Doctor Zhivago

• Directed by David Lean
• December 22, 1965 (US) / April 29, 1966 (UK) / December 10, 1966 (Italy)
• Based on the 1957 novel Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

The life and experiences of a married Russian poet who falls for another woman and the hardships during World War I and the October Revolution.

Doctor Zhivago is a sweeping historical epic romance. It’s a grand and lavish production that is more like a miniseries than it is a film. It was done at a time when movies could be hours long and people would be just fine watching that. Heck, this is so long it has an overture to open the film and an intermission segment so people can go to the bathroom and get snacks at the concession stand. Convenient and thoughtful.

But more than that this film tells a complex and mature story with the Russian Revolution as the backdrop. It focuses on the emotions and the feelings that the people are dealing with. But it also doesn’t shy away from the hardships and realities that they experience. It gives you a full picture of their lives.

The title refers to Yuri Andreyevich Zhivago (Omar Sharif), a doctor who would much rather live life purely as a poet but needs steady income so he is also a doctor. His position as a physician and his popularity as a poet causes his life to intersect deeply in numerous ways with the events around him. Not only must he deal with the welfare of the people, either by conscription or voluntarily, but his poetry comes to be viewed as subversive by the Soviet government which makes him an enemy of the state. Yikers!

Sharif became an icon with Doctor Zhivago. He was a very talented actor and here makes Yuri vulnerable and engaging. Yuri is a complicated figure. He is an artist at heart but also a very capable doctor. He has a wife named Tonya (Geraldine Chaplin) but is much more interested in a woman named Lara (Julie Christie) who is married to Pasha Antipov (Tom Courtenay). Throw in a love child and you would have a soap opera.

Oh wait! There is a love child as the search for her (Rita Tushingham) by Yuri’s half-brother NKVD Lieutenant General Yevgraf Andreyevich Zhivago (Sir Alec Guinness CH CBE) serves as a bookend for the events of the film. I had no idea Guinness was in this movie until I watched it. Though not in any large portion of the film, through his performance and his words you understand why Yevgraf is searching for his niece. It’s rather moving and a bit emotional ultimately. It is not spoken so much in words as it is displayed in how the character acts. You get something more than can be determined from looking just at the surface.

This is a film in love with crafting visuals. Not necessarily a bad thing when you’re trying to create atmosphere. From the composition of the shots to the sets, it’s just a cinematic masterpiece. Everything heightens the mood and creates the world. This is a film of epic grandeur and the human emotion set during a turbulent time.

There is a great deal of talking in this movie. But it’s dialogue that moves the story along. It sets the stage and advances the narrative. Saying that, I do think there are moments when the acting and the story in general just falls on the exceedingly melodramatic side. That may be heresy to plenty, but it does become like a soap. Maybe I feel that way because I saw so many soaps before this and they used elements similar to here.

And as a romance film Doctor Zhivago is kind of lacking. Love is certainly at its core and Yuri is certainly in love plenty. After all he has a mistress and a wife, but romance is more in the background with the historical events being more in the forefront. The romance and the continual separation between Lara and Uri serves to place the characters in event after event rather than expand upon or deepen their love. As a romantic film I am failed here.

In this story there are themes of loneliness, disillusionment with revolutionary ideology, and coincidence. Serious coincidence. A lot happens rather by accident. And that too makes it a bit soapy. Enjoyable but soapy.

Despite being nearly 4 hours, the movie moves along rather nicely. There’s nothing really dead about it and the length of time doesn’t feel long at all. That’s a mark of good storytelling. If this hadn’t been well done, I don’t believe I could’ve watched it in one sitting. I would’ve turned it off and probably taken a nap or just called it a day on the whole thing.

The story is engaging. And the dialogue is just fantastic. With a talented cast like what we have here they create believable people that you care about. And it certainly immerses you in the world. The music is just beautiful. There isn’t as much of it as in more modern feelings but what you do get is beautiful and lovely. Doctor Zhivago is the kind of artful grand scale film that Hollywood just doesn’t engage in anymore.

Doctor Zhivago is a classic that I think everyone should see but it is not for everyone. While it leans more into soap than it does romance, I cannot say it was a good romantic film but it was certainly an entertaining story.