Doctor Zhivago (film)

Doctor Zhivago
Theatrical release poster design by Tom Jung
Directed by	David Lean
Screenplay by	Robert Bolt
Produced by	Carlo Ponti
Starring	Omar Sharif Julie Christie Geraldine Chaplin Rod Steiger Alec Guinness Tom Courtenay
Cinematography	Freddie Young Nicolas Roeg (Uncredited)
Edited by	Norman Savage
Music by	Maurice Jarre
Production company	Sostar S.A.
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release dates	December 22, 1965 (1965-12-22) (US) April 26, 1966 (1966-04-26) (UK) December 10, 1966 (1966-12-10) (Italy) September 28, 1999 (1999-09-28) (US re-release)
Running time	197 minutes 193 minutes (UK) 200 minutes (1992 re-release) 192 minutes (1999 re-release)
Languages	English Russian
Budget	$11 million
Box office	$111,721,910

Doctor Zhivago is an American 1965 epic drama–romance film directed by David Lean, starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie. The film is loosely based on the famous novel of the same name by Boris Pasternak. It has remained popular for decades, and as of 2012 is the eighth highest-grossing film of all time in the United States, adjusted for inflation.

Background

The novel of the same name, upon which the film was based, written by Boris Pasternak, was published in the West amidst celebration and controversy. Pasternak's book had been known in Samizdat since some time after World War II. However, the novel was not completed until 1956. The book had to be smuggled out of the Soviet Union by an Italian called D'angelo to whom Pasternak had entrusted the book to be delivered to Feltrinelli, an Italian publisher who published it shortly after. Helped by a Soviet campaign against the novel, it became a sensation throughout the non-communist world. It spent 26 weeks atop the New York Times bestseller list. The film, though faithful to the novel's plot, has depictions of several characters and events that are noticeably different.

The sweeping multi-plotted story form used by Pasternak had a distinguished pedigree in Russian letters. The author of War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy, had used characters as symbols of classes and historical events in describing the events in the Russia of Napoleonic times. Pasternak's father, who was a painter, had produced illustrations for War and Peace.

Plot

The film takes place mostly against a backdrop of World War I, the Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War. A narrative framing device, set in the late 1940s to early 1950s, involves KGB Lieutenant General Yevgraf Andreyevich Zhivago (Alec Guinness) searching for the daughter of his half brother, doctor Yuri Andreyevich Zhivago (Omar Sharif), and Larissa ("Lara") Antipova (Julie Christie). Yevgraf believes a young woman, Tonya Komarovskaya (Rita Tushingham) may be his niece, and tells her the story of her father's life.

When Yuri Zhivago is orphaned after his mother's death, he is taken in by his mother's friends, Alexander 'Sasha' (Ralph Richardson) and Anna (Siobhán McKenna) Gromeko — and grows up with their daughter Tonya (Geraldine Chaplin).

In 1913, Zhivago as a medical student in training, but a poet at heart, meets Tonya returns to Moscow after a long trip to Paris.

Lara, meanwhile, becomes involved in an affair with Victor Ipolitovich Komarovsky (Rod Steiger), a friend of her mother's (Adrienne Corri). That night, the idealistic reformer Pavel Pavlovich ("Pasha") Antipov (Tom Courtenay) drifts into left-wing extremism after being wounded by sabre-wielding Cossacks during a peaceful demonstration. Pasha runs to Lara, whom he wants to marry, to treat his wound, and asks her to hide a gun he picked up at the demonstration.

Lara's mother discovers her affair with Komarovsky and attempts suicide. Komarovsky summons help from the physician, and Zhivago arrives as the physician's assistant.

When Komarovsky learns of Lara's intentions to marry Pasha, he tries to dissuade Lara, and then rapes her. In revenge, Lara takes the pistol she has been hiding for Pasha and shoots Komarovsky at a Christmas Eve party, wounding him. Komarovsky insists that no action be taken against Lara, who is escorted out by Pasha. Zhivago tends Komarovsky's wound. Although enraged and devastated by Lara's affair with Komarovsky, Pasha marries Lara, and they have a daughter, Katya.

