Review of Doctor Zhivago (1965) by Adrian B — 28 Jun 2012

Omar Sharif plays the title character, Doctor Yuri Andreyevich Zhivago, in this very long epic that spans two decades where Zhivago braves through several major events from the 1910's to the 1950's in Russia. During the 1910's, in the early stages of both the Revolution and World War I, he meets his love interest (Julie Christie), but he marries another woman (Geraldine Chaplin), for which they have a young son. Then, the love interest engages in relationships with an abusive wealthy individual (Ralph Richardson) and a commander (Tom Courtney). All of this told by his younger brother, Yevgraf (Alec Guiness) to the daughter of Doctor Zhivago and his lover.

"Doctor Zhivago" is lengthy indeed, perhaps too long in fact, but it is also engrossing, with fairly well-defined performances and generally nice scenery. Parts of the film where shot in other places, rather than Russia, including several winter sequences in the Canadian prairies. I personally liked this film a little bit better than both of David Lean's epics "Lawrence of Arabia" and "The Bridge on the River Kwai," because I did not think it was all that pretentious or overrated, even though the others are good and I gave them the same rating as this. Note: In the winter train sequence featuring both Sharif and Chaplin, Klaus Kinski, who is well known for being in Werner Herzog's enjoyable films, plays an angry individual that needs to be hand-cuffed.