Doctor Zhivago (1965 film)

Doctor Zhivago
Original movie poster
Directed by	David Lean
Produced by	Carlo Ponti & David Lean
Written by	Boris Pasternak (novel) Robert Bolt (screenplay)
Starring	Omar Sharif Julie Christie
Music by	Maurice Jarre
Cinematography	Freddie Young & Nicolas Roeg
Editing by	Norman Savage
Distributed by	MGM
Release date(s)	December 22, 1965
Running time	197 min.
Language	English
Budget	USD$14,000,000 (estimated)
IMDb profile

For other uses, see Doctor Zhivago.

Doctor Zhivago (Russian: Доктор Живаго) is a 1965 film directed by David Lean and loosely based on the famous novel by Boris Pasternak.

Plot

The film takes place for the most part during the tumultuous period of 1913-1922, the years of World War I, the Russian Revolution, and Russian Civil War, as the regime of Emperor Nicholas II was overthrown and the Soviet Union established. A framing device, from which the film is narrated, takes place in the mid-to-late 1950's, though a specific date is not mentioned.

The film's framing device involves General Yevgraf Zhivago (Alec Guinness) searching for the love child of his brother, poet and Doctor Yuri Zhivago (Omar Sharif), and his mistress Larissa ("Lara") Antipova (Julie Christie); Yevgraf believes a young girl named Tonya Komarov (Rita Tushingham, referred to as "The Girl" in the credits) to be his niece. Yevgraf narrates the story, periodically appearing in it, though he does not ever interact with any other characters in the flashbacks.

Yevgraf tells the girl the story of his brother's life. Yuri's parents died at an early age, leaving him only a balalaika, and he went to live with the Gromekos - Alexander (Ralph Richardson) and Anna (Siobhan McKenna) - and their daughter Tonya (played as an adult by Geraldine Chaplin), whom Zhivago later marries. Gromeko was a retired professor living in Moscow, and so Zhivago is able to enter medical school, studying under Professor Boris Kurt (Geoffrey Keen). Though he is already a poet of some renown, Yuri does not think that he can support himself with poetry and wishes to enter the medical profession. Lara, meanwhile, lives with her mother (Adrienne Corri), a seamstress who is being "advised" by Victor Komarovsky (Rod Steiger), a lawyer with political connections. (Komarovsky was also the friend and business partner of Zhivago's father.) Lara is also engaged to Pasha Antipov (Tom Courtenay), an idealistic revolutionary. Komarovsky takes Lara to a dress party and ultimately seduces her; Lara, with much guilt, becomes Komarovsky's mistress. Meanwhile, while Zhivago and the Gromekos watch, a demonstration led by Pasha is attacked by a detachment of dragoons, who wound Pasha and kill several others.

Lara becomes more deeply involved with Komarovsky, until her mother discovers their affair and tries to kill herself by swallowing iodine. Komarovsky summons help from Kurt and Zhivago, and Zhivago sees Lara for the first time. When Pasha, now a dedicated Bolshevik, tells Komarovsky that he intends to marry Lara, Komarovsky tries to dissuade Lara from doing so, and rapes her. In revenge, Lara takes a gun she had been hiding for Pasha, tracks Komarovsky down to a Christmas party (which Zhivago and Tonya are attending) and shoots him, before being escorted out by Pasha, who then learns of Lara's infidelity.

The movie then jumps ahead to August 1914: World War I. Yevgraf enlists, intending to subvert the war effort in order to start the Revolution; Yuri (now married to Tonya) and Professor Kurt become medical officers; and Pasha joins a volunteer regiment as well. Pasha is supposedly killed in a battle on the Eastern Front, and Lara becomes a nurse to look for him as the Revolution breaks out and the Russian army begins to desert en masse. Travelling with a group of deserters, Lara meets Zhivago, who is with a column of replacement troops; the soldiers mutiny and join the deserters, and Zhivago enlists the help of Lara to tend to their wounded. The two manage a makeshift hospital for the remainder of the war and are parted at war's end.

Julie Christie as Lara in Doctor Zhivago

Yuri returns to Moscow, finding that Anna is dead and that the Gromeko's house has been apportioned to include several other families by the authorities. Yuri meets his son Sasha for the first time in years and resumes his old job at the local hospital, but is disgusted that his family is lacking in basic fuel and food. One night, while he tries to steal firewood for his family furnace, he is spotted by Yevgraf, who tracks him home. Yevgraf informs Zhivago and his family that they are under suspicion for subversive activities by the government and helps arrange for their transport to the Gromeko estate at Varykino, in the Urals.

Zhivago, Tonya, Sasha, and Alexander board a heavily guarded train which includes a detachment of labor conscripts - including hot-headed "intellectual" Kostoyed Amoursky (Klaus Kinski) - and a large contingent of Red Guard soldiers. At one point, the train passes through the village of Mink, which has been shelled by Red forces commanded by a General Strelnikov; at the end of Act One Strelnikov is revealed to be Pasha. While the Ural train is stopped, Zhivago wanders away from the train, listening to the sound of a water fall, and stumbles across Strelnikov's armored train. He is arrested and meets with Strelnikov - recognizing him as Pasha - who suspects him of being a hired assassin. After a tense conversation Strelnikov reveals that Lara is alive in the town of Yuriatin - which is currently occupied by forces of the White Army - and lets Zhivago go.