During World War I, Yevgraf Zhivago is sent by Russian Social Democratic Labour Party to subvert the Imperial Russian Army for the Bolsheviks. Pasha is reported missing in action following a daring charge attack on German forces. Lara enlists as a nurse in order to search for him. Yuri Zhivago is drafted and becomes an battlefield doctor.

During the February Revolution, Zhivago enlists Lara's help to tend to the wounded. Together they run a field hospital for six months, during which time radical changes ensues throughout Russia as Vladimir Lenin arrives in Moscow. Before their departure, Yuri and Lara fall in love, but Yuri must remain loyal to Tonya, whom he already married.

After the war, Yuri returns to his wife Tonya, son Sasha, and Alexander, whose house in Moscow has been divided into tenements by the new Soviet government. Yevgraf, who is now a member of the CHEKA, informs him that his poems have been condemned by Soviet censors as antagonistic to Communism. Yevgraf arranges for passes and documents in order for Yuri and his family to escape from the new political capital of Moscow to the far away Gromeko estate at Varykino, in the Ural Mountains. Zhivago, Tonya, Sasha and Alexander now board a heavily-guarded cattle train, at which time they are informed that they'll be travelling through contested territory, which is being secured by a famous Bolshevik commander named Strelnikov.

While the train is stopped, Zhivago wanders away, and stumbles across the armoured train of Strelnikov himself sitting on a hidden siding. Yuri recognizes Strelnikov as the former Pasha Antipov. After a tense interview, Strelnikov informs Yuri that Lara is now living in the town of Yuriatin, which is then occupied by anti-Communist White Army . He allows Zhivago to return to his family, although it is hinted by Strelnikov's right-hand man that most people interrogated by Strelnikov end up being shot.

The family lives a peaceful life in Varykino until Zhivago finds Lara in nearby Yuriatin. At which point they surrender to their long repressed feelings. When Tonya becomes pregnant, Yuri breaks off with Lara, only to be abducted and conscripted into service by Communist partisans.

After two years, Zhivago at last deserts, trudging through the deep snow to Yuriatin, and finds Lara. After six months, Lara reveals a letter from Tonya, in which she tells Yuri that she, her father, and Sasha have been deported to Paris, and had met with Lara while searching for the long-lost Yuri.

One night, Komarovsky arrives and informs them that they are being watched by the CHEKA due to Lara's marriage to Strelnikov and Yuri's "counter-revolutionary" poetry and desertion. Komarovsky offers Yuri and Lara his help in leaving Russia, but they refuse. Instead, they go to the isolated Varykino estate, where Yuri begins writing the "Lara" poems, which will later make him famous but incur government displeasure. Komarovsky reappears and tells Yuri that Strelnikov committed suicide while being taken to his execution. Therefore, Lara is in immediate danger, as the CHEKA has only left her free to lure Strelnikov into the open. Zhivago sends Lara away with Komarovsky, who becomes an official in the Far East. Refusing to leave with a man he despises, Yuri remains behind.

Years later in Moscow, during the Stalinist era, Yuri sees Lara while travelling on a tram. Forcing his way off the tram, he runs after her, at which point he suffers a fatal heart attack. Yuri's funeral is well attended, as his poetry is already being published openly due to shifts in politics. Lara informs Yevgraf that she had given birth to Yuri's daughter, but lost her in the collapse of the White-controlled government in Mongolia. After vainly looking over hundreds of orphans with Yevgraf's help, Lara disappears during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge, and "died or vanished somewhere, in one of the labour camps," according to Yevgraf.

While Yevgraf strongly believes that Tonya Komarovskaya is Yuri's and Lara's daughter, she is still not convinced. Yevgraf notices that Tonya carries with her a (balalaika). He recalls that Yuri's mother left him one after her death. Finding that Tanya learned to play the balalaika by herself, he smiles, "Ah, then, it's a gift," thereby implying that she truly must be their daughter after all.

