Number 240 on IMDb's Top 250
A Russian epic, the movie traces the life of surgeon-poet Yury Zhivago (Omar Sharif) before and during the Russian Revolution. Married to an upper-class girl who is devoted to him, yet in love with an unfortunate woman (Julie Christie) who becomes his muse, Zhivago is torn between fidelity and passion. Sympathetic with the revolution but shaken by the wars and purges, he struggles to retain his individualism as a humanist amid the spirit of collectivism. Ho Boy does hilarity ensue.
Trivia: The lady that Zhivago tries to get onto the train after grabbing her baby actually fell under it and was injured; that shot was also used in the film though we only see her fall down. The film was not shown in Russia until 1994. After a month went by with Marlon Brando failing to respond to David Lean's written inquiry into whether he wanted to play Viktor Komarovsky, he offered the part to James Mason, who accepted. Lean, who had wanted to cast Brando as Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and offered him roles in Ryan's Daughter (1970) and his unmade "Nostromo", decided on Mason as he did not want an actor to overpower the character of Yuri Zhivago. Mason eventually dropped out and Rod Steiger accepted the role. Steiger eventually would be involved in the filming of Dr. Zhivago for the better part of a year, which may have been a reason that both Brando and Mason shunned the role. In the scene where Julie Christie slaps Rod Steiger, Steiger slaps her back. Steiger slapping her back was not in the script or discussed during filming, Steiger did it only during filming and the stunned reaction of Christie was genuine. When Rod Steiger kisses Julie Christie for the first time, her struggling and surprise is genuine because Steiger deliberately French kissed her, sticking his tongue into her mouth. (Now that is dedication!)
Okay, I am going to rant in a bit but first, the movie. It was a beautifully filmed epic (the Urals were spectacular). The music was haunting, especially Lara's Theme, which was echoed at times to suggest Zhivago was thinking of her. He would get a far off look in his eyes and you would hear a faint few notes of Lara's Theme, sometimes it wasn't even all of the theme, like a flitting thought passes in and out of your mind quickly. The structure of the story is a little weird too, the first 45 minutes to an hour of the movie really evolve around Lara, not Zhivago, he is on the periphery of the story. Then it switches to Zhivago and Lara is lost for an hour.
Okay, now the rant. Is this a love story? Or an epic? Because I don't think it is an epic love story. Lara and Zhivago spend about five minutes together in the first two hours of the movie and then they don't even do anything. Luckily the movie is three and a half hours long or we wouldn't have a love story at all. A subplot involving Yevgraf's (Alec Guinness) interview of the child of Lara and Yuri several decades after the story's main events was actually added as a narration/framing device to help move along the story. Omar Sharif later joked that it was added to reassure the audience that Zhivago and Lara would ultimately get together, even though they would have to wait until two hours into the film for it to happen. And another thing, why do so many love stories involve adultery? Isn't that bad? You might be saying, "But it is a love story, Will, where is your romantic side?" Well, I think I have a good romantic side, but Zhivago still cheated on his wife and Lara cheated on her husband (although it didn't look like he much cared about her), they even have a child together! Just because he only wrote poetry about her doesn't mean it wasn't wrong. And what about his two other children? One of which he never even met. Just because he didn't want to leave Russia was no excuse in abandoning that little girl to a life without a father. So, maybe it is because of my job with Child Protective Services, but Zhivago had three children by two different women and didn't even met two of the children, we have terminated father's parental rights for less. I guess my rant is over. So anybody have any ideas why love stories often involve illicit affairs? Kim, you said you just watched this movie recently, what is your take on it?
Up Next: Central Station, He was looking for the father he never knew. She was looking for a second chance.
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4 comments:
One of the most over hyped films in history, in my opinion.
My opinion! It was beautifully filmed. I guess I was so involved in looking at the movie that I had a hard time following the movie. I didn't get the story line, I only knew that he yearned for another woman. My entire opinion of the movie is it's cinematography. To me it seemed that it was being shot as a single photograph and then added all together to create a movie. Of course there were acting scenes, but there was a lot of just still shots of the things. For example, the beauty of a room, with white walls, fresh flowers and tea sitting on the table. The scenes when they go out to the house covered in snow was given to us over and over as a composition that you might take as a still photograph. Even Zhivago's trek thorugh the snow to get to Lara was filmed with beauty in mind. I was taken in with how the movie was filmed that I totally skipped the storyline. I just knew that it was supposed to be a love story and that was that.
Will's rant is very true of so many love stories. I think that the movie makers think that having two normal people to just fall in love and live happily ever after isn't enough, they have to throw in forbidden love to make it more dramatic.
You've hit the nail on the head though Kim, it was all about cinematography, it had no real storyline to it. That is why I think it was overhyped. LOTR trilogy was spectacularly filmed by Peter Jackson, and justified it's hype, as the story was so good!
Very good observations there, I knew something was bugging me about it. Style without substance.
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