if this was done to not spoil the plot, as this is the opening scene, as well as one of the closing scenes.

[–] JacintoCupboard 9 years ago

To save myself going bonkers reading books or watching movies that are notionally placed in real places and periods, that have been created by people from the late 20th Century, and are typically filled with schoolboy howlers, I ignore the setting and pretend the events take place in an entirely fictional Universe.

I give this free advice to spare anyone frustrated by the stupidity of writers. It's not ideal, but it's a workaround.

[–] doughazelrigg 8 years ago

Which is valid. Almasy is based on a real-life Hungarian adventurer/explorer, but the depictions of him in both novel and film are entirely fictional.

[–] Evil_Bob 7 years ago

Madox wasn't the one flying the Plane. That was Geoffrey Clifton, her husband. Madox had left at that point and gone back to England