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Doctor Zhivago (1965 film)
Encyclopedia
Doctor Zhivago is a 1965 epic
drama
-romance
-war film
directed by David Lean
and loosely based on the famous novel of the same name
by Boris Pasternak
. It has remained popular for decades, and as of 2010 is the eighth highest grossing film of all time in the United States, adjusted for inflation.
, the Russian Revolution
and Russian Civil War
, as the regime of Tsar Nicholas II
was overthrown and the Soviet Union
established. A framing device
, from which the film is narrated, takes place some time in the late 1940s to early 1950s, though a specific date is never mentioned.
The film's framing device
involves KGB
Lieutenant General
Yevgraf Andreyevich Zhivago (Alec Guinness
) searching for the illegitimate child of his half brother, poet and doctor Yuri Andreyevich Zhivago (Omar Sharif
), and his mistress Larissa ("Lara") Antipova (Julie Christie
). Yevgraf believes a young woman named Tonya Komarovskaya (Rita Tushingham
) working on a dam project may be his niece.
Yevgraf tells Tonya the story of her father's life. Yuri Zhivago's father abandons the family and Yuri's mother dies when he is a child. Left destitute, Yuri is taken in by his mother's friends, Alexander 'Sasha' (Ralph Richardson
) and Anna (Siobhán McKenna
) Gromeko — and their daughter Tonya (Geraldine Chaplin
). As Gromeko is a retired medical professor living in Moscow
, Zhivago is able to enter medical school in 1913, studying under Professor Boris Kurt (Geoffrey Keen
). Though he is already a poet of some renown, Yuri does not think he can support a family as a poet and decides to become a doctor. Lara, meanwhile, lives with her mother (Adrienne Corri
), a dressmaker who is being "advised" by Victor Ipolitovich Komarovsky (Rod Steiger
), a corrupt attorney, who was a friend and business partner of Zhivago's father. Lara becomes engaged to Pavel Pavlovich ("Pasha") Antipov (Tom Courtenay
). Originally an idealistic social democrat, Pasha drifts into Left-wing extremism after being wounded and scarred by sabre-wielding Cossack
s during a peaceful protest. The same evening, Komarovsky takes Lara to an expensive restaurant and seduces her. After Lara returns home, Pasha shows up at Lara's home, revealing his scarred face to Lara and tells her to hide a Smith & Wesson
revolver that he picked up at the demonstration, telling her to hide it and shoot any capitalists in revenge for the massacre of the demonstrators.
Lara becomes more deeply involved with Komarovsky, until her mother finally discovers their affair and tries to commit suicide
by swallowing iodine
. Komarovsky discovers her and summons help from Kurt and his assistant Zhivago, who thus sees Lara for the first time. When Pasha, now a dedicated Bolshevik
, informs Komarovsky of his intentions to marry Lara, Komarovsky is not amused. He tries to dissuade Lara from marrying Pasha, and then rapes her. In revenge, Lara takes a pistol she has been concealing for Pasha, tracks Komarovsky to a Christmas Eve
party and shoots him. Komarovsky is not killed but only shot in the arm. Although the diners wish to notify the police, Komarovsky insists that no action be taken against Lara, who is escorted out by Pasha. Yuri, who is also present at the party, sees Pasha. Although enraged and devastated by Lara's infidelity, Pasha cannot bring himself to strike her. Komarovsky's wound is treated by Yuri. In the aftermath, Pasha marries Lara and they have a daughter, Katya Antipova.
The movie then moves ahead to the outbreak of World War I
in 1914. Yevgraf Zhivago reveals that he is a Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
member when narrating, intending to subvert the Imperial Russian Army
for Vladimir Lenin
's Bolsheviks. Yuri is married to Tonya Gromeko and becomes a battlefield doctor along the Eastern Front
. Leaving his wife and his daughter, Pasha Antipov joins a volunteer regiment ("Happy men don't volunteer," Yevgraf is heard to say in voice-over) and became a trusted man to his comrades. In the winter of 1915, Pasha is presumed dead during an attack on the Germans but technically declared missing in action
. Lara enlists as a nurse in order to search for him. Meanwhile, the February Revolution
breaks out and the soldiers begin to kill their officers and desert en masse. Travelling with a group of deserters, Lara again encounters Zhivago, who is with a column of replacement troops marching to the front. Zhivago enlists the help of Lara to tend to the wounded. The two manage a makeshift hospital in a nearby dacha
for the remainder of the war and are parted after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
.
