Doctor Zhivago (1965)

Director:

David Lean

Writers:

Boris Pasternak (novel)
Robert Bolt (screenplay)

Release Date:

22 December 1965 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | War

Tagline:

The entertainment event of the year!

Plot:

Life of a Russian doctor/poet who, although married, falls for a political activist's wife and experiences hardships during the Bolshevik Revolution.

Plot Keywords:

Russia | Bolshevik | Epic | Russian Revolution | Poetry

Awards:

Won 5 Oscars. Another 15 wins & 10 nominations

Cast

Omar Sharif	...	Dr. Yuri Zhivago
Julie Christie	...	Lara
Geraldine Chaplin	...	Tonya
Rod Steiger	...	Komarovsky
Alec Guinness	...	Gen. Yevgraf Zhivago
Tom Courtenay	...	Pasha
Siobhan McKenna	...	Anna
Ralph Richardson	...	Alexander
Rita Tushingham	...	The Girl
Jeffrey Rockland	...	Sasha
Tarek Sharif	...	Yuri at 8 years old
Bernard Kay	...	The Bolshevik
Klaus Kinski	...	Kostoyed
Gérard Tichy	...	Liberius (as Gerard Tichy)
Noel Willman	...	Razin

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for mature themes.

Runtime:

197 min | UK:192 min (1999 re-release) | UK:193 min | UK:200 min (1992 re-release)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Russian

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (35 mm magnetic prints) | 70 mm 6-Track (Westrex Recording System) (70 mm prints) | DTS (re-release) (35 mm prints) | Mono (35 mm optical prints)

Certification:

Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Iceland:12 | South Korea:12 | Brazil:Livre | West Germany:12 (f) | USA:Approved (original rating) | USA:GP (re-rating) (1971) | Canada:PG (video rating) | USA:PG-13 (re-rating) (1995) | UK:15 (1987) | UK:A (1966) | UK:PG (1992) | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Spain:13 | Sweden:11

Filming Locations:

Alberta, Canada

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

According to Freddie Young, before he reluctantly agreed to take the director of photography job following an exhausting collaboration on Lawrence of Arabia (1962), David Lean had a major falling-out with the previous director of photography, Nicolas Roeg, over creative differences. After Young took over, an additional two weeks of photography was required to re-shoot the scenes that Roeg had shot.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: In the scene where Dr. Zhivago first arrives in Moscow (near the beginning of the movie). He is boarding a tram on Tverskaya street. In the background, is a statue of Yuri Dolgoruky, the founder of Moscow in 1147. The statue was placed there in 1947 on the 800th anniversary of Moscow's founding. It wasn't there before the Bolshevik revolution, the time during which the scene is supposed to have taken place.

Quotes:

Kostoyed Amourski: I am the only free man on this train! And the rest of you are CATTLE!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Cor, Blimey! (2000) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Prelude in G minor, Op.23-5

David Lean's Doctor Zhivago

Though it doesn't equal his 1962 Oscar-winning epic "Lawrence Of Arabia",David Lean's epic wartime romance may be his most accessible film. It tells a simple love story in a complex setting,and for the most part,avoids easy resolutions to messy emotional relationships. Even though the focus is squarely on those relationships,everything in the film revolves around the Russian Revolution. The vagaries of both World War I and the prolonged struggles among the various Bolshevik factions are the driving forces behind the plot.

In adapting Boris Pasternak's novel to the screen,writer Robert Bolt tells the story in flashback,with the powerful General Yevgraf Zhivago (Alec Guinness)questioning a teenaged girl(Rita Tushingham)about her past. He thinks she might be the daughter of his brother Yuri(Omar Sharif)and Lara(Julie Christie). Flashback to their youth and the first time that Yuri and Lara's paths cross on a streetcar. He's promising,prosperous medical student and poet,engaged to his childhood sweetheart Tonya(Geraldine Chaplin). Lara is the daughter of a dressmaker who has a long-term "arrangement" with Komarovsky(Rod Steiger),a well-connected lawyer who understands the political changes that are coming. Lara's fiancé Pasha(Tom Courtenay) is an idealistic revolutionary who is part of that change. Komarovsky's interest in Lara is not platonic. As those relationships are being sorted out,protesters are marching in the streets and the Czar's troops are taking them seriously. In the first big confrontation between a demonstration and a cavalry charge on snow-covered streets,Lean avoids the inevitable comparisons to Eisenstein's Odessa steps scene in "Battleship Potemkin",but he can't help but make a few references to it. The clash in the streets also serves as a counterpoint to Komarovsky's seduction of Lara,and the two elements are deftly interwoven. The combination of the personal life and the political has seldom been so seamless or effective as it is in that long sequence. The most memorable scenes,however,take place during World War I and the revolution:a mass of deserters meets a mass of replacement troops on a lonely road;Yuri and family embark on a long grim rail journey from Moscow to the Urals and negotiate territory controlled at times Red Guards and at times by White Guards;a machine gun attack on an unseen ememy across a field;Yuri being dragooned into service and then his long trek back home through the snow.

The Cold War being what it was in 1965(the time this film was released around Christmas of that year),Lean was denied permission to make the film in the Soviet Union,but locations in Spain,Finland,and Canada were more adequate substitutes. They give the film an impression of stark,beautiful expanse. Lean's canvas is the full-width Panavision screen. He and cimematopgrapher Freddie Young(who won the Oscar for his impressive work)along with Nicolas Roeg use all of it in both interior and exterior scenes. Instead of seeing this film on a tape or disc(DVD),the best way to experience seeing this movie in its entirely is in a theater on a widescreen in its original 70MM format. Ignore the pan and scan editions. Other the other hand,some of Lean's devices-the use of mirrors and windows,lightning are fascinating. Like in all love stories depends on viewers' involvement with the characters,and this what makes the film stand out beautifully. The two leads are attractive with exceptional performances from Omar Sharif,Julie Christie,and Geraldine Chaplin. Tom Courtenay was nominated for a Supporting Actor Oscar,but Rod Steiger's Komarovsky is indelible archetypal survivor. Oscar winning as well for Maurice Jarre's breathtaking score. The theme song from Doctor Zhivago,"Somewhere My Love",was a top-ten hit in 1965. Remains one of the most ambitious and watchable of the big "Panavision" films of the 1960's,and one that is also gives us the best depictions of a civil war and the terrible human lives it costs.