and spectacle of it, the absolutely glorious cinematography, the rich characters. It was unforgettable to me, and along with a few other films from that period like "The Sound of Music", fostered a lifelong love for movies. For that alone, I have a soft spot in my heart for this film and will always be grateful for it and David Lean .So, I admit I'm prejudiced. I'm unabashedly in love with this movie, and find it hard to take criticism of it even when the rational part of me acknowledges that there might be some accuracy in it. We all have our weaknesses! Its especially blasphemous to me to hear anyone criticize Julie Christie as Lara - even as an 8 year old who wasn't too fond of girls, I thought she was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen and well, she's still right up there on my list! For those people who question why Yuri would be with her when he was married to Tanya...well, look at her for God's sakes no disrespect to the lovely Geraldine Chaplin ! Is any further justification really needed? As to the ingrate who slammed her performance and downgraded her subsequent career implying she had no talent, it has always been my impression from all I've read that Miss Christie has never been one of those to pursue stardom and her career at all costs. She certainly had many opportunities to do splashy commercial films, but instead has had an interesting, long and varied career working in quality projects with many great filmmakers Truffaut, Schlesinger, Altman, Beatty, Lumet, Branagh, etc. She has been true to herself and has proven to be an outstanding talent. There are certainly many more deserving targets for the gentleman to heap venom upon than this wonderful actress."Doctor Zhivago" was a reflection in the 60's of the 1930's "Gone With the Wind" and a precursor to the 1990's "Titanic": a sweeping love story with charismatic leads set against a cataclysmic event. Old-fashioned undeniably, but would you really want it any other way? I still find myself able to be swept up in it though I've seen it umpteen times, so whatever flaws it may possess, there must be something inherently powerful in it that draws me to it. Or else I'm just a sucker for Julie Christie, I don't know...

and soul of the poet. Indisputably, this is the true nature of David Lean; and it is evident in every frame of this film from the beginning to end. To borrow a line from the more recent `Moulin Rouge,' this is a story bout `love.' A love story set against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution. Dr. Yuri Zhivago Omar Sharif is a general practitioner, but he is also a poet; through his vocation as a man of medicine, he tends to those in need in everyday real life. But it is through his avocation as a poet that he expresses what he sees. He marries Tonya Geraldine Chaplin and has children; but the War and revolution intervene, and it is during these tumultuous times that his life becomes inexorably intertwined with a government official, Komarovsky Rod Steiger , a young revolutionary, Pasha Tom Courtenay , his half-brother, Yevgraf Alec Guinness , and finally, Lara Julie Christie . It's desperate times for Russians from all walks of life, and Zhivago does what he can to do what he can to keep the fragile threads of his life-- and of those around him-- intact. But fate plays a hand, and in the end, even Zhivago must go where Destiny leads. With `Zhivago,' David Lean has crafted and delivered a magnificent and monumental motion picture of epic proportions that at the same time is disarmingly intimate, rendered as a world within a world, with each a vital part of the other. Lean blends actors, cinematography, story and music with his own compassionate perspective to create a true work of art; a work of true poetry. In telling his story, he offers breathtaking visuals, like the awesome vistas of the snow-covered Urals, or a long shot of a wide open Russian plain with a solitary figure in the distance trudging through the snow, juxtaposed against the enormity of the landscape. Often, however, what he doesn't show you, but suggests, is even more effective and emotionally stirring. Consider the scene in which a complement of mounted dragoons, sabres drawn, ride down upon a crowd peacefully demonstrating in the city streets; Lean sets it up so that you understand what is about to happen, then trains his camera on Zhivago, watching from a balcony overlooking the street as the carnage unfolds below. And in Zhivago's eyes, in the expression on his face, in his reaction to what he is witnessing, there is more horror because of what Lean has established in your imagination-- and which significantly enhances the impact of it-- than anything the most graphic visual depiction could have produced. Similarly, when the Czar and his whole family are shot, Lean does not take you there; instead, you learn of it and realize the impact of it through the reaction of Alexander Gromeko Ralph Richardson , Tonya's father, and it places it into a context that makes it all the more effective. This is filmmaking at it's best, and an example of what makes Lean's films so memorable. Put a talented actor into the hands of a gifted director, and results of more than some distinction can be expected; and such is the case with Omar Sharif and David Lean. In 1962, Sharif received a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his