MovieChat Forums > The English Patient (1996) Discussion > To the people who read the book, was Kip...

To the people who read the book, was Kip gay?


I haven't read the book but I've read many people's comments on how the novel is more focused on Kip and Hana.
I watched this film again like 2 twice this month and noticed that Kip wasn't very interested In Hanna in a romantic way, that the one he loved was Hardy.


So just a question out of curiosity was Kip gay?

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No

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Kip was not gay, but their relationship with Hana was not purely romantic. As it was the war/post-war time, they were in need for companionship, human closeness, etc.
At first I was also not sure where their relationship was going, but when I caught this aspect, it all started to make sense. The book gives a better insight because, well, Kip doesn't talk much or give much away in his actions as well, so it's all in the senses, touches and things like that. Sometimes even in the silence between them.

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Thanks so much for the explanation.
Yes Kip wasn't very talkative, actually he was a bitt like Almasy in the beginning who was hot and cold lol.

Sometimes he was very sweet towards Hanna but others he kind of ignored her or a bitt rude, when they saw each other and she was playing the piano. She made a joke and he answered in a very serious tone.

I just noticed how Kip confused Hanna the same way Almasy did Catherine when they first met.

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I feel he was just a very detached person, taking on the bomb disposal work with little emotion and not truly realising how dangerous it is, "this is what I do, I do this every day". He even gives Hana a strange "I don't want to die here because of your stupidity" look when Hardy escorts her back out of the minefield in the early scenes. There's something to be said as well about what he says about Hardy not asking him about stereotypical things like spinning the ball at cricket or kama sutra. You get the feeling that Hardy was the one solider who truly respected him and now he's gone, he's alone again.

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Yes it could be that his work made him a detached person but yet like I said I felt like he was a hot and cold guy with Hanna.
I felt bad for her because she was really sweet and she was very attracted to Kip but he had a strange attitude towards here for some reason he is one of the characters I disliked the most.

When Hanna Ask him if one day I don't come to your room or something like that what would you do and him very indifferently tells her I'd think you had your reasons and she kind of got disappointed since she wanted and expected a more romantic answer.


Actually I think Almasi tried to make them get together since she said to him I'm gonna marry this new guy who's living here because I met him playing the piano first Almasi thinks it's a crazy idea but he kind of made Kip to notice her.

The scene where Almasi tells Kip that Hanna says you are indifferent... Hanna says hey that's so rude and he fixes Indifferent to her cooking.
I think Almasi wanted to see Hanna having what he latter didn't have with Katherine which was a happy ending with the one she loved but Kip at times was indeed indifferent towards her.

So I ask if after a night together when she ask him to not go to his work and he answered that way and latter didn't get Hanna to get in his room when he knows about Hardy's death. All made me think he was gay.

If Almasy was first emotionally detached and changed his personality because of Catherine why Kip wouldn't do so. Kip really frustrated me since Hanna was too nice towards him,maybe if she would have met Almasi before he was so ill. She could have made him fall for her




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Late repliker and I know you already got your questinion answered, just wanted to add one thing. In The book Kim gets married and hade kids. So no not gay. :D

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Kip and Hardy were a team. In the work they did that had to trust each other absolutely. That intensifies the bond that is often formed with brothers in arms during the war.

I think Kip was interested in Hana too much. He comes to realize that he will hurt her if he dies doing his job so seeks to keep some distance. I think he is also protecting himself because he realizes that this war time romance is destined to end when the war does. In those days the world was hardly the inclusive multicultural place it is now. He knows that their romance is destined to end and they can never be together. There is no living happily ever after. So while he is torturing himself by being with her now, he knows the more he loves her the more it will hurt both of them when the inevitable happens.

No, he's not gay.

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No Kip was not gay. Didn't Hana and Kip sleep together in the film???? In case you have't read the book, you might want to. There is a time when Kip say "To be a wanderer is in our blood". But eventually he falls for Hana. Didn't Hana and Kip sleep together in the film? At the end it explains that several years afterward Kip is married (not to Hana) and has children.

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