Character Analysis
Two Thumbs Off
David "Moose" Caravaggio is the film's fifth wheel. We have #teamalmásyandkatharine and #teamkipandhana, but no #teamcaravaggioandhisthumbs.
The morphine-addicted thief is basically a walking symbol of the consequences of Almásy's actions. Caravaggio initially plans to kill Almásy, but decides not to. Why?
Maybe it's because he realizes that, even though Almásy sold out the British to the Germans, there wouldn't be two different sides if there weren't a war. Almásy, Caravaggio, and everyone else are just pawns in this great global scheme.
Caravaggio hints at this idea with a seemingly innocuous line of dialog in his first scene:
"In Italy you get chickens, but no eggs. In Africa, there are always eggs but never chickens. Who separated them?"
War is a chicken-or-egg situation. Does war happen because of bad people, or are bad people created because of war? Despite creeping around the monastery for most of the movie, we don't learn much else about Caravaggio. He drops his revenge scheme, so maybe he has found a little peace of his own after hanging around the English patient.