work in Lean's `Lawrence of Arabia,' and in `Zhivago,' Lean's next film, Sharif gives a sensitive, affecting performance for which he should have received a Best Actor nomination, but inexplicably, did not It was Lee Marvin's year for `Cat Ballou' . Still, as Yuri Zhivago, he has never been better. Sharif successfully manages to convey his deepest, internalized emotions, expressing them through the genuine compassion with which he imbues his character. Lean allows his star the time he needs to share with his audience his appreciation of the beauty he perceives in the world around him, and it's in those pensive moments that we, in turn, perceive the inner beauty and poetic nature of the man. You have but to look into Zhivago's eyes to know his sense of joy in all living things. It's a wonderful collaboration between actor and director that so vividly and poignantly brings this character to life. 1965 was a career year for Julie Christie; she received the Oscar for Best Actress for her work in `Darling,' yet in this film created an even more enduring and memorable character in Lara aided in no small part by the hauntingly lovely `Lara's Theme,' by Maurice Jarre, which indelibly etched Christie/Lara in the consciousness of `Zhivago's vast, international audience . Lara's beauty is obvious, yet of a kind that goes much deeper than what you see on the surface; her station in life has made her vulnerable to misuse, but at the same time has endowed her with a strength born of necessity. And Zhivago sees in her a quality and a resourcefulness that fulfills his romantic notions of perfection, and with a beguiling screen presence and a performance to match, Christie makes those notions credible and believable. Guinness, Richardson and Courtenay are exceptional in their respective roles-- Lean without question knows how to get the best out of his actors-- and also turning in noteworthy performances are Siobhan McKenna Anna , Rita Tushingham The Girl and Klaus Kinski, who is unforgettable as Kostoyed, manacled and designated for forced labor, yet the `Freest man on this train!' One of Lean's greatest films. 10/10.

astonishing. Julie Christie's Lara is one of those great screen personas--she becomes a woman of such mysterious beauty. Thefinal scene of Yuri's desperate attempt to reach her in the crowded SovietMoscow is heartbreaking. And that music score! The opening film credits with Jarre's genuinely beautiful music, complete with balalaikas sets the mood for this great, grand entertainment. One of the best ever!

his dramatic experiences during the tumult of the Russian Revolution. The story is told in flashback mode during later Communist years by Yuri's half brother, Yevgraf, a Soviet Army officer, to the young woman, Tanya, who may be the long lost daughter of Yuri and his lover, Lara. As a sensitive young boy, Yuri's mother dies and he is adopted by a foster family, the Gromekos. Later reaching adulthood, he studies medicine and marries his childhood sweetheart, Tonya, and they have a little boy, Sasha. However, earlier at their engagement party, he has found himself strangely drawn to a beautiful & mysterious woman named Lara. Soon all their personal lives are thrown into turmoil by World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution.The handsome Omar Sharif is brilliantly empathetic in the role of Zhivago, masterfully conveying his character's emotions. Who can forget his intensely expressive, tear filled eyes at some of the more emotional moments, especially with snowflakes melting on them? A physician but also a poet, Yuri has a deep appreciation of the beauty around him. His gentleness and idealism stand in sharp contrast to the horrific violence of war and revolution, as Yuri witnesses such atrocities as dismemberment and cannibalism. Also, this is a man who remains very much an individual despite the Bolshevik's philosophies of collectivism.That era's devastating events unfold, including the Bolshevik Revolution and subsequent Civil War between the Tsarist Whites & the Communist Reds. However, the main conflict here is internal within Yuri's own heart, as he is torn between fidelity and passion. He deeply loves his sweet, gentle, and dependable wife, Tonya, and struggles to remain faithful. Yet he is tempted by a forbidden passion for the alluring Lara, a nurse at the wartime army hospital where both are caring for wounded soldiers. Lara serves as his muse, speaks to his soul, and is the inspiration for his poetry. Unlike most modern cinematic tales of infidelity which involve little restraint or guilt, Yuri and Lara desperately seek personal integrity as they are repeatedly brought together and separated by the upheaval of war and revolution. Surely if Yuri is 'the worst of sinners, then he is the worst of sufferers also'. The two women in Yuri's life, wife and mistress, stand in sharp contrast, though both come across as sympathetic characters. The lovely Geraldine Chaplain portrays his ladylike, aristocratic wife, Tonya, who is well bred and has been schooled abroad. The daughter of the bourgeois Gromeko, she is actually Yuri's step sister, which might understandably tend to elicit more platonic than passionate feelings from her husband. Yuri and Lara succumb to their passions even as the blameless Tonya is pregnant with Yuri's second child. Tonya is a warm, loving