Doctor Zhivago (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Buy This Item Doctor Zhivago (Two-Disc Special Edition) by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)  Available from Amazon  $11.49  on 8-27-2008     David Lean focused all his talent as an epic-maker on Boris Pasternak's sweeping novel about a doctor-poet in revolutionary Russia. The results may sometimes veer toward soap opera, especially with the screen frequently filled with adoring close-ups of Omar Sharif and Julie Christie, but Lean's gift for cramming the screen with spectacle is not to be denied. The streets of Moscow, the snowy steppes of Russia, the house in the country taken over by ice; these are re-created with Lean's unerring sense of grandness. The movie is so lush and so long that it becomes an irresistible wallow, even when logic suffers--like <i>Gone with the Wind</i> before it and <i>Titanic</i> after. Sharif, who achieved stardom in Lean's previous film, <i>Lawrence of Arabia</i>, mostly looks noble, but the supporting cast is spiky: Rod Steiger as a fat-cat monster, Tom Courtenay as a self-righteous revolutionary, and Klaus Kinski and Alec Guinness in smaller roles. Geraldine Chaplin, in her adult debut, plays the doctor's compliant wife. Robert Bolt's screenplay won one of the film's five Oscars, with another going to perhaps the most immediately recognizable element of the movie: Maurice Jarre's romantic music, with its hugely popular "Lara's Theme" weaving in and out of a swooning score. <i>--Robert Horton</i> Reader Reviews Dr Zhivago is a fascinating love story set in the Russia of the Revolution. The lovers are thrown together by circumstance. Sound trite & overdone? Not this version. The book is riveting and I was doubtful that the poetry of the book would reach the film. It does. The cinematography is stunning. Each scene is like a wonderful painting that only enhances the drama of the lives of these people caught up in the turmoil of the time. Yuri,a doctor who also writes beautful poetry, marries his childhood sweetheart, daughter of an upper-class family. Lara is the daughter of a mere seamstress who marries her lover, an impoverished student, Sasha. She has had an affair with an older man in Moscow but Sasha forgives her and they move away from Moscow. When WWI hits, all men are conscripted but the Czar's Army is a brutal place to be. Pre-war revolutionary feelings ripen into full-blown rebellion. Yuri has been inducted into the army due to his medical experience. He meets Lara in a field hospital. She is a volunteer nurse, searching for her missing husband. Having found each other, and not knowing where their respective spouses are, they fall in love but they are loyal to ther marriage vows. Unfortunately the time comes when they part only to be swept up into the chaos of the Revolution. Yuri's family is now in the country for safety and ironically their dacha is near a town where Lara has settled. Yuri enters the town one day and they meet again. This second meeting is more than they can resist and they begin their love affair but Yuri is kidnapped by the Red Army to supply medical aid. He doesn't see his family or Lara again for many months. When he is able to return he only finds Lara and they spend an idyllic time together before the revolution pulls them apart again. The combination of love and loss set in this turbulent time is engrossing. You will love this picture if you love a good story. And you will even learn a bit of history, too. Worth watching many times.

Doctor Zhivago (Two-Disc Special Edition) Available from Amazon Price: $11.49 Updated on 8-27-2008.

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