Doctor Zhivago (1965)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Jim H

  
  Against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution, a poet/doctor struggles to "just live" with his wife and mistress. It's probably cliche and easy to say that a three-hour-nineteen-minute-long film is too long, but Doctor Zhivago is too long. In fact, this is the… More
  Against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution, a poet/doctor struggles to "just live" with his wife and mistress. It's probably cliche and easy to say that a three-hour-nineteen-minute-long film is too long, but Doctor Zhivago is too long. In fact, this is the second time I watched it; the first time I fell asleep (I actually fell asleep this time too, but Netflix let me rewind it). As a project, pulling off the production of such a massive film is a tribute to the filmmakers' talents and organization, and I can see that director David Lean attempted to render the lengths and breadths of the characters' dramatic lives, the upheaval to which they're subjected, but too much time is spent traversing the Russian landscape for my taste. I guess I'm saying that I get the film's reasoning, but I can't say that it makes for compelling entertainment. I liked Omar Sharif's performance, especially the simple passion with which he says, "Just live" about his intentions after a long trek. And Rod Steiger is always great, especially in villainous roles like this one. "Don't fool yourself: this was rape," he says at one point in the film, and the cold simplicity in his voice makes it one of the more compelling moments in the film. Julie Christie's character and acting can be easily reduced to "other woman" instead of "Lara," and I thought the film could have spent more time developing the reasons for Zhivago's affair with her. What makes her his bright-eyed muse? In a film this long, it's surprising that such an important element of the film feels so underdeveloped. Overall, if there's a condensed version, see that.

• Carlos M

  
  A 200-minute-long epic set during the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. The first three hours are involving and excellent, presenting some fascinating characters like the ones played by Courtenay and Steiger, but then the film collapses in the last half hour, when most characters go… More
  A 200-minute-long epic set during the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. The first three hours are involving and excellent, presenting some fascinating characters like the ones played by Courtenay and Steiger, but then the film collapses in the last half hour, when most characters go through inexplicable changes of personality and the plot reaches a pathetic conclusion.

• Jeremy S

  
  From Pasternak's sweeping epic novel, set in the World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution It's strenght lies in it's portraal of the realities of life in Russia after the 1917 Communist Revolution. The most memorable thing of all is the romantic score.

• Anthony L

  
  David Lean's classic adaptation is both epic and masterful, worth every bum-numbing minute!

• First L

  
  Doctor Zhivago is a sprawling, three-and-a-half hour epic involving the lives of three lovers trapped in the Soviet Union around the time of the Russian revolution. I'm not sure whether the revolution is the backdrop of the love story, or the love story is the backdrop for the… More
  Doctor Zhivago is a sprawling, three-and-a-half hour epic involving the lives of three lovers trapped in the Soviet Union around the time of the Russian revolution. I'm not sure whether the revolution is the backdrop of the love story, or the love story is the backdrop for the revolution, as both aspects are integral to the film. The movie begins with Doctor Zhivago's brother (Alec Guinness), a high ranking officer, is looking for his brother's long lost daughter. When he finds the girl he suspects of being his niece, he tells her the story of her parents, of how her father was both a poet and a doctor, and her mother was his muse. As he tells the story, one gets the sense of Dr. Zhivago the family man and physician, but never a sense of who he is as a person. It's obvious he cares for things, but not why he does. He marries the woman who is basically his adopted sister, and he seems to genuinely love her, but the relationship isn't defined beyond that. He supports the communist revolution, but only in it's vaguest terms. He seems to have no determination in his life, other than in the poetry he writes. That's the one thing that moves him above all else. His muse, Lara (Julie Christie) leads quite a different life. She's driven by passion, from her affair with the amoral and sadistic Komarovsky (Rod Steiger), to her engagement to the young idealist, who believes in black or white moral absolutes. Neither of them is quite what they claim they are. When the young idealist is struck down by the Czar's soldiers, he takes a more hardline stance. It's his story that provides a snapshot of the revolution, that maybe communism is motivated more by revenge than by justice. During WWI, Zhivago is shipped to the front to provide medical care, and it's here he meets Lara for the first time. Their parting after the war is uneventful and Zhivago returns home to his wife to find their home has been co-opted by the government, and they are now sharing it with several other families. Zhivago takes it all in stride, trying to be supportive of the new government, but he soon grows weary of watching his family starve and freeze to death. After he's nearly arrested for taking some old fence boards for firewood, the family heads off to the adopted father's country estate. They find the government has also taken that home, but not the servant's shack, and so they set up house in that instead. But really, there's no safe place in the new Soviet Union. As one leading party member tells a soldier, after the battles are over, it's the police who will maintain the government, not the soldiers, and thus begins the campaing to stamp out free thought. As I've said before, Doctor Zhivago is really two movies in one, the story of a man caught in a love triangle and the story of the Russian revolution. I think the revolution aspect works a little bit better, but both are well done. David Lean's directing style is reminiscent of 40s film noir, especially the way he lights the actors' eyes in certain scenes, but he also makes visual reference to other epics that have gone before, such as Gone With The Wind. Omar Shariff's performance is subtle, yet also intense. It seems like an incongruous combination, but he does all his acting with his eyes. I used the word "sprawling" before, and while it can apply to most "epics", it's especially true of this one. It's not as focused as Lean's other works ("Bridge on the River Kwai", "Lawrence of Arabia"), and I don't think it could have been. It's a film that was meant to be spread out and around. Even so, it's incredibly absorbing to watch.