Symbolism

Symbolism is used throughout the story. The name Zhivago is from the Russian root word "zhiv", or "life", and the names of the other characters have similar associations. Throughout the film, no matter how much bloodshed is going on around him, Zhivago tries to bind up the wounded, and his poetry speaks of life. Lest we miss the point, the novel's author, Boris Pasternak, made Zhivago a doctor as well as poet, because doctors save lives, and very important to a state that glorifies work, they also labor. At one point, when they first meet, he tells his half-brother Yevgraf, a CHEKA policeman, that, "cutting out the tumors of injustice, that's a deep operation; someone must keep life alive while you do it". He never joins the Communist Party or engages in violence. He admonishes Strelnikov that he hates what he says about "the personal life" being dead. He asks the partisan band's political commissar, after the massacre of some boys, whether "he ever loved a woman". His most prized poem is about his love for Lara. At several points in the film, we see Yuri casting his gaze toward trees, the sky or the moon, symbolizing his tie with a life force, more like a poet might see life; not just for what he can get out of it. Russia has a tradition of great respect for poetry, and in the film Zhivago, as a famous published poet, is many times accorded respect by men who might otherwise have had had him shot. Following Zhivago's journey through a tumultuous time allows us to be present at many of the major events of a revolution that shook the world. For instance, after the Russian Revolution, we see Zhivago growing his own food and living in an outbuilding at the former estate at Varikino, an example of using characters and situations as symbols or metaphors.

Lara, too, is a symbol. Throughout the film, in the midst of chaos and bloodshed, men are drawn to her beauty and charm. She symbolizes Russia itself, going through rape, desertion love and birth. Men's attitudes toward her closely track their attitude toward life, Russia, and the Russian people.

In contrast, Alexander "Sasha" Gromeko, Anna Gromeko, and to some extent, Tonya, represent the benign side of the upper classes; old-money, educated, comfortable, and relatively clueless about the goals and means of the revolution. When Zhivago marries Tonya, he is part of that class. When the Gromekos, including Tonya and her child by Zhivago, are forced to emigrate to France, Zhivago makes no attempt to join them. He becomes more of a poet and less of a doctor, and stays with Russia, symbolized by Lara. He has got a foot in both worlds, thus making him politically dubious in the new Russia, and as a famous poet he is respected but also suspected by the Party.

Victor Komarovsky, as his first name implies, always goes with the victors in any struggle. When we first meet him, in Tsarist times, he is a debonair lawyer and man-about-town; knowing everyone important and having contacts in business, government and even amongst the revolutionaries. He changes his stripes with the change of government; his only allegiance being to himself. He sees life only for what he can get out of it; his affair with Lara is metaphor for that and for his class's attitude toward the common people of Russia. In context of Communist ideology (the novel upon which the film was based was written in Soviet Russia), Komarovksy would stand for the rapacious side of the upper classes. At one point in the film, he compares himself to "Caliban", a character from Shakespeare's play The Tempest; a sort of sacred monster. He also symbolizes the principle of grim reality, or a cynical view of life, as he appears many times in the film to shake people out of their illusions about themselves and life. He could be thought of as the polar opposite of Zhivago-as-poet and lover-of-life; Komorovski in the film is a voice of doom; whenever he appears, something bad happens.

Tom Courtenay's depiction of Pasha/Strelnikov symbolizes the ideals of the Russian Revolution; first begging for justice, then demanding it, finally killing anyone who stands in the way. As much as he wants to be a man of the world, Pasha is taken in by almost everyone and everything. His final apotheosis as Strelnikov is cast in the film as an attempt to be what he thinks of as a real "man", burning villages and slaughtering anyone he sees as an enemy. As he remarks to Zhivago, "feelings, insights, affections, it's suddenly trivial now." He stands for the promise and the cynical finish to the Russian Revolution.

Politics

The film follows a neutral course to what in the film's release year of 1965 was still a very controversial subject. The Cold War was then at its apogee; although many critics have criticized the film's emphasis of the love story over the historical story, those historical events at the time of the film's making were still a political minefield, and taking a strong viewpoint of whether the Russian Revolution was a good thing or not would have caused problems for the film's popularity, and this was a big budget film that was geared to a mass audience.

