"Doctor Zhivago" is a good, if overlong, film adaptation of the Nobel prize-winning novel by Boris Pasternak. While not as good as "Bridge on the River Kwai" or "Lawrence of Arabia", director David Lean continued his winning streak, as the film was a commercial success and received ten Oscar nominations.
"Doctor Zhivago" has the cinematography of an epic, but the plot of a romance novel. The story takes place during the Russian Revolution. Young, idealistic poet/doctor Yuri (Omar Sharif) marries Tanya (Geraldine Chaplin), but is frequently separated from her due to war. Lara (Julie Christie) is a passionate woman mistreated by her lover, world-weary politician Komarovsky (Rod Steiger).
Lara leaves Komarovsky to marry revolutionary
Pasha (Tom Courtenay), who conducts a brutal
campaign against White insurgents. The storylines
are connected as Yuri and Lara serve together in
the war, and have an affair afterwards. Yevgraf
(Alec Guinness) is narrator and half-brother of
Yuri.
"Doctor Zhivago" goes on and on and on for 197
minutes. This is shorter than "Lawrence of
Arabia", but it feels longer. Dramatic touches
are sometimes laughable, such as Pasha's entrance
after Komarovsky has been shot, the long-expected
first embrace between Lara and Yuri, Yuri's bad
luck upon seeing Lara for the last time, and
Yuri's insolence when his life is on the line
(which occurs often).
The theme music, which won an Oscar for Maurice
Jarre, is hummable but repetitive. Robert Bolt
somehow won Best Adapted Screenplay over "Cat
Ballou" and "Ship of Fools". "Doctor Zhivago"
deserved its Best Art Direction Oscar, as the
sets are very impressive, especially a cottage
filled with ice formations. As you would expect
from a big-budget Lean epic, the cinematography
(Freddy Young) is good.
While "Doctor Zhivago" is a competent film, it
has been somewhat over-rated over the years. The
characters of Yuri and Lara do not seem real
enough to merit involvement. Still, the film does
get across some of the horrors of war, and the
irony of a 'worker's revolution' becoming just
another despotic dictatorship. (61/100)
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