Review of Doctor Zhivago (1965) by Alec B — 09 Jan 2014

From a story perspective, the film is your relatively standard "sweeping romantic epic set against the backdrop of real history" but David Lean directs the hell out of it, per usual. There are too many amazing shots to count and the cast is fantastic from Omar Sharif right down to those that only have a few lines (Klaus Kinski is unforgettable even in a tiny part).

I'm still not sure why it was blasted by critics in it's day, but I suspect that they wanted this film to fail because of Lean's past successes. Upon noticing a weaker narrative structure and a love story they began a feeding frenzy of nitpicking criticisms.