Boris Pasternak, the Russian author of the novel, who lived through the events of the film as personal experience (he was born in 1890, making him 27 at the time of the revolution), shows in the novel what he thought went wrong in the revolution: that initially, revolutionary leaders had good ideas, but because of human failings these ideas were warped, forgotten, or deliberately put aside as the revolution progressed. Since novels and films cannot easily embody ideas, whole periods and mass movements, Pasternak's and director David Lean's strategy to convey these ideas and historical changes was to introduce symbolic characters who personify the various forces in play. The one neutral character in the film is Zhivago's half brother Yevgraf, who acts as a kind of stand-in for the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, at first seemingly without illusions or morals, sometimes threatening, sometimes encouraging, but as the years pass in the film, softened by Lean and actor Alec Guinness into a benevolent older brother, perhaps a kind of benevolent older "big brother".

Cast

• Omar Sharif as Dr. Yuri Andreyevich Zhivago
• Julie Christie as Lara Antipova
• Geraldine Chaplin as Tonya Gromeko
• Rod Steiger as Victor Komarovsky
• Alec Guinness as General Yevgraf Zhivago
• Tom Courtenay as Pasha Antipov / "Strelnikov"
• Siobhán McKenna as Anna Gromeko
• Ralph Richardson as Alexander "Sasha" Gromeko
• Rita Tushingham as Tanya Komarovskaya / "The Girl"
• Klaus Kinski as Kostoyed Amoursky
• Gerard Tichy as Liberius
• Noel Willman as Commissar Razin
• Geoffrey Keen as Professor Boris Kurt
• Bernard Kay as Kuril, the Bolshevik
• Jack MacGowran as Petya, the Groundskeeper
• Gwen Nelson as the female janitor

Production

This famous filmed version of Doctor Zhivago by David Lean was created for various reasons. Pasternak's novel had been an international success, and producer Carlo Ponti was interested in adapting it as a vehicle for his wife, Sophia Loren. Lean, coming off the huge success of Lawrence of Arabia (1962), wanted to make a more intimate, romantic film to balance the action- and adventure-oriented tone of his previous film. One of the first actors signed onboard was Omar Sharif, who had played Lawrence's right-hand man Sherif Ali in Lawrence of Arabia. Sharif loved the novel, and when he heard Lean was making a film adaptation, he requested to be cast in the role of Pasha (which ultimately went to Tom Courtenay). Sharif was quite surprised when Lean suggested that he play Zhivago himself. Peter O'Toole, star of Lawrence of Arabia, was Lean's original choice for Zhivago, but turned the part down; Max von Sydow and Paul Newman were also considered. Michael Caine tells in his autobiography that he also read for Zhivago, but (after watching the results with David Lean) was the one who suggested Omar Sharif. Rod Steiger was cast as Komarovsky after Marlon Brando and James Mason turned the part down. Audrey Hepburn was considered for Tonya, while Robert Bolt lobbied for Albert Finney to play Pasha. Lean, however, was able to convince Ponti that Loren was not right for the role of Lara, saying she was "too tall" (and confiding in screenwriter Robert Bolt that he could not accept Loren as a virgin for the early parts of the film), and Yvette Mimieux, Sarah Miles and Jane Fonda were considered for the role. Ultimately, Julie Christie was cast based on her appearance in Billy Liar (1963), and the recommendation of John Ford, who directed her in Young Cassidy.

The initial and final scenes were shot at the Aldeadávila Dam between Spain and Portugal.

Since the book was banned in the Soviet Union, the movie was filmed largely in Spain over ten months, with the entire Moscow set being built from scratch outside of Madrid. Most of the scenes covering Zhivago and Lara's service in World War I were filmed in Soria, as was the Varykino estate. Some of the winter sequences were filmed in Spain, Finland, mostly landscape scenes, and Yuri's escape from the Partisans. Winter scenes of the family travelling to Yuriatin by rail were filmed in Canada. All the trains used in the film were Spanish trains like RENFE 240 ex 1400 MZA and Strelnikov's armoured train towed by the Renfe 2-8-2 class Mikado. The "ice-palace" at Varykino was filmed in Soria as well, a house filled with frozen beeswax. The charge of the Partisans across the frozen lake was filmed in Spain, too; a cast iron sheet was placed over a dried river-bed, and fake snow (mostly marble dust) was added on top. Some of the winter scenes were filmed in summer with warm temperatures, sometimes of up to 25 °C (86 °F).Other locations include the Estación de Madrid-Delicias in Madrid and El Moncayo. The initial and final scenes were shot at the Aldeadávila Dam between Spain and Portugal. Although uncredited, most of the scenes were actually shot on the Portugal side of the river, overlooking the Spanish side.