After the war, Yuri returns to Moscow, learns that his mother-in-law has died and that the Gromekos' house has been divided into tenements by the new Soviet government. Yuri meets his son Sasha for the first time since the boy was an infant, and resumes his old job at the local hospital. Angered that his family lacks firewood for the family stove, one night Yuri steals wood from a fence, where he is spotted by his half-brother, Yevgraf, who is working for the CHEKA
. Yevgraf follows him home, identifies himself, and informs Zhivago that his poems have been condemned by Soviet censors as antagonistic to Communism
. After explaining that this puts their whole family at risk for collective punishment
, Yevgraf helps arrange for rail passes for their transport to the Gromeko estate at Varykino, in the Ural Mountains
.
Zhivago, Tonya, Sasha and Alexander board a heavily-guarded cattle train which contains a detachment of labour conscripts bound for the gulag
—including the hot-headed dissident
anarchist intellectual, Kostoyed Amoursky (Klaus Kinski
)—and a large contingent of Red Guards
. At one point, the train passes through the village of Mink, which has been shelled by Red forces commanded by People's Commissar Strelnikov, with one old woman from the village taken onto the train with a dead infant. As the train stopped somewhere near the Urals, an armoured train
adorned with red flag
s passes by as the Bolshevik sailors and the old woman saying that the armoured train is Strelnikov's, with Strelnikov standing at the back of the armoured train. In a closeup on his face, it reveals that Strelnikov is actually Pasha. While the Urals train is stopped in the Urals, Zhivago wanders away from the train, listens to the sound of a waterfall, and stumbles across Strelnikov's armoured train sitting on a hidden siding. Believing that Yuri is about to assassinate the Commissar, the Red Guards arrest him and bring him before Strelnikov. Yuri immediately recognises the Commissar as Pasha Antipov, now a Red Army general, whom he recognized at the Christmas eve
party back in 1913. After a tense conversation, Strelnikov informs Yuri that Lara is alive in the town of Yuriatin — which is then occupied by the anti-Communist White Army. He then allows Zhivago to return to his family, although it is implied by a guard that most people interrogated by Strelnikov end up being shot.
Zhivago's family arrives at Varykino, only to learn that their house has been boarded up with a sign indicating confiscation by the Soviet State, a.k.a. "the people". Out of fear of being executed as "counter-revolutionaries", they refrain from breaking into their own house and decide to occupy the smaller guest cottage. The family lives a mundane life until the next spring, when Zhivago goes into nearby Yuriatin and finds that Lara is still living there with Katya, and working as a librarian. The two reacquaint themselves and surrender to their longtime feelings, beginning an extra-marital affair. Zhivago feels deeply ashamed and is torn between Tonya and Lara, until Tonya becomes pregnant. Yuri travels to Yuriatin and breaks off his relationship with Lara, only to be abducted and conscripted into service by Communist partisans
under Liberius (Gérard Tichy
) while riding back to Varykino. After serving with the Partisans for nearly two years, Zhivago deserts, walking through the snow to Yuriatin in an attempt to reach Varykino, but learns that Tonya, her father and Sasha are gone. He makes his way to Lara's flat, where the two lovers rekindle their relationship. Lara reveals a letter from Tonya, where she tells Yuri that she, her father, and Sasha have emigrated to Paris. She has also given birth to a daughter, and admits at the end, "I must honestly admit that {Lara} Antipova is a good person."
However, Komarovsky arrives one night and informs them that they are being watched by the CHEKA, due to Lara's marriage to Commissar Strelnikov (who has fallen from favour with the Soviet State) and Yuri's "counter-revolutionary" poetry and desertion. Komarovsky offers Yuri and Lara his help in leaving Russia, but they refuse. Instead, they go to the Varykino estate, which has been left open and is frozen inside. Yuri begins writing the "Lara" poems, which later make him famous but incur government displeasure. Komarovsky reappears and tells Yuri that Strelnikov was arrested and committed suicide while being taken to his execution. Therefore, Lara is in immediate danger, as the CHEKA had only left her free to lure Strelnikov into the open. Zhivago scoffs at this, but Komarovsky informs him that Strelnikov had been arrested on the road only five miles from Varykino. Yuri agrees to send Lara away with Komarovsky, who has been appointed as Minister of Justice to the Soviet puppet government of the Far East. Refusing to leave with a man he despises, Yuri remains behind.