wife and devoted mother, undeserving of her husband's infidelity. Julie Christie plays the gorgeous & enigmatic Lara, a woman whose station in life makes her vulnerable to misuse by men, yet she possesses a genuine resourcefulness and inner strength. As a teenage girl, she is seduced and violated by the lecherous Victor Komarovsky, a despicable politician and her own mother's lover. She falls under repeated abuse by this vile & contemptible character, who calls Lara a slut and treats her as such. Later she is fiancé & then wife to the misguided idealist and activist, Pasha, who holds intense political ideologies which become more crucial than his wife to him. Pasha later becomes Strelnikov, the obsessive Bolshevik officer who eventually comes into confrontation with Zhivago. During much of the tumult, Lara entrusts her own & Pasha's daughter, Katya, into the care of others. Of course the legend of Lara lives on musically in Maurice Jarre's lovely, haunting Lara's Theme.Supporting cast members include Rod Steiger, who is perfect as the villainous Komarovsky, and Tom Courtenay as Pasha / Strelnikov, a shy and pure individual who earns the abused Lara's respect and love, later going on to become a cold hearted revolutionary. Alec Guiness portrays Yuri's half brother, Yevgraf, and Ralph Richardson is Tonya's aristocratic & gentlemanly father, Alexander Gromeko.This film has amazing Oscar winning cinematography throughout. During World War I and the Revolution, there are vivid scenes of battle, mass desertion, and endless march through the desolate, blizzard ridden Siberian wasteland. Also visually stunning is the spectacular train ride Yuri and his family must make from Moscow to the Urals, site of the family dachau. However, surely most viewers' truly unforgettable pictures are the snowy white sleigh ride and the magnificent ice castle at Varykino. No other film can compare in its depiction of winter scenery. This sweeping panorama, the era's tumultuous political events, and the emotional portrait of one sensitive man's experience of them, create a visual masterpiece and a truly immortal screen saga.

Yevgraf Zhivago Alec Guinness questioning a teenaged girl Rita Tushingham about her past… He thinks she might be the daughter of his brother Yuri Omar Sharif , the dreamy poet-physician and Lara Julie Christie , the love of his life…Flashback to their youth and the first time that Yuri and Lara's paths cross on a streetcar… He's a promising, successful medical student and poet, engaged to his childhood sweetheart Tonya Geraldine Chaplin . Lara is the daughter of a dressmaker who has a long-term "arrangement" with Victor Komarovsky Rod Steiger , a political chameleon who comes out on top no matter who is in power… Lara's fiancé Pasha Tom Courtenay is an idealistic revolutionary who is part of that change… Komarovsky's interest in Lara is not platonic… As those relationships are being selected, protesters are marching in the streets and the Czar's troopers are taking them seriously… In the first big confrontation between a demonstration and a cavalry charge on snow-covered streets, Lean avoids the inevitable comparisons to Sergei Eisenstein's Odessa steps scene in "The Battleship Potemkin," but he can't he1p but make a few references to it… The clash in the streets also serves as a counterpoint to Komarovsky's seduction of Lara, and the two elements are cleverly interwoven… The combination of the personal and the political has rarely been so striking as it is in that effective sequence…The most memorable scenes, however, take place during World War I and the revolution: a mass of deserters meets a mass of replacement troops on a lonely road; Yuri and family embark on a long severe rail journey from Moscow to the Urals and negotiate territory controlled at times by Red Guards and at times by White Guards; a machine gun attack on an unseen enemy across a field; Yuri's being harried into service and then his long trek back home through the snow…Lean gives the film an impression of stark, beautiful expanse… Like all love stories, "Doctor Zhivago" depends on viewers' involvement with the characters, and these work very well… While Lara is the effective expression of the pain and chaos of those cataclysmic times, Yury can see no happiness in his existence without the love of this beautiful woman, which to him is immortal... And while something was broken in Lara's whole life, she continues to be for Yuri an expression of life, and from the distressing emotion of losing her a new and unexpected life of poetry arises… Julie Christie and Omar Sarif are attractive, but not in conventional Hollywood terms, and their supporting cast could not be better… The film remains one of the most ambitious and watchable of the "big" Sixties films, and one of the best depictions of revolutionary and post-revolutionary Russia with all its turmoil and torment…

