Doctor Zhivago (1965)

David Lean was a splendid and accomplished director who knew how to lay large spanning stories of grandeur onto the big screen. His “Bridge on the River Kwai” and, “Lawrence of Arabia”, are masterpieces in their epic structure. When he took on the project of interpreting Boris Pasternak’s large and expansive bestselling novel, “Doctor Zhivago”, into a motion picture, a lot was expected of the finished film.

The story follows the title character from childhood until death, during the periods of just before the first world war until just before the start of the World War II. This is a period that also encompasses the Russia revolution and the Russian Civil War. There is also a very brief hint of a plague that must have been the Spanish Flue, which is something that holds even more interest today, during the present pandemic engulfing the world.

Lean’s success in keeping the movie on a brisk pace helped keep my interest throughout its long three and quarter hour length.

Doctor Zhivago (Omar Sharif terribly miscast), is an orphaned upper-class gentleman, who after his Mother’s death, is brought up by the kind and rich Gromyko family with their young daughter Tonya (Geraldine Chaplin). Growing up in Moscow, he writes beautiful poetry and studies Medicine. Once becoming a doctor, he marries Tonya. The fact that he was raised alongside her would be a problem that the good doctor would have throughout his life. This is because he is a passionate man, and it is difficult to have passion with someone who was always looked upon as a sister. It is his extramarital interest in the beautiful Lara (Julie Christie) that effects his life during and after the great war.

There are great historic occurrences happening as backdrops to the story and Lean does an admirable job of not allowing these grand events to overwhelm his love story between Zhivago and Lara. The movie also contains some beautiful snowy white visuals of the harsh winter lands of Russia. What is even more amazing about these scenes is the fact that none of them were shot in Russia. He used fake snow in Spain and real snow in Canada for his transformations. I was never left with an impression that it was not Russia in winter that I was viewing.

There is one impressive scene where Zhivago and Lara enter an abandoned villa that is all frozen and snow-covered on the inside. The shot looks almost magical in its fairy tale-like beauty with its crystal-like icicles dangling from the ceiling. Lean displays the elegance and artistry of winter landscapes in the same way he brought out the beauty of the desert with his “Lawrence of Arabia”.

I found it interesting that all of the written words shown in the film, from political posters, book covers, and newspaper clippings are all in Russian, while, as this is a Hollywood epic, the dialogue is completely in English. This succeeds in giving a little bit of authenticity to the drama being shown.

With an international cast, it is quite surprising and a bit off-putting that there is not even a hint of a Russian accent throughout. Most of the cast are superb, which emphasizes the travesty of the movie’s greatest misstep, being the casting of Sharif in the pivotal role of Zhivago. Zhivago is a humanist who felt deserted as a child and continually did the same sort of desertion to his own family. He is a man torn by devotion to good and the emotion of love. His is a complex and fascinating character and Mr. Sharif is just to limited in his range. He has no problem showing happiness with his bright handsome smile, or anger with his dark scowl, but anything in-between is beyond his ability and the movie crashes and burns with his extremely limited performance. In addition, he does not even remotely look like a Russian or even his half brother (played by the magnificent Alec Guinness). At one point in the film I had to slap myself to be reminded that I was not watching a Bollywood film from India. Thankfully, the snow helps in that regard.

This is even doubly apparent when compared to some of the truly superb performances found in most of the supporting characters. Especially Rod Steiger as the very human villain, “Victor Komarovsky”. While Steiger with his intense character stands out the most, no less impressive is Tom Courtenay as Pasha and of course Julie Christie as the beautiful Lara. The mix of different accents (none of which are Russian), did not deter my enjoyment of the spectacular acting on display. Then again, there is Sharif as Zhivago.

I also hated the sappy and ridiculous ending. All in all, “Doctor Zhivago”, is a flawed historic love story that held my interest throughout its over three-hour length. It is a great shame that the bad performance of the main character makes him almost boring, resulting in the movie to ultimately fail to live up to its impressive billing and expectations.