Years later during the Stalinist era, Yuri returns destitute to Moscow, where Yevgraf, now an NKVD
Polkovnik
, obtains for him a hospital job and buys him some new clothes. While travelling on a tram
to his first day at work, Yuri sees a woman whom he recognises as Lara. Forcing his way off the tram, he runs after her, but suffers a fatal heart attack before she can see or notice him. Yuri's funeral is well-attended as his poetry is already being published openly due to shifts in politics and his funeral is well-attended. Among the mourners is Lara, who approaches Yevgraf and informs him that she has given birth to Yuri's daughter, but has become separated from her in the collapse of the White Government in Mongolia. After vainly looking over hundreds of orphans with Yevgraf's help, Lara disappears off the street during Joseph Stalin
's Great Purge
. "She died or vanished somewhere, in one of the labour camps," recalls Yevgraf, "A nameless number, on a list that was afterwards mislaid."
When Yevgraf starts retelling Yuri's story, Zhivago's mother dies and he inherits her balalaika
. His adoptive father informs him that his mother had a gift. The theme of artistic talent is repeated throughout the film, as Zhivago becomes a poet of great renown. At the end, set at a hydroelectric dam during the early 1950s, Yevgraf is growing more and more convinced the young girl Tonya Komarovskaya is Yuri's and Lara's daughter, but she is reluctant to believe it. The girl ends the meeting, promising that she will "think about it", and leaves with her boyfriend, a dam operator. While walking away, the girl slings a balalaika over her shoulder, which catches the eye of Yevgraf. He calls out to her, "Tonya, can you play the balalaika?" Her boyfriend responds, "Can she play? She is an artist!" "Who taught you?" Yevgraf asks. "No one taught her." Yevgraf smiles and comments, "Ah, then, it's a gift."
was created for various reasons. Pasternak's novel had been an international success, and producer Carlo Ponti
was interested in adapting it as a vehicle for his wife, Sophia Loren
. Lean, coming off 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 of Arabia. 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 of Arabia, was Lean's original choice for Zhivago, but turned the part down; Max von Sydow
and Paul Newman
were also considered. Michael Caine
tells in his autobiography that he also read for Zhivago, but (after watching the results with David Lean) was the one who suggested Omar Sharif. Rod Steiger
was cast as Komarovsky after Marlon Brando
and James Mason
turned the part down. Audrey Hepburn
was considered for Tonya, while Robert Bolt lobbied for Albert Finney
to play Pasha. Lean, however, was able to convince Ponti that Loren was not right for the role of Lara, saying she was "too tall" (and confiding in screenwriter Robert Bolt
that he could not accept Loren as a virgin for the early parts of the film), and Yvette Mimieux
, Sarah Miles
and Jane Fonda
were considered for the role. Ultimately, Julie Christie
was cast based on her appearance in Billy Liar
(1963), and the recommendation of John Ford
, who directed her in Young Cassidy.
Since the book was banned in the Soviet Union, the movie was filmed largely in Spain
over ten months, with the entire Moscow
set being built from scratch outside of Madrid
. Most of the scenes covering Zhivago and Lara's service in World War I were filmed in Soria
, as was the Varykino estate. Due to uncooperative weather in Spain, some of the winter sequences were filmed in Finland
, mostly landscape scenes, and Yuri's escape from the Partisans. Winter scenes of the family travelling to Yuriatin by rail were filmed in Canada
.
The "ice-palace" at Varykino was filmed in Soria as well, a house filled with frozen beeswax
. The charge of the Partisans across the frozen lake was filmed in Spain, too; a cast iron sheet was placed over a dried river-bed, and fake snow (mostly marble dust) was added on top. Some of the winter scenes, were filmed in summer with warm temperatures, sometimes of up to 30 °C (86 °F).