• Lenny M

  
  Long, Long, Long love story involving using the history of Russia and its transformation to the USSR as a backdrop. Good film, might doze off a bit.

• Red L

  
  To me Dr Zhivago is an unforgettable movie. Following one amazing person through a period before, during and after Russia's Bolshevik revolution. I've always loved the music as well. One of my top ten movies.

• xGary X

  
  A classic of cinema from the master of the epic, David Lean. A love story that spans history and politics, brilliantly acted with beautiful cinematography. Even this cynical old git couldn't help but be captivated.

• Michael G

  
  One of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen.

• Glenn G

  
  The problem with seeing a film 46 years after it was released is that all of the oblique references you've had of it --- the theme music, the snow, the fur! --- all of them feel much different now than they would have way back when. This sweeping epic set in Russia during the… More
  The problem with seeing a film 46 years after it was released is that all of the oblique references you've had of it --- the theme music, the snow, the fur! --- all of them feel much different now than they would have way back when. This sweeping epic set in Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution is a product of its time. It's melodramatic, stagey, silly, often heavy-handed, unevenly acted, overly scored, and ends with a whimper, yet...I was totally immersed in it from start to finish. When people say, "they don't make them like that anymore", DOCTOR ZHIVAGO is a definitive example. Behold the Russian characters speaking with proper English accents! Gaze adoringly at all of the little children with their creepily angelic line deliveries! Get swept away by the classic David Lean wide shots and the fur blowing perfectly over Julie Christie's perfect features! What sets this film apart from the usual epics is that most have a love triangle as their central story. Here, we have a love quadrangle, which complicates matters and kept me interested. Add Rod Steiger to the mix, and it's really a 5-way orgy! Despite the sanitized technicolor splendor of it all, somehow, I managed to feel the hideousness of the times. Desperate people suffering under government oppression are presented with such varying reactions to it - from the emotionally shut-down (and wonderful) Tom Courtenay, to the power hungry Rod Steiger (hamming it up as only he knew how), to the anguished Omar Sharif (with the digitally restored print it became obvious that his eyes were horribly bloodshot throughout production - man there were some long hours put into making this one!). The language of this type of cinema has vanished and been replaced with either a docu-reality aesthetic or hyper-CGI-action. We're no longer used to seeing heightened and studio-bound drama anymore, so we tend to laugh at its excesses: - Sharif and Christie riding a carriage across the tundra should have been holy hell, but they make it look fun - When a main character is shot, we see their glasses fall to the ground instead of the graphic blood spattering. This heavy symbolism gets a laugh now, but back then, I'm sure it had an impact. - When Sharif returns to Christie after many years apart, he is covered in snow and ice so overdone, it looks like someone had a bukkake party on his face. - The theme song (which I always thought was some sort of Parisian tourist melody) is played so often, that it drives you a little nuts. Back then, it was most likely the most romantic thing anyone had ever heard. - Nowadays everyone wants blood to look real, but here, when spilled in the Moscow streets during a protest, it looks like Ralph Lauren Hunting Coat Red paint. - This film is so old-fashioned, it had an Overture and a 15 minute intermission. And the best part is the music sting and shock cut to the INTERMISSION card just as a main character surprisingly reappears. Damn, I wish TITANIC had done that. Finally, the politics of this film are all over the map. I'm STILL not sure if its pro-communist, capitalist, or just pro-kissing hard and dramatically. The imagery surrounding the communist workers is so striking, I'm gonna go with that. See this film with your next doomed lover!