Zhivago's family arrives at Varykino but finds their main house to have been boarded up with a No Trespassing sign; however, they decide to occupy the spacious guest cottage. The family lives a mundane life until the next spring, when Zhivago goes into Yuriatin and runs into Lara at the local library. The two reacquaint themselves and consummate a sexual relationship. Zhivago is torn between Tonya and Lara, until Tonya becomes pregnant; Yuri travels to Yuriatin and breaks off his affair with Lara, only to be conscripted into service by Red partisan troops under Liberius (Gerard Tichy) while returning to Varykino.

After serving with the Partisans for nearly two years as a medical officer, Zhivago escapes, only to find that his family has left Varykino and emigrated to Paris; he goes to Lara's home in Yuriatin, and is ultimately discovered by Lara. The two renew their relationship, but Komarovsky arrives one night and informs them that they are being watched by the Bolsheviks, due to Lara's marriage to Strelnikov. Komarovsky offers Yuri and Lara his help in escaping, but they refuse; the two flee with Lara's daughter, Katya, to the Varykino estate, which has been left open and frozen inside. Yuri begins working on the "Lara" poems, which would make him famous. Komarovsky reappears, telling Yuri that Strelnikov has been killed and that Lara is in immediate danger; Yuri sends Lara away with Komarovsky, but remains behind.Yuri ultimately dies in a Moscow street some years later, suffering a heart attack after seeing a woman he thought was Lara. Lara has become separated from the her and Yuri's child, and enlists Yevgraf's help; Yevgraf, however, is unable to find her daughter.

At the end of the story, the Girl leaves the meeting with Yevgraf with her boyfriend. Yevgraf notes the girl has a balalaika on her back, and after being informed of her "gift" by her boyfriend, is convinced that she is indeed the daughter of Yuri and Lara.

Background

• Taglines: A love caught in the fire of Revolution.

and In a land of guns and ice, there is the great sound of battle and the greater silence of lovers

This famous film version by David Lean was created for various reasons. Lean, coming off of the huge success of Lawrence of Arabia (1962), wanted to make a more intimate, romantic film to balance the action- and adventure-oriented tone of his previous film. One of the first actors signed onboard was Omar Sharif, who had played Lawrence's right-hand man Sherif Ali in Lawrence. Sharif loved the novel, and when he heard Lean was making a film adaptation, he requested to be cast in the role of Pasha (which ultimately went to Tom Courtenay). Sharif was quite surprised when Lean suggested that he play Zhivago himself. (Peter O'Toole, star of Lawrence, was Lean's original choice for Zhivago but turned the part down.) Rod Steiger was cast as Komarovsky after Marlon Brando and James Mason turned the part down.

The film version was faithful to the book in a general sense, though some of the subplots - particularly regarding the novel's historical/political facets - were glossed over or edited down (see above). Many have criticized the film in particular for reducing the depiction of World War I to a mere five minute narration sequence. The subplot involving Yevgraf's interview of The Girl several decades after the story's main events was added as a narration/framing device to help move along the story. Omar Sharif later joked that it was added to reassure the audience that Yuri and Lara would ultimately get together, even though the audience would have to wait until two hours into the film for it to happen. The characterization of Pasha/Strelnikov was also significantly different than the book's; an apolitical military leader in the novel, Lean and screenwriter Robert Bolt made him a fervent Bolshevik for the film version. (Also, parts of the deserter sequence were based on an incident in the book, but the scene as a whole was a creation of Bolt's - as were the battles depicted in the Partisan scenes.)

The movie was filmed largely in Spain, with the entire Moscow set being built from scratch outside of Madrid. Some of the winter sequences were filmed in Finland (though the "ice castle" was also in Spain, a house covered in frozen beeswax). Winter scenes of the family escaping to Yuriatin by rail were filmed in Canada.

Reception

Despite being a huge box office hit (and being nominated for, and winning, several Academy Awards), Zhivago also gained a staggering amount of criticism from reviewers, largely for its length and depiction of the romance between Zhivago and Lara. Lean took these criticisms very personally, and claimed at the time that he would never make another film again. However, numerous critics - including Richard Schickel - defended Zhivago, and its box office success allowed Lean to write off his critics. Lean would make Ryan's Daughter (1970) a few years later before going fifteen years until making his final film, A Passage to India (1984).

Nonetheless, Lean's production of Zhivago has stood the test of time. The film left an indelible mark on popular culture and fashion, and to this day remains an extremely popular film: Maurice Jarre's haunting score - particularly Lara's Theme - became one of the most famous in cinematic history. Over the years, the film's critical reputation has gained in stature, and today Zhivago is considered to be one of Lean's finest works, along with Lawrence and Bridge on the River Kwai.