.
Despite being a huge box office hit, Doctor Zhivago received mixed reviews at the time of its release. It was criticised for its length and depiction of the romance between Zhivago and Lara. The preview cut, which ran to over 220 minutes, was criticized for its length and poor pacing; Lean felt obliged to remove up to 17 minutes of footage before the film's wide release
, and the missing footage has not been restored or located. Lean took these criticisms very personally, and claimed at the time that he would never make another film. However, numerous critics — including Richard Schickel
and Anna Lee — defended Doctor Zhivago, and its box office success allowed Lean to write off his critics. Lean made Ryan's Daughter
in 1970, then waited until 1984 to make his final film, A Passage to India
(1984).
The film left an indelible mark on popular culture and fashion, and to this day remains an extremely popular film: Maurice Jarre
's 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 Doctor Zhivago is considered to be one of Lean's finest works and is highly critically acclaimed, along with Lawrence of Arabia
, Brief Encounter
, The Bridge on the River Kwai
, and A Passage to India
.
As with the novel itself, the film was banned in the Soviet Union
. It was not shown in Russia until 1994.
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes
gives the film an 85% 'Fresh' rating.
Won
Nominated
(two disc set) and on Blu-ray
(a three-disc set that includes a book). The two-disc set consists of a double-sided DVD for the main film (whereas the DVD has to be flipped for part 2 of the film), and a one-sided DVD for the extras.
The region 2 version of this release suffers partly from Newton's rings
, an artifact probably due to chemical damage to the film base
used for telecine
, particularly in part 2 of the film.
Epic film
An epic is a genre of film that emphasizes human drama on a grand scale. Epics are more ambitious in scope than other film genres, and their ambitious nature helps to differentiate them from similar genres such as the period piece or adventure film...
drama
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
-romance
Romance film
Romance films are love stories that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate involvement of the main characters and the journey that their love takes through courtship or marriage. Romance films make the love story or the search for love the main plot focus...
-war film
War film
War films are a film genre concerned with warfare, usually about naval, air or land battles, sometimes focusing instead on prisoners of war, covert operations, military training or other related subjects. At times war films focus on daily military or civilian life in wartime without depicting battles...
directed by David Lean
David Lean
Sir David Lean CBE was an English film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor best remembered for big-screen epics such as The Bridge on the River Kwai , Lawrence of Arabia ,...
and loosely based on the famous novel of the same name
Doctor Zhivago
-Original creation:*Doctor Zhivago, by Boris Pasternak, published in 1957**Yuri Andreyevich Zhivago, a fictional character and the main protagonist of the book Doctor Zhivago-Adaptations:There are several adaptations based on the Doctor Zhivago book:...
by Boris Pasternak
Boris Pasternak
Boris Leonidovich Pasternak was a Russian language poet, novelist, and literary translator. In his native Russia, Pasternak's anthology My Sister Life, is one of the most influential collections ever published in the Russian language...
. It has remained popular for decades, and as of 2010 is the eighth highest grossing film of all time in the United States, adjusted for inflation.
Plot
The film takes place, for the most part, during the tumultuous period of 1912–1923, the years which included World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, the Russian Revolution
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
and Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
, as the regime of Tsar Nicholas II
Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official short title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until...
was overthrown and the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
established. A framing device
Framing device
The term framing device refers to the usage of the same single action, scene, event, setting, or any element of significance at both the beginning and end of an artistic, musical, or literary work. The repeated element thus creates a ‘frame’ within which the main body of work can develop.The...
, from which the film is narrated, takes place some time in the late 1940s to early 1950s, though a specific date is never mentioned.
The film's framing device
Framing device
The term framing device refers to the usage of the same single action, scene, event, setting, or any element of significance at both the beginning and end of an artistic, musical, or literary work. The repeated element thus creates a ‘frame’ within which the main body of work can develop.The...
involves KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages where the title of Lieutenant General was held by the second in command on the battlefield, who was normally subordinate to a Captain General....
Yevgraf Andreyevich Zhivago (Alec Guinness
Alec Guinness
Sir Alec Guinness, CH, CBE was an English actor. He was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets in which he played eight different characters. He later won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai...