• Byron B

  
  Beautiful epic movie! The sweeping scenery, time line, and emotions are not to be missed.

• Cameron J

  
  The doctor is in, and I know when I think of a romantic drama about a doctor, I think of an awesome, sweeping epic. Seriously though, it does actually fit, yet even if it didn't, David Lean was gonna try, because that guy could have directed traffic, and you were going to end up… More
  The doctor is in, and I know when I think of a romantic drama about a doctor, I think of an awesome, sweeping epic. Seriously though, it does actually fit, yet even if it didn't, David Lean was gonna try, because that guy could have directed traffic, and you were going to end up with a long, sweeping adventure of an epic about a man trying to get to the grocery store. He had to turn everything into a sweeping dramatic epic, and if he could, he'd throw a little bit of romance in the mix to supplement more substance that you'd expect out a big budget blockbuster. From that description, you'd think that he was the James Cameron of his time, except the difference is that Cameron is still consistently entertaining when he's in the middle of working substance in with the style. Don't get me wrong, I know good classic filmmaking when I see it, and I'm seeing it here, but really Dave, if you were going to take all night, you could have at least not intensified our desire to go to bed. Evidently, I'm one of the handful of people who feel that way with David Lean films, or at least almost all of the other ones, because although this film is still old enough to be considered a materpiece, plenty had to just give up a say, "Okay fine, it's a little bit boring." Well, I'm going to have disagree with those people, because this film really isn't all that boring, yet is still a real limper, decidedly not to where it keeps the film from standing out, let alone descending into the frightening world of tedium, yet still to where the film stands to pick up the pace if it's going to keep us here for so long. I've had someone tell me before I went into this film, "you'll be bored out of your gourd" (My mom's a dork), yet I soon came to find that this film really isn't any more slow than any other David Lean film. The problem is that Lean, regardless of what he and the critics thought, was never really all that exciting of an epic storyteller, and sure enough, this film travels few place and not very fast. It follows that classic Lean formula of atmosphere, complete with dryness and, during the less sweeping moments, an almost pronounced limitation of intrigue, made worse by long periods of exposition that really don't feel like they're heading anywhere, or at least not heading anywhere fast. The film is hardly boring, yet it does hit points where it is decidedly dull, and even those points are mere moments of intensification amidst consistent slowness and dryness that lands a hard blow to the film's intrigue in many more spots than it should. The final product comes out formulaic as a David Lean film, yet still with a degree of squandered potential, even though the actual concept, in detail, isn't quite as promising as expected. Still, on that scale, while the film still doesn't hit terribly hard, this is still David Lean, and while I'm not nut about him like everyone else, again, I know good classic filmmaking when I see it. Lean's execution is as improvable as always, yet with his conventional missteps come his conventional and ultimately triumphant good moves, particularly when it comes to style. Freddie Young's and an uncredited Nicholas Roeg's cinematography gives the film a kind of subtle haze that is only occasionally noticable, but really stops you cold (Pun... okay, intended) in your tracks when it does go pronounced, particularly during the many sweep shots that David Lean did and we will always love so much, especially when we're looking at locations and art direction this phenomenal. The film, like many a Lean film, is a real feast for the eyes, as well as the ears, for Maurice Jarre's score is one to note, poignantly understanding the spirit and sweep of the environment and sounding great while doing it, creating an epic composition that is sadly underused, yet always a joy to hear when it does finally kick in. Lean understood the style of an epic, as well as the atmosphere, a piece of knowledge that only occasionally plays upon within this film, yet when he does, the film truly resonantes with enthralling depth, whether it be in its portrayal of the rocky romance or the tragedies of war. The story is a worthy one with potential that is quite easily underexplored at the end of the day, yet still has enough depth in execution to engage you, with that depth spawning from Lean's direction and Carlo Ponti's production, as well as a slew of fine performances. Julie Christie was among what seemed to be a handful of actually good actresses of the '60s, and she wasn't about to let you forget it with this film, delivering on not necessarily a supreme performance, yet one with grace and emotional range that leaves you to attach to the Lara Antipova character and her struggles, while such rather underused talents as Tom Courtenay play their parts as components to the tension quite well, with Courtenay standing as an effective antagonistic presence of intelligence tainted by radical views. As for leading man Omar Sharif, our titular central character is one of nobility and greatness, as well as vulnerability and flaws, all defining aspects to both the Dr. Yuri Zhivago character and the film itself that Sharif nails with delicate grace. Zhivago is strong yet trapped in many ways: In war, in love and in principle, and with a kind of unraveling anguish, broken up by a glimmer of hope, Sharif shapes a performance structure that emits a fiery lead presence of compellingness that helps in making this film so engaging, regardless of its faults. Overall, the film follows perhaps too closely to the classic David Lean formula, falling into such traits as consistent slowness and dryness in the atmosphere, as well as lengthy lapses in intrigue, leaving the film to often feel rather aimless, something it can't afford to be with such a sprawling length and worthy subject matter, yet through dazzling style and sweep, the film engages, while Lean's general inspiration in direction and across-the-board fine performances - particularly those by a show-stealkingly antagonistic Tom Courtenay and a lead position-justifyingly emotional and layered Omar Sharif -, the film is often emotionally enthralling, thus leaving "Doctor Zhivago" to stand as your usual David Lean epic, complete with sweep and general resonance that makes it well worth the long sit. 3/5 - Good