raised in the house of Ralph Richardson and Siobhan McKenna. He marries their daughter, Geraldine Chaplin who of course he loves, but naturally like a sister. The real passion of his life is Julie Christie who is married to a committed Bolshevik in Tom Courtenay. Courtenay is also a guy, with shall we say, some issues. She loves him in her own way though and goes to search for him when he volunteers for the army to subvert it as the Bolshevik plan was when Russia entered World War I. Christie meets Sharif at the front and the passion ignites. But all around them the society they knew and were brought up in is crumbling about them. Their story set against the background of the Russian Revolution is what Doctor Zhivago is all about.Zhivago knows change was inevitable, the old order in Russia was ready to be toppled. But he's a poet and not one to let his art be subverted for the sake of the state. Fortunately he's also a doctor and his services are needed, in fact the Bolsheviks rather brutally insist on his accompanying one of their brigades as a medical officer.I still remember as a lad the acclaim Boris Pasternak's novel got world wide when it was published while being banned in his home land. After winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, Pasternak died shortly thereafter. It's a pity he did not live to see this film, I think he would have approved.From the deserts of Arabia to the steppes of Russia, David Lean certainly knew how to direct a film that involved vastness. Yet the people of his stories be it Lawrence of Arabia or Doctor Zhivago never get lost in the spectacle. Lean makes you care about the characters that Pasternak created, you get involved in the romance of Sharif and Christie, you want to know if they'll make it in this country undergoing revolutionary convulsions.Other performances of note are Alec Guinness as Sharif's half brother Yevgeny Zhivago, a committed Bolshevik himself and Rod Steiger as the opportunistic Komorovsky.Doctor Zhivago won a host of awards in several technical categories, strangely enough it wasn't nominated for Best Picture in 1965 though. It is a classic and even now with the Soviet Union a memory, I doubt if even a Russian made remake of Zhivago could equal what David Lean and his wonderful cast gave us in 1965.

have a workers' society, but it didn't turn out that way. The theme song "Lara's Theme" kept the movie going every step of the way. Maybe not the greatest historical drama of all time, but this is a movie that I recommend to everyone.

movie is gorgeous and fascinating to look at, and the music is superb, adding to the haunting quality of the story and the characters, the film fails to become a more intimate look at the people's lives, and therefore is missing some of the crucial elements of the book. Not to demean the late Robert Bolt, who was a very gifted screenwriter, and he deserved the Oscar he received, but he didn't or perhaps, couldn't recreate the labor of love that Pasternak penned.It was wonderful to see Julie Christie and Tom Courtenay together again on-screen, as they had such a smashing success with John Schlesinger's delicious "Billy Liar" 1963 . However, the love story of Lara and Pasha, so sweetly detailed in the novel, is relegated to pretty much a back story or a minor plot element, perhaps to capitalize on Lara's destructive affair with Victor Komorovsky the late and wonderfully devious Rod Steiger , and her upcoming, face-to-face encounter with Yuri Zhivago Omar Sharif . I saw the movie before I read the novel, but even then, I felt very sorry for the character of Pasha, because we really were not given a lot of insight into him, or what it was that turned him from such an adoring lover to Lara, to the brutal Strelinkov, and since his character dies off-screen, I felt cheated out of a meaningful conclusion of that storyline. I was so touched by the book's information about their affection for one another, and the way the book had Zhivago and Pasha meet and discuss the love of both their lives - Lara. The 2002 Masterpiece Theatre TV miniseries starring Hans Matheson, Keira Knightley and Kris Marshall was much more faithful to the novel, and presented something closer to the full story.Julie Christie is always lovely and magnetic, and she obviously has an eye for great material. Her electric blue eyes and sensitive, full lips often say more that the viewer has heard her say. Geraldine Chaplin, as Zhivago's wife, Tonya, is sweet and gentle, but you have to wonder why she was so endlessly understanding toward him, even after he causes her so much heartbreak. The late Sir Alec Guinness is an interesting narrator to have for the story, and he always worked well with Lean. Sir Ralph Richardson and Sioban McKenna come off well as Tonya's parents, and Rita Tushingham excels in a small but pivotal role of the love child of Yuri and Lara. She was excellent in Tony Richardson's "A Taste Of Honey", and you have to wonder why she didn't have more of a career. Watch for the late Klaus Kinski in a brief but very effective portrayal of a man who becomes a prisoner of forced labor - his scenes on the train are riveting. Jack MacGowran has an interesting little part as well. Those 60s hairstyles do say something about the fashion then, even in a period film. You have to love to hate the despicable Komorovsky, who thought he was God's gift to women or something and in the miniseries, Sam Neill is just as repulsively right in the role . Sharif's portrayal of Zhivago is impressive, but doesn't it seem like he is always brooding or crying?It has its flaws, but it is still romantic and I am still entranced with it, especially, for some strange reason, during Christmas. It is one of the best made films of all time, and it gives romantics a run for their money! Watch it, but get out the Kleenex!