) searching for the illegitimate child of his half brother, poet and doctor Yuri Andreyevich Zhivago (Omar Sharif
Omar Sharif
Omar Sharif is an Egyptian actor who has starred in Hollywood films including Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and Funny Girl. He has been nominated for an Academy Award and has won two Golden Globe Awards.-Early life:...
), and his mistress Larissa ("Lara") Antipova (Julie Christie
Julie Christie
Julie Frances Christie is a British actress. Born in British India to English parents, at the age of six Christie moved to England, where she attended boarding school....
). Yevgraf believes a young woman named Tonya Komarovskaya (Rita Tushingham
Rita Tushingham
-Career:Born in Liverpool, Tushingham began her career as a stage actress at the Liverpool Playhouse. Her screen debut was in A Taste of Honey...
) working on a dam project may be his niece.
Yevgraf tells Tonya the story of her father's life. Yuri Zhivago's father abandons the family and Yuri's mother dies when he is a child. Left destitute, Yuri is taken in by his mother's friends, Alexander 'Sasha' (Ralph Richardson
Ralph Richardson
Sir Ralph David Richardson was an English actor, one of a group of theatrical knights of the mid-20th century who, though more closely associated with the stage, also appeared in several classic films....
) and Anna (Siobhán McKenna
Siobhán McKenna
Siobhán McKenna was an Irish stage and screen actress.-Background:Born Siobhán Giollamhuire Nic Cionnaith in Belfast, Northern Ireland into a Catholic and nationalist family, she grew up in Galway City and in County Monaghan, Ireland speaking fluent Irish...
) Gromeko — and their daughter Tonya (Geraldine Chaplin
Geraldine Chaplin
Geraldine Leigh Chaplin is an English-American actress and the daughter of Charlie Chaplin.Chaplin first came to prominence for her Golden Globe-nominated role of Tonya in David Lean's Doctor Zhivago . She received her second Golden Globe nomination for Robert Altman's Nashville...
). As Gromeko is a retired medical professor living in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, Zhivago is able to enter medical school in 1913, studying under Professor Boris Kurt (Geoffrey Keen
Geoffrey Keen
Geoffrey Keen was an English actor who appeared in supporting roles in many famous films.-Early life:Keen was born in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, England, the son of stage actor Malcolm Keen. He was educated at Bristol Grammar School. He then joined the Little Repertory Theatre in Bristol for whom...
). Though he is already a poet of some renown, Yuri does not think he can support a family as a poet and decides to become a doctor. Lara, meanwhile, lives with her mother (Adrienne Corri
Adrienne Corri
Adrienne Corri is an actress of Italian parentage.She is probably best known for her role as the rape victim Mrs. Alexander in the 1971 Stanley Kubrick film A Clockwork Orange, and for her appearances as Valerie in Jean Renoir's The River and as Lara's mother in David Lean's Dr. Zhivago...
), a dressmaker who is being "advised" by Victor Ipolitovich Komarovsky (Rod Steiger
Rod Steiger
Rodney Stephen "Rod" Steiger was an Academy Award-winning American actor known for his performances in such films as On the Waterfront, The Big Knife, Oklahoma!, The Harder They Fall, Across the Bridge, The Pawnbroker, Doctor Zhivago, In the Heat of the Night, and Waterloo as well as the...
), a corrupt attorney, who was a friend and business partner of Zhivago's father. Lara becomes engaged to Pavel Pavlovich ("Pasha") Antipov (Tom Courtenay
Tom Courtenay
Sir Thomas Daniel "Tom" Courtenay is an English actor who came to prominence in the early 1960s with a succession of films including The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner , Billy Liar , and Dr. Zhivago . Since the mid-1960s he has been known primarily for his work in the theatre...
