Review of Doctor Zhivago (1965) by Compi24 — 20 Feb 2019

The oft-lauded classic "Doctor Zhivago" is an epic telling of love, political turmoil, and the woes that the two can conjure up when combined. Little did I know, however, that one of the other woes involved would be this film's running time.

Sitting at a weighty three hours and twenty minutes, this at times searing indictment of 20th century Russian politics certainly got its point across. It was a rough time, man. And no one seemed to realize that more than Boris Pasternak (author of the eponymous novel the film is based on).

What the film seems to suffer from, however, is a genuine lack of development when it comes to the relationship between the two leads (i.e. what the movie's kind of actually about). We have this running time for a reason, nay, many reasons.

And I'd expected one of those reasons to be setting up the underpinnings of this central romance beyond simply stating "oh, well, this one time they were the only two people standing in this one room for a good amount of time and that's how they fell in love.

" We're given a montage of the two lead characters working together over a longer period of time, yes, but that development is only implied at best. It's a film with a rather shallow and predictable main plot, yet a fairly outstanding look and feel, featuring some typically brilliant cinematography and music throughout.

I only wish I'd cared a bit more overall.