David Lean was a director, producer, and screenwriter known for his epic-scale movies directed throughout the 50s, 60s, 70s, and into the 1980s. He began that career making British war films during the 1940s, moved into Charles Dickens, then eventually found his calling when he helmed The Bridge on the River Kwai, an epic drama about POWs in Burma. Everything about that film is large-scale, and, whatever you might think about the film itself, it is a gorgeous one to look at. He would follow that up with what is arguably his finest film, the epic adventure drama Lawrence of Arabia, a nearly four-hour-long World War I drama that takes place almost entirely in the deserts of Arabia. David Lean’s films, during this period of his career, have one thing in common: they are grand in scale.
By the time he was wrapping up Lawrence of Arabia, he wanted to shift directions away from action/adventure films and make something with a bit more heart and emotion. He eventually settled on a novel by Boris Pasternak about a Russian physician during World War I and on through the Russian Civil War. This would be a romantic film that was every bit as epic in scale as Lawrence of Arabia but would feature the harsh realities of the heavy winters of Russia. It would be a difficult shoot, and choosing to depict much of the film during the winter would make it even more difficult, but it would also lend the film a distinct look and tone that would have been absent otherwise.
David Lean fell back on his Lawrence of Arabia cast, bringing in both Omar Sharif and Sir Alec Guinness to play the separated half-brothers Yuri and Yevgraf Zhivago. Omar was actually not Lean’s first choice for the lead role; he initially offered the part to Peter O’Toole, who turned it down. So did Max von Sydow and Paul Newman. The choice to put Omar in such a pivotal role was bold, and the actor does a fine job in it, but a film of this magnitude needs more than just fine. Omar struggles under the weight of the film at times and has little chemistry with either of his female co-stars.
Julie Christie was still early in her career when she landed the part of Lara. Christie was offered the role after Lean decided the actress being eyed for it, Sophia Loren, wasn’t the right fit. Producer Carlo Ponti, who was married to Loren at the time, had wanted to adapt the novel specifically with his wife in mind. Lean felt that Loren was entirely wrong for the part, secretly believing that she could not be convincing in the early scenes as the virginal Lara. Julie Christie had just filmed Billy Liar and, based on that performance, Lean cast her. With his stars in place, David Lean took the cast to Spain and Portugal to film what would be his latest epic.
The story, as it were, when boiled down to the basics, is nowhere near as epic as the running time would suggest. Yuri Zhivago is a young physician who is on the outside of an emotional drama playing out between Lara and her mother’s lover, Victor Korarovsky (Rod Steiger). Victor forces himself on her when she rejects him, and she later shoots him in the arm at a Christmas party. Her fiancé, Pasha Antipov, leads her away, and they marry while Yuri marries his fiancée, Tonya (Geraldine Chaplin). When World War I breaks out, Pasha enlists to fight and is seemingly killed. Yuri and Lara end up serving together as doctor and nurse on the battle lines, and he falls in love with her, but she initially resists. Later, after the war and Yuri and his family have fled Moscow for the countryside, they will be reunited and engage in an affair. Meanwhile, Pasha turns out to still be alive, rebranded as Strelnikov, a ruthless commander for the Bolsheviks, who are waging war against the Tsar in a bloody civil war.
When Doctor Zhivago hit theaters in the winter of 1965, it was an enormous success, thanks in large part to the popularity of the novel, which was getting a lot of press for being banned in Russia for its views on the revolution and Russian history in general. This made it a popular read amongst the youth movement of the late 50s and 60s. This, in turn, translated into a lot of tickets sold. It resonated with audiences of the time, and when it came time for the Academy Awards, it was decorated with ten nominations, winning only in the technical fields. It is of note that none of the cast, with the exception of Tom Courtenay, who played the role of Pasha Antipov/Strelnikov, received nominations for acting.
David Lean is a great technological director, as his films can attest. They are marvels to look at and inspire curiosity as to how they were made. There are shots and transitions here that are truly beautiful on their own or as a whole. Lean uses imagery to convey emotion, such as when he has a transition that begins on the crystallized frost on a window that fades to a field of flowers, then to the visage of Lara. Each of these shots is beautiful in its own right and tells a story when strung together. Lean and his cinematographer, Freddie Young, are tapping into something special to make this a gorgeous film to look at. Other moments are equally stunning for other reasons, such as the whole backdrop of the first World War and the following revolution. This plot could have, and should have, been a film all on its own.
But a film is more than just stunning visuals and interesting backdrops. These things need to be in service of a plot that is deserving of them. The story of the rise of the Bolsheviks and the Civil War that followed is far more interesting than anything going on between Yuri and Lara. For a film of this epic length, so little actual time is spent on the machinations of the uprising and the reasons behind it. The film gives you a few basics of the realities of life during this time but leaves it as a lot of background noise in service of the far less interesting love story. Yet even this love story is treated like an afterthought for large swaths of time as Lara disappears from the picture for well over an hour while we follow Zhivago and his marriage to Tonya. Even more of an afterthought is the bookend story that takes place years after the main events, where Yevgraf (Alec Guinness) is interviewing a young woman he thinks might be the long-lost love child of Yuri and Lara.
We are tasked with being invested in a romance between Zhivago and Lara when there is nothing wrong with his relationship with his wife, who is portrayed as far too understanding of the situation once her husband has taken up with another woman. This paints Tonya as a weak character and Zhivago as a scumbag. Lara comes off the best because at least she resists the emotional pull she feels towards Zhivago initially. She tells him they shouldn’t do anything he would have to lie to his wife about. Later, she will not even think about what their actions would be doing to his young family. Towards the end of the film, Zhivago is captured and forced into service for the Bolsheviks. It’s years later before he is able to escape and return home, yet he goes to Lara instead, not even making an attempt to return to his wife and children. Tonya has just accepted that this is what he will do and has moved on to Paris by this point leaving him only a note of understanding. Zhivago shows no inclination to even try and find them again. This makes him an unlikable character and not worthy of our sympathies. Consequentially, when he meets his end tragically, I just didn’t care. I know what David Lean was trying to get me to feel, but it just wasn’t there.
This is an epic film in every way except for the romance. David Lean wanted to make an epic romance, but his sensibilities just weren’t suited for that. This leaves us with a film that is big in scope, looks gorgeous, but ends up being cold and distant. The more interesting story, such as Pasha’s rise from being an idealist to a Bolshevik Commander and his ultimate demise trying to get back to his wife, is treated as an afterthought and could have made for a compelling drama on its own. Instead, the film feels unfocused and drawn out to the point of being uninteresting. It had so much potential and would have made for a compelling drama had an actor’s director like Sydney Lumet been at the helm. David Lean isn’t that kind of director, and instead, what we get is a technically well-made film that just isn’t all that interesting when viewed as a whole.
Academy Award Nominations:
Best Picture: Carlo Ponti
Best Director: David Lean
Best Supporting Actor: Tom Courtenay
Best Screenplay - Based on Material from Another Medium: Robert Bolt (won)
Best Art Direction - Color: John Box, Terrence Marsh, and Dario Simoni (won)
Best Cinematography - Color: Freddie Young (won)
Best Costume Design - Color: Phyllis Dalton (won)
Best Film Editing: Norman Savage
Best Music Score - Substantially Original: Maurice Jarre (won)
Best Sound: A. W. Watkins and Franklin Milton
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Release Date: December 22, 1965
Running Time: 193 Minutes
Not Rated
Starring: Omar Sherif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Tom Courtenay, Alec Guinness, Siobhán McKenna, Ralph Richardson, Rod Steiger, and Rita Tushingham
Directed by: David Lean
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