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!