). Originally an idealistic social democrat, Pasha drifts into Left-wing extremism after being wounded and scarred by sabre-wielding Cossack
Cossack
Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic people who originally were members of democratic, semi-military communities in what is today Ukraine and Southern Russia inhabiting sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper and Don basins and who played an important role in the...
s during a peaceful protest. The same evening, Komarovsky takes Lara to an expensive restaurant and seduces her. After Lara returns home, Pasha shows up at Lara's home, revealing his scarred face to Lara and tells her to hide a Smith & Wesson
Smith & Wesson
Smith & Wesson is the largest manufacturer of handguns in the United States. The corporate headquarters is in Springfield, Massachusetts. Founded in 1852, Smith & Wesson's pistols and revolvers have become standard issue to police and armed forces throughout the world...
revolver that he picked up at the demonstration, telling her to hide it and shoot any capitalists in revenge for the massacre of the demonstrators.
Lara becomes more deeply involved with Komarovsky, until her mother finally discovers their affair and tries to commit suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
by swallowing iodine
Iodine
Iodine is a chemical element with the symbol I and atomic number 53. The name is pronounced , , or . The name is from the , meaning violet or purple, due to the color of elemental iodine vapor....
. Komarovsky discovers her and summons help from Kurt and his assistant Zhivago, who thus sees Lara for the first time. When Pasha, now a dedicated Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
, informs Komarovsky of his intentions to marry Lara, Komarovsky is not amused. He tries to dissuade Lara from marrying Pasha, and then rapes her. In revenge, Lara takes a pistol she has been concealing for Pasha, tracks Komarovsky to a Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...
party and shoots him. Komarovsky is not killed but only shot in the arm. Although the diners wish to notify the police, Komarovsky insists that no action be taken against Lara, who is escorted out by Pasha. Yuri, who is also present at the party, sees Pasha. Although enraged and devastated by Lara's infidelity, Pasha cannot bring himself to strike her. Komarovsky's wound is treated by Yuri. In the aftermath, Pasha marries Lara and they have a daughter, Katya Antipova.
The movie then moves ahead to the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in 1914. Yevgraf Zhivago reveals that he is a Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party , also known as Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party or Russian Social Democratic Party, was a revolutionary socialist Russian political party formed in 1898 in Minsk to unite the various revolutionary organizations into one party...
member when narrating, intending to subvert the Imperial Russian Army
Imperial Russian Army
The Imperial Russian Army was the land armed force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian army consisted of around 938,731 regular soldiers and 245,850 irregulars . Until the time of military reform of Dmitry Milyutin in...
for Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
's Bolsheviks. Yuri is married to Tonya Gromeko and becomes a battlefield doctor along the Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War I)
The Eastern Front was a theatre of war during World War I in Central and, primarily, Eastern Europe. The term is in contrast to the Western Front. Despite the geographical separation, the events in the two theatres strongly influenced each other...
. Leaving his wife and his daughter, Pasha Antipov joins a volunteer regiment ("Happy men don't volunteer," Yevgraf is heard to say in voice-over) and became a trusted man to his comrades. In the winter of 1915, Pasha is presumed dead during an attack on the Germans but technically declared missing in action
Missing in action
Missing in action is a casualty Category assigned under the Status of Missing to armed services personnel who are reported missing during active service. They may have been killed, wounded, become a prisoner of war, or deserted. If deceased, neither their remains nor grave can be positively...
. Lara enlists as a nurse in order to search for him. Meanwhile, the February Revolution
February Revolution
The February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd in March . Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire...
breaks out and the soldiers begin to kill their officers and desert en masse. Travelling with a group of deserters, Lara again encounters Zhivago, who is with a column of replacement troops marching to the front. Zhivago enlists the help of Lara to tend to the wounded. The two manage a makeshift hospital in a nearby dacha
Dacha
Dacha is a Russian word for seasonal or year-round second homes often located in the exurbs of Soviet and post-Soviet cities. Cottages or shacks serving as family's main or only home are not considered dachas, although many purpose-built dachas are recently being converted for year-round residence...
for the remainder of the war and are parted after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a peace treaty signed on March 3, 1918, mediated by South African Andrik Fuller, at Brest-Litovsk between Russia and the Central Powers, headed by Germany, marking Russia's exit from World War I.While the treaty was practically obsolete before the end of the year,...
.