• Jeff L

  
  Beautiful cinematography and captivating storytelling, but the ending gets a little sloppy

• Chris B

  
  Another of David Lean's epics that is beautifully filmed and captures not only the romance involved but the devastation of war involved within the Russian Revolution. The film follows Dr. Yuri Zhivago who is married to Tonya but also has an affair with Lara, there love triangle… More
  Another of David Lean's epics that is beautifully filmed and captures not only the romance involved but the devastation of war involved within the Russian Revolution. The film follows Dr. Yuri Zhivago who is married to Tonya but also has an affair with Lara, there love triangle as at the center of the Russian Revolution that comes between all during the conflict. The film captures the devastation and dangers of revolution and displays them realistically throughout as it also captures natures beauty as well maybe symbolizing a greater power out there. The film isn't quite at the heights of some of Lean's other epics like "The Bridge on the River Kwai" or "Laurence of Arabia" but nonetheless is still an epic that has scale and talent involved throughout all aspects of the filming process. This is a beautiful and devastating love story as only David Lean could tell it!

• Cinema F

  
  Few directors would always get international audience. And when one considers the positive public response to many of David Lean's films, it is just fair to say that only few directors have commanded such a large portion of the mass audience. Working again with his… More
  Few directors would always get international audience. And when one considers the positive public response to many of David Lean's films, it is just fair to say that only few directors have commanded such a large portion of the mass audience. Working again with his screenwriter Robert Bolt, Lean's epic film Doctor Zhivago could be described as " a fateful series of brief encounters." The complicated narrative is held together by a series of connecting and associative images--moon, windows, candles, cornflowers and daffodils to suggest the two women in Zhivago's life. Doctor Zhivago (Omar Shariff) is the idealistic doctor hero swept along by the epic events of the Russian Revolution in Bolt's adaptation of Boris Pasternak's Nobel Prize-winning novel. Banned in the Soviet Union but acclaimed in the West, the novel is a about the story of love and a great documentary of the Bolshevik Revolution. The lovers are Zhivago and the beautiful, sensual Lara (Julie Christie), for whom a brief happiness is tragically engulfed by the tide of history. There is a stunning last shot of Lara, as she disappears alone down a grey street that is dominated by a huge red poster of Stalin. It is an image that crystallizes the theme of the individual and the state, as well as implicitly asking questions that are at the heart of Dr Zhivago--what the revolution was for, where it led, and, whom it affected. Again, Director Lean has approached this film with his customary deliberation and meticulous preparation. Inasmuch as some critics found the flick to be something of a disappoinment, it's a film with stunning cinematography, good script, and talented people behind it.

• Ivan D

  
