Review of Doctor Zhivago (1965) by Steve W — 21 Feb 2008

Consistently entertaining and often a marvel to behold, but despite my best efforts I didn't really give tuppence for the characters until the final thirty minutes or so (which are terrific). Still, no one can place a camera and stage a scene quite like Lean, and his epic directorial style is in fine form. Sharif is an undeniably great actor, but he somehow doesn't have enough gravity here to be the center of such a sprawling piece. Maybe it's how his part was written--until the final quarter I never felt like I knew Zhivago enough to sympathize with him. However, Bolt's screenplay adaptation does do an excellent job of drawing parallels between the life of a nation and the lives of its individuals.

"Lara's Theme" is lovely, and Lean obviously knew it--the constant and occasionally tiresome use of the main theme on the soundtrack sometimes feels like a forced attempt to put it in the "instant classic" category.

If any of this makes it sound like I didn't like the movie, I did. Very much, actually.