Primary cast

• Omar Sharif  : Dr. Yuri Zhivago
• Julie Christie  : Larissa/Lara Antipova
• Geraldine Chaplin  : Tonya
• Rod Steiger  : Viktor Komarovsky
• Alec Guinness  : Gen. Yevgraf Zhivago
• Tom Courtenay  : Pavel "Pasha" Antipov/Strelnikov
• Siobhan McKenna  : Anna
• Ralph Richardson  : Alexander Gromeko
• Rita Tushingham  : The Girl, Lara's daughter
• Adrienne Corri  : Amelia
• Klaus Kinski  : Kostia Amourski
• Gerard Tichy : Liberius (Partisan leader)
• Noel Willman : Razin (Partisan commissar)
• Bernard Kay: Kuril (Bolshevik deserter)
• Jack MacGowran: Petya (Varykino groundskeeper)
• Geoffrey Keen: Professor Boris Kurt

Awards

• Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama
• Golden Globe Award for Best Director - Motion Picture – David Lean
• Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama - Omar Sharif
• Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay - Motion Picture - Robert Bolt
• Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay - Robert Bolt
• Academy Award for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color - John Box, Terry Marsh, Dario Simoni
• Academy Award for Original Music Score - Maurice Jarre
• Grammy Award for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture - Maurice Jarre
• Golden Globe Award for Original Music Score - Maurice Jarre
• Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Color - Freddie Young
• Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Color - Phyllis Dalton

Award nominations

• Academy Award for Best Picture
• BAFTA Award for Best Film from any source
• Cannes Film Festival - Palme d'or
• Academy Award for Directing - David Lean
• Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor - Tom Courtenay
• Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer - Female - Geraldine Chaplin
• Academy Award for Film Editing - Norman Savage
• Academy Award for Sound - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer : A.W. Watkins & Franklin Milton

Academy Awards

Trivia

• Adjusted for inflation, Zhivago is the 8th highest grossing movie ever to be released in the United States.
• Current US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts named Zhivago as one of his favorite films during his confirmation hearings (see here for context).
• The film's portrayal of Strelnikov is based on Leon Trotsky, while the book's portrayal of him more closely resembled Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky.
• Alec Guinness and David Lean quarreled frequently on the set of the film. Lean often insulted Guinness on the set, saying he was "too old" to play Yevgraf in the scenes of him as a young man and accusing him of drinking. The two men had a falling out and subsequently did not work together again until A Passage to India (1984) (see Piers Paul Read, Alec Guinness: The Authorized Biography, pp. 382-4). Guinness had wanted to play Alexander (who was ultimately played by Ralph Richardson) but Lean convinced to him to be Yevgraf.
• Rod Steiger frequently improvised on the set, most notably his French-kissing of Julie Christie during the sleigh scene and his slapping Christie with his glove during the prelude to his rape of her.
• While filming the scene where the woman from the burnt village (Lili Murati) jumps onto the moving train, Murati can be seen slipping and falling under the train. The shot in the film is of this actually happening. Murati was seriously injured, but despite rumors to the contrary, she did not actually lose her legs in the accident. Snopes article
• Tom Courtenay and Rod Steiger became very close friends on the set of this film and remained such until Steiger's death in 2002.
• Julie Christie turned down the part of Lara several times before ultimately accepting it. Christie was cast because Lean was impressed by her "look" in Billy Liar (1963), in which she had appeared with Tom Courtenay.
• The young Yuri Zhivago is played by Omar Sharif's son Tarek.
• Carlo Ponti had purchased the rights to the book intending for it to star his wife, Sophia Loren, but David Lean convinced Ponti she was "too tall" to play Lara.
• During the filming of the demonstration scene where the demonstrators sing the Internationale, citizens of the town where it was filmed had thought that Spanish dictator General Franco had died and began celebrating. Local police had also heard the singing and had to be convinced by the production company that it was a movie, rather than a real revolution (see the DVD documentary and commentary, as well as Kevin Brownlow: David Lean).
• Yevgraf's alias of Petrov, which he gives while enlisting during World War I, was one of the first pseudonyms used by Lenin during his early days as a Bolshevik agitator.
• The fictional town of Yuriatin was based on the real-life town of Perm, a town in the Ural Mountains which frequently changed hands between the Reds and Whites throughout the Civil War.
• The Partisan's charge across a frozen lake is a reference to the famous Soviet propaganda film Alexander Nevsky (1938).
• Though the charge of the dragoons has been compared by many to the Odessa Steps scene in Battleship Potemkin (1925), the scene was not a reference for the reason that Lean had never seen the film.
• Geraldine Chaplin based her performance as Tonya very closely on her mother Oona O'Neill, whom she described as "a woman who was willing to give her life to an artist."
• Another possible choice for Lara was Sarah Miles. Robert Bolt disagreed, referring to Miles (his future wife) as "a North Country slut".

External links

• Doctor Zhivago at the Internet Movie Database
• Masterpiece Theatre | Doctor Zhivago
• Pasternak, Boris: Doctor Zhivago
• Борис Пастернак/Доктор Живаго | site in Russian
• Сериал Доктор Живаго (2005) | site in Russian
• Homegrown Doctor Zhivago to Debut on Russian Television

Categories

Find

Find