  I'm never much aware of Russian history especially the time of Lenin, so I watched "Dr. Zhivago" partly so I may get some immediate knowledge about the Bolsheviks and the Communist wave in Russia. But David Lean, always the master of substantial scale, treated the… More
  I'm never much aware of Russian history especially the time of Lenin, so I watched "Dr. Zhivago" partly so I may get some immediate knowledge about the Bolsheviks and the Communist wave in Russia. But David Lean, always the master of substantial scale, treated the revolution and turbulence not as important political details, but merely circumstantial forces of nature to cloud and test the real center of the film: That of Yuri Zhivago's(Omar Sharif) life and love. Unlike Lean's previous protagonists which were enclosed with moral and personal ambiguities(Col. Nicholson and T.E. Lawrence), Zhivago was a straightforward man. A principled doctor who's always ready to help within his ability, and though not invulnerable to hardships, always carried them with a teary-eyed smile. "Doctor Zhivago", aside from a strong lead by Omar Sharif, is also littered with heavyweight performances by Klaus Kinski, Alec Guinness and especially Rod Steiger as Komarovsky. "Doctor Zhivago" was trashed and denounced by critics upon its first release(which of course learned from their mistakes). But through the years, it has since been hailed as a cinematic "treasure" and of significant importance to the art of films. It may just be a playful coincidence, but the film's initial critical reception was a great parallel to Yuri Zhivago's life: Once invaded, halted and violated by the turmoil inflicted by the sudden revolution, but went on and able to create love and leave a lasting mark to those who knew him. "Doctor Zhivago" was littered with sequences of immense magnitude, but they're merely treated as backdrops, as Lean, armed with Boris Pasternak's strong material and his firm belief that individual human emotions must never take the backseat for the sake of pure pageantry, created another picture that strengthened the fact that if a filmmaker wants to know the blueprints of a fine epic film, there's no other place to look further into than David Lean's works.

• Doctor S

  
  Dr. Z can take the slow train to Russia as far as I'm concerned. And believe me, that's the only speed those trains achieve.

• Simeon D

  
  Unnecessarily long, without a firm plot or point, narratively unfocused, and lacking characters, this Russian Revolution epic is certainly not David Lean's best, but it can be listed among his many achievements such as Lawrence of Arabia and The Bridge On The River Kwai. Despite… More
  Unnecessarily long, without a firm plot or point, narratively unfocused, and lacking characters, this Russian Revolution epic is certainly not David Lean's best, but it can be listed among his many achievements such as Lawrence of Arabia and The Bridge On The River Kwai. Despite the screenwriting flaws vivid landscapes and great performances from Rod Steiger and Julie Christie make this a masterpiece. 83/100

• hawk l

  
  Russia in winter has never looked more alluring and neither have Omar Sharif or Julie Christie. Chock full of terrific images and gorgeous landscapes, remembered by many for the haunting Lara's Theme.

• Leo L

  
  Greatest film of all time!

Read all 20 featured audience ratings