Doctor Zhivago (Two-Disc Special Edition) | Omar Sharif, Julie Christie

Doctor Zhivago (Two-Disc Special Edition) | Omar Sharif, Julie Christie | Beautiful and informative

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Doctor Zhivago (Tw...

	Doctor Zhivago (Two-Disc Special Edition) Omar Sharif, Julie Christie Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), 2001 average customer review:based on 217 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

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 Gone with the Wind before it and Titanic after. Sharif, who achieved stardom in Lean's previous film, Lawrence of Arabia, 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. --Robert Horton

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An Epic Story That Only David Lean Could Tell!

This film together with "Bridge On the River Kwai" and "Lawrence of Arabia" represent a hattrick of director David Lean's best ever work as well as among the best films ever made. Although "Lawrence of Arabia" is clearly the best of the three, "Doctor Zhivago is a close second. This film has been described quite aptly as Russia's "Gone With the Wind" as the loves and lives of the people close to Doctor Zhivago gets told amid the backdrop of World War 1 and the Russian Revolution all the way to the Russia of the 60's. No one can quite tell an epic story as well as David Lean does and his films are so good that they transcend time and as true classics should they age very well and hold up very well to repeated viewing. The cast is excellent and so is the brilliant camerawork and the haunting score by Maurice Jarre.

This dvd version is a real treat as the second disc is chockful of bonus extras like interviews with the cast and a good making of documentary while the main course on disc one has very good picture quality and especially good Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound quality as well. This dvd represents a remarkably well done restoration of the film which makes it an extremely enjoyable film in this day and age. Even the digipak cardboard packaging is very well done and aesthetically appealing in design.

If you are looking for David Lean's best work, you need look no further than "Lawrence of Arabia", this film and "Bridge On the River Kwai" and in that order.

Highly recommended!

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Beautiful and informative

Based on Pasternak's excellent novel, this is one of the truly great movies. It is strong in all areas. The story is powerful, the actors excellent, the editing appropriate, the sound track wonderful and the cinematography breathtaking.

Even the scene in which the child Zhivago's mother is buried on a bitter Winter day is fabulous. We are actually permitted into the coffin of the beautiful young woman as her orphaned child watches ice crystals forming on his window. Unique, powerful and breathtaking. It's all breathtaking.

Zhivago sees beauty where others see only grief and ugliness. He tries to understand when his family home is subdivided and administered by tight-lipped Communists hacks. Personally apolitical, Zhivago is a witness and victim of the political events of his time. He serves as a physician in the crumbling Russian army; he's a witness to the revolutionary collapse of an army and old Russia; he and his farmily travel in a cattle car to the now-Soviet East, hoping to find food and a little peace. It doesn't happen. He encounters Strelnikov, a Communist fanatic, butcher and old acquaintance. He betrays his wife and falls hopelessly in love with the beautiful Lara.

Idealistic and moral, he tries to control himself and tells the tearful Lara that they must never meet again. Too late. On the way back to his dutiful wife he is captured by the Red Guards and forced to become their physician. He has no love for the Communists but he treats the sick and wounded. In the midst of a terrible Winter he deserts in a futile effort to find his family.

What ultimately happens to Lara? We never find out. A Communist officer cynically speculates, "She was probably one of the millions who "disppeared" and were sent to Sibera, her name on a list, later misplaced."

An interesting aside is that I personally became acquainted with a very old man who had a history remarkably similar to the mythical Zhivago. He was a Russian physician who joined the anti-Communist "White Guards." The anti-Communist forces were pushed further and further East toward Vladivostock. When this port city fell, he and other Russians fled to Harbin, Manchuria. His son, Alex, was born in Harbin but, following the Japanese invasion, came to the U.S. It was through Alex that I got to know the old man. The "long ago" sometimes touches the present.

Ron Braithwaite author of Mexican Conquest novels, "Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"

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Fabulous

Doctor Zhivago is romance and history and struggle all wrapped up in one tremendous piece of art!

Cascading oceans of tears

I just saw this last night and was almost immediately extremely emotionally expressive throughout the whole film. The juxtaposition between the rich and the poor and then the fall of society into communism is absolutely heart wrenching. But Omar Sharif's portrayal of Dr. Zhivago is all about hope during this depressing time and his bright attitude toward life is felt throughout by the viewer as well as many of the characters, but the despair is always there. Shadows of fear, violence, betrayal, and hatred lurk all around him and Lara, played by Julie Cristie. But Dr. Zhivago is driven by hope and tireless perseverance to build a better life for his family. Their love for one another keeps them strong and keeps them going.

I must warn you that this movie is not for the faint of heart. My husband, who had seen it a few times before, was emotional because of my sorrow filled emotion. Yes, it took a monumental toll on me as a viewer and I continued to be affected by it hours after watching the film. But make no mistake: THIS MOVIE IS WORTH WATCHING. It is a long film (3 hours, 20 minutes), but it is at the pinnacle of genius. Its star-studded cast performs brilliantly and in a believably disturbing way that pulls the viewer in and holds him for the length of this epic film.

This is such a powerful movie that I should think that everyone must be able to watch it before they go off into that goodnight of existence. In fact, I encourage it. This film will have such a powerful effect on the viewer for the rest of his life, it is so powerful.

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Dr Zhivago Among The Finest All Time Classic's

I wish I could live a life as full as Dr. Zhivago. Every so often one realizes that when events in history happen, it changes the lives of people to the extent that can only be read about or viewed to believe. The loneliness, and then joy, Fear,uncertainty, and ultimately sorrow.

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