“Doctor Zhivago” is a classic movie that I’ve heard about
for years, but had never seen, which is why I put it on my “bucket list” a few
years ago. During the past week, I finished watching it for the first time, and
I thought it was great. No wonder it’s such a famous movie.
Directed by David Lean, this movie was released in theatres
on Dec. 22, 1965 and is loosely based on the novel by Boris Pasternak. The cast
included Omar Sharif in the lead role of Dr. Yuri Zhivago as well as Julie
Christie, Rod Steiger, Alec Guinness and Tom Courtenay. If you’ve never seen
it, be prepared to sit for a while because the movie’s about three hours and 20
minutes long.
It’s hard to summarize the plot of a movie that long, but in
a nutshell, it’s about the search for the orphaned child of a famous Russian
poet (Zhivago) and his beautiful, young lover, Lara (Christie), who incidentally wasn’t
his wife. These three, along with the rest of the characters, get swept up in
the aftermath of World War I and the Bolshevik revolution. The movie is set
years after all of this chaos and hardship, and communist officials are trying to sort out
what really happened. All of the events in the movie take place before the
start of World War II.
This movie really has a little something for everybody. It’s
essentially a love story with a big dose of mystery. There’s also lots of
action when you take into account the scenes depicting riots and warfare. The
characters also battle harsh conditions like Russian snow and ice, and trains
and horses also play a big part in the movie. There's also a fair amount of political intrigue, complete with secret police officers and neighborhood
informants.
As you might have imagined, this movie received a lot of
recognition when it first hit theatres. It won a Golden Globe Award for Best
Drama and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, only to come up
short against “The Sound of Music.” The American Film Institute also ranked it
No. 39 on its “AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movies” list, and the British Film
Institute ranked it No. 27 on its list of “Best 100 British Films.”
Of course, having now watched the movie, I’m left wanting to
read the original novel, which was published in 1957. Originally
written by Pasternak in Russian, the novel had to be smuggled out of the Soviet
Union and was first printed in Italy. Later, Pasternak would win the Noble
Prize for Literature for the book.
In the end, I enjoyed this movie and would recommend it to
anyone who enjoys a good epic film. I’d rank this one right up there with “Gone
with the Wind” and “Ben-Hur.” How many of you have ever watched “Doctor
Zhivago”? What did you think about it? Did you like it or not? Let us know in
the comments section below.
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