Reception

The film was entered into the 1966 Cannes Film Festival.

Despite being a spectacular box office hit, Doctor Zhivago received mixed reviews at the time of its release. It was criticised for its length and overly romantic depiction of the affair between Zhivago and Lara. Film critic Roger Ebert, while liking the film, said of Doctor Zhivago that "it lumbers noisily from nowhere to nowhere", and that Omar Sharif's performance was "soulful but bewildered". In general, the film's critics have found Doctor Zhivago too overly romantic and almost at the level of soap opera, with the (in their view) syrupy Lara's Theme at the top of their complaints. Bosley Crowther of the New York Times said that Zhivago and Lara are "possessed by a strange passivity". Sometimes those same critics who found the length of the film overbearing also found the depiction of historical events too facile. On the plus side, most critics acknowledge that film addresses such grand themes as a dramatic period in world history, the ascendance of life over death, the struggle of the individual against the state, the triumph of the heart over the mind, and the way good intentions can go terribly wrong. One of the strongest points of Doctor Zhivago is the startling visuals, with Bosley Crowther calling the photography "brilliant, tasteful, and exquisite as any ever put on the screen. Rod Steiger's role as Victor Komarovski is a memorable acting tour de force. Though the film takes the viewpoint of the dreamy poet Zhivago, the doctor side of Zhivago is rarely in evidence. In the end, Doctor Zhivago probably attempts too much; it is at heart a love story with a political background, and those who want a really deep view of the politics of the period will have to look elsewhere.

The film left an indelible mark on popular culture and fashion, and to this day remains an extremely popular film: Maurice Jarre's score—particularly "Lara's Theme"—became one of the most famous in cinematic history. Over the years, the film's critical reputation has gained in stature, and today Doctor Zhivago is considered to be one of Lean's finest works and is highly critically acclaimed, along with Lawrence of Arabia, Brief Encounter, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and A Passage to India.

As with the novel itself, the film was banned in the Soviet Union. It was not shown in Russia until 1994.

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an 85% 'Fresh' rating.

American Film Institute recognition

• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies - #39
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions - #7
• AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores - Nominated
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) - Nominated
• AFI's 10 Top 10 - Nominated Epic Film

Awards

The film won five Academy Awards and was nominated for five more:

Won

• Best Art Direction (John Box, Terence Marsh, Dario Simoni)
• Best Cinematography (Freddie Young)
• Best Adapted Screenplay (Robert Bolt)
• Best Costume Design
• Best Original Score

Nominated

• Best Picture
• Best Supporting Actor (Tom Courtenay)
• Best Director (David Lean)
• Best Editing
• Best Sound (A. W. Watkins, Franklin Milton)

The film was nominated for five Golden Globe Awards, and won in every category. It is tied with Love Story, The Godfather, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and A Star Is Born for the most wins by a film

Won

• Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama
• Golden Globe Award for Best Director - Motion Picture (David Lean)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama (Omar Sharif)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay (Robert Bolt)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score (Maurice Jarre)

Home video

On May 4, 2002, Warner Bros. released the 45th Anniversary version of Doctor Zhivago on DVD (two disc set), and another Anniversary Edition in 2010 on Blu-ray (a three-disc set that includes a book). The two-disc set consists of a double-sided DVD for the main film (whereas the DVD has to be flipped for part 2 of the film), and a one-sided DVD for the extras.

See also

• BFI Top 100 British films

External links

• Doctor Zhivago at IMDb
• Doctor Zhivago at the TCM Movie Database
• Template:Allmovie title
• Doctor Zhivago at Rotten Tomatoes
• Doctor Zhivago at the BFI's Screenonline