Rating of
4/4
An Odyssey in its own right.
memento_mori - wrote on 07/28/13
Doctor Zhivago is famous for two things. It is directed by David Lean and it is an extremely long film, spanning around four hours. So yeah, watch it when you have a lot of time on your hands.
Doctor Zhivago is a movie that blew me away when I first saw it and continues to blow me away. When my father said: We're going to watch a four hour movie, I wasn't looking forward to it. But after the four minute interlude, I was hooked. The runtime really flows by.
The characters, the story, the pacing, the locations, the conflicts, the perspectives; none of them can be fully explained without just showing you the movie.
Omar Sharif is worthy of an Oscar in his portrayal of a worried doctor, Yuri Zhivago.
The story of love and what his character chooses to endure are simply breathtaking. It is so well transformed and adapted from the book by Boris Pasternak.
There are many plot devices that guide our characters through the film, that you can't decide which you like the most. They are all a perfect character in their own right, because they are all balanced and well-written. They all get equal screen time, they all have a distinct relationship with one another, they all are scarred or are transformed by the end of the movie, which gives it another underlying tone of change and disruption of reality.
The locations are beautiful, widely filmed in Spain, Finland and Canada. The way the ice palace was done in particular is just remarkable.
The entire landscapes covered with snow and seeing Zhivago freezing in the cold are just baffling and look so real.
Where the film mainly receives criticism is the lengthy relationship between Zhivago, Tonya and Lara and the overall melodramatic setting.
This film was misunderstood. It was supposed to be a love story, with elements of revolution and war, not the other way around. The character development and scenes between the characters are beautiful and the multiple confrontations always lead to a heated tip of the iceberg argument. The dialogue just works in a way that confuses you, they all make viable points and you don't know which character to root for, they are all brilliant.
I have no problems at all with this movie. It is beautiful, it is self-aware, it knows how to build romance and conflict and is delightfully written and filmed. Just what I like to see. Yes, it does have 'classic status', but it definitely is a timeless classic.