story is unfolding against the backdrop of revolution which affects the doctor's career, his family, and his love to Lara.This classical movie contains emotion , intense drama , love stories and historical events . Impressive production design , colorful cinematography shot in standard 35mm Panavision anamorphic and emotive as well as evocative musical score , all of them create a real masterpiece , thanks to the great David Lean . Several producers and studios bid for the rights to the Boris Pasternak's novel, which Carlo Ponti won in 1963 , but the budget ballooned from $5 million to $15 million . He wanted the film to be as grand as Lawrence of Arabia 1962 , so he recruited the crew of that film, including director David Lean, screenwriter Robert Bolt, cinematographer Freddie Young, production designer John Box , art designer Terence Marsh and composer Maurice Jarre . A portentous performance from all star cast and notorious support actors help deeply to originate a wonderful film . Adequate acting by Omar Sharif , though David Lean's first choice for the title role was Peter O'Toole who declined, citing the grueling experience of having made Lawrence of Arabia 1962 ; Sharif asked Lean to consider him for the role of Pavel Antipov and was surprised when Lean instead offered him the title role. However , Sharif claimed that he was close to breakdown throughout most of filming due to stress over playing such a high-profile role and David Lean's demands on him. Supporting cast is frankly excellent such as Alec Guinness as Yevgraf , Tom Courtenay as Pasha , Ralph Richardson as Alexander , Siobhan McKenna as Anna Klaus Kinski as Kostoyed , Gérard Tichy as Liberius , Adrienne Corri as Amelia , Jack MacGowran as Petya . And Geraldine Chaplin's English language film debut , as David Lean discovered Geraldine Chaplin when he spotted her on the cover of a magazine and enjoyable Rita Tushingham who filmed her part in two weeks . The film was shot in Spain during the regime of Gen. Francisco Franco. Thousands of extras were used, including Spanish soldiers and villagers, and Finnish Laplanders for the scenes in Siberia when Zhivago deserts the Red Army . While the scene with the crowd chanting the Marxist theme was being filmed , police showed up at the set thinking that a real revolution was taking place and insisted on staying until the scene was finished. Apparently, people who lived near where filming was taking place had awoken to the sound of revolutionary singing and had mistakenly believed that Franco had been overthrown. As the extras sang the revolutionary Internationale for a protest scene, the secret police surveyed the crowd, making many of the extras pretend that they didn't know the words. Breathtaking set design , Moscow set built in Canillas was half a mile long, and the inside of the ice palace was mostly made up specifically formed wax. Furthermore , Strelnikov's armored train was a very accurate replica of actual trains that were used during WWI and WWII to patrol areas with heavy snow that were unaccessable to trucks or tanks. And over 4000 daffodils were imported from the Netherlands and placed on the outskirts of the mountain town of Soria, where Zhivago's father-in-law's country estate was located. Colorful and glamorous cinematography by Freddie Young ; according to Young, before he reluctantly agreed to take the director of photography job following an exhausting collaboration on Lawrence of Arabia 1962 , David Lean had a major falling-out with the previous director of photography, Nicolas Roeg, over creative differences. After Young took over, an additional two weeks of photography was required to re-shoot the scenes that Roeg had shot.Initially the film failed to make much impact at the box office, probably due to the critics' lukewarm reception to it . But gradually, audiences started to pick up, probably due to the incredible popularity of Maurice Jarre's "Lara's Theme" by Maurice Jarre . In fact , as of 2010, adjusted for inflation, Doctor Zhivago 1965 is the 8th biggest grossing film of all time After Gone with the wind 1939 , the second most profitable film in MGM's history and grossed more than every other film David Lean had directed put together . The flick had a remake Doctor Zhivago 2002 TV by Giacomo Campiotti with Hans Matheson as Yury Zhivago , Keira Knightley as Lara Antipova , Bill Paterson as Alexander Gromyko , Sam Neill as Victor Komarovsky and Alexandra Maria Lara as Tonya Gromyko Zhivago .