Doctor Zhivago (1965)

Cast: Omar Sharif (Dr. Yuri Zhivago), Julie Christie (Lara Antipova), Geraldine Chaplin (Tonya), Rod Steiger (Victor Komarovsky), Alec Guinness (Gen. Yevgraf Zhivago), Tom Courtenay (Pasha)

Director: David Lean

Genre: Drama/ Romance

This film is incomparable to any other I have seen so far. Everything about this masterpiece made it a work of pure talent and genius. The acting, the cinematography, the dialogue, and the casting all fitted together to make this a brilliant performance. It’s a love story told in history. The film begins as Gen. Yevgraf Zhivago (Alec Guiness) interrogates a young girl in the hopes of discovering whether she is the long lost child of Dr. Yuri Zhivago (Omar Sharif) and his mistress, Lara Antipova (Julie Christie). Set in Russia during the Bolshevik revolution, this love story seems to have an underlying tone of honesty, family, priority, and conscience. Lara is a beautiful seventeen year old who is completely unhappy as her fiancé starts getting caught up in the revolution. Her fear for her fiancé seems to weaken her and make her more vulnerable. Her older admirer, Pasha (Rod Steiger), must realize this as he begins to take advantage of her. After she fails an attempted murder on Pasha, who is married at this point, she flees to more rural areas of Russia. At the same time, Yuri Zhivago is saddened by the Bolshevik uprising and is forced to flee as well with his new wife Tonya (Geraldine Chaplin- daughter of Charlie Chaplin), child, and father-in-law. While fleeing, he is taken by troops and forced to doctor wounded soldiers. While doing so, he finds Lara as his nurse whom he recognizes from his own city during the primary stages of the uprising. After getting acquainted, the two part ways. Yuri travels to his family and Lara finds work elsewhere. Sometime later, they meet again unexpectedly. They fall in love and he fathers a child with her. They keep a secret relationship despite their marriages. It’s here that Yuri begins to struggle with his conscience. He tries to return to his wife, trekking a long journey to find her. In the long run, he loses his wife as she and their child fled Russia while he was seeing Lara. He also loses track of Lara as well, not realizing he has had a daughter with her. Finally, his infidelity causes him to lose everything he has. This film displays many artistic traits that play well together in order to present important morals and values. Such morals and values mainly involve fidelity and family. Such a portrayal is rare in films these days. I could be wrong but it seemed that Yuri’s depression only led to self-indulgence. It was as though he figured with all the horrors and hardships he had to undergo, he owed it to himself to grasp for happiness in whatever form he could get it. In the mean time, I highly recommend this film. It’s brilliant and highly entertaining. It has one of the greatest soundtracks produced that rank in the levels of great sound tracks such as The Godfather, Star Wars, and Pee-Wee's Big Adventure! It’s a love story in the middle of war. How fitting!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)

Cast: Johnny Depp (Willy Wonka), Freddie Highmore (Charlie Bucket), David Kelly (Grandpa Joe)

Director: Tim Burton

Genre: Family


Hollywood has deeply submerged itself into the not-so-competitive market of film remakes causing audiences to thirst all the more for half-way enjoyable cinematic adventures. It’s nothing more than a feeble attempt to remake the classic children’s film Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. This one has a slightly darker tone common with Tim Burton films. There was more to dislike about this film than there was to enjoy. Firstly, I thought Wonka had a sort of weird resemblance to Michael Jackson. He was creepier in a whimsical way than he was mysterious and actually enjoyable like Gene Wilder’s Wonka. Gene Wilder seemed like a Wonka who took his talent seriously but didn't let it get in the way of being human. He was a Wonka who made candy because it made people happy. Depp just seemed like a Wonka who simply had an issue with his father and was in serious need of therapy. I didn’t care much for the initial setting. It looked like industrial age England set in modern times. It didn’t add any sort of realism to the film. This particular element was horrible when compared to the original film. The fantasy in the original film was completely inside the factory while in the newer version the whole thing is fantastical. Sure, the world outside the factory is “real” but it’s displayed in a more storybook manner. It all seemed completely devoid of sense. The new version was a lame attempt at giving the older film a new look to suit today’s audiences. The music itself was horrible, excluding Roald Dahl’s lyrics from his book. One thing specifically I noticed was that Burton’s film had put realism into the fantasy (i.e. the great glass elevator) and tried to make anything fantastical, real. It was a different perspective of a film I enjoyed a lot as a child- nothing more. The chocolate itself is the main purpose of the film. I was more repulsed by seeing all the chocolate and candy in this film than I was with the original film. The older version was certainly more enticing. The children in this film over emphasized their particular faults- gluttony, avarice, pride, and sloth. Perhaps this was done purposely since the modern child-audience just wouldn’t be able to catch it. Charlie (Freddie Highmore) was terribly portrayed. He spoke in the same, soft monotone manner throughout the picture. His lame smiles were completely put on. In the older version, though those kids seemed slightly over the top (well, at least Veruca Salt), they were very convincing. The children in this latest edition over played their parts. Ok, so this film may have been more faithful to the book itself. That doesn’t help the film any. It was a good effort in trying to make some fraction of this film enjoyable. There were some jokes I found amusing and even worth laughing at. The relatively new puppet hospital and burn center was rather humorous. All in all, the film was gasping for help. It was nothing more than another of Hollywood’s lame attempts to remake a film that never needed improvement in the first place. Why doesn’t Hollywood remake some of the bad films from the past? That would certainly make more sense and maybe they might redeem themselves in areas where they failed miserably! The original was classic. This one turned into Pee Wee's Playhouse right as Depp stepped into camera. Watch the original instead!