After the war, Yuri returns to Moscow, learns that his mother-in-law has died and that the Gromekos' house has been divided into tenements by the new Soviet government. Yuri meets his son Sasha for the first time since the boy was an infant, and resumes his old job at the local hospital. Angered that his family lacks firewood for the family stove, one night Yuri steals wood from a fence, where he is spotted by his half-brother, Yevgraf, who is working for the CHEKA
Cheka
Cheka was the first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations. It was created by a decree issued on December 20, 1917, by Vladimir Lenin and subsequently led by aristocrat-turned-communist Felix Dzerzhinsky...
. Yevgraf follows him home, identifies himself, and informs Zhivago that his poems have been condemned by Soviet censors as antagonistic to Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
. After explaining that this puts their whole family at risk for collective punishment
Collective punishment
Collective punishment is the punishment of a group of people as a result of the behavior of one or more other individuals or groups. The punished group may often have no direct association with the other individuals or groups, or direct control over their actions...
, Yevgraf helps arrange for rail passes for their transport to the Gromeko estate at Varykino, in the Ural Mountains
Ural Mountains
The Ural Mountains , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River and northwestern Kazakhstan. Their eastern side is usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia...
.
Zhivago, Tonya, Sasha and Alexander board a heavily-guarded cattle train which contains a detachment of labour conscripts bound for the gulag
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
—including the hot-headed dissident
Dissident
A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. When dissidents unite for a common cause they often effect a dissident movement....
anarchist intellectual, Kostoyed Amoursky (Klaus Kinski
Klaus Kinski
Klaus Kinski, born Klaus Günter Karl Nakszynski , was a German actor. He appeared in more than 130 films, and is perhaps best-remembered as a leading role actor in Werner Herzog films: Aguirre, the Wrath of God , Nosferatu the Vampyre , Woyzeck , Fitzcarraldo and Cobra Verde .-Early...
)—and a large contingent of Red Guards
Red Guards (Russia)
In the context of the history of Russia and Soviet Union, Red Guards were paramilitary formations consisting of workers and partially of soldiers and sailors formed in the time frame of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
. At one point, the train passes through the village of Mink, which has been shelled by Red forces commanded by People's Commissar Strelnikov, with one old woman from the village taken onto the train with a dead infant. As the train stopped somewhere near the Urals, an armoured train
Armoured train
An armoured train is a train protected with armour. They are usually equipped with railroad cars armed with artillery and machine guns. They were mostly used during the late 19th and early 20th century, when they offered an innovative way to quickly move large amounts of firepower...
adorned with red flag
Red flag
In politics, a red flag is a symbol of Socialism, or Communism, or sometimes left-wing politics in general. It has been associated with left-wing politics since the French Revolution. Socialists adopted the symbol during the Revolutions of 1848 and it became a symbol of communism as a result of its...
s passes by as the Bolshevik sailors and the old woman saying that the armoured train is Strelnikov's, with Strelnikov standing at the back of the armoured train. In a closeup on his face, it reveals that Strelnikov is actually Pasha. While the Urals train is stopped in the Urals, Zhivago wanders away from the train, listens to the sound of a waterfall, and stumbles across Strelnikov's armoured train sitting on a hidden siding. Believing that Yuri is about to assassinate the Commissar, the Red Guards arrest him and bring him before Strelnikov. Yuri immediately recognises the Commissar as Pasha Antipov, now a Red Army general, whom he recognized at the Christmas eve
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...
party back in 1913. After a tense conversation, Strelnikov informs Yuri that Lara is alive in the town of Yuriatin — which is then occupied by the anti-Communist White Army. He then allows Zhivago to return to his family, although it is implied by a guard that most people interrogated by Strelnikov end up being shot.
Zhivago's family arrives at Varykino, only to learn that their house has been boarded up with a sign indicating confiscation by the Soviet State, a.k.a. "the people". Out of fear of being executed as "counter-revolutionaries", they refrain from breaking into their own house and decide to occupy the smaller guest cottage. The family lives a mundane life until the next spring, when Zhivago goes into nearby Yuriatin and finds that Lara is still living there with Katya, and working as a librarian. The two reacquaint themselves and surrender to their longtime feelings, beginning an extra-marital affair. Zhivago feels deeply ashamed and is torn between Tonya and Lara, until Tonya becomes pregnant. Yuri travels to Yuriatin and breaks off his relationship with Lara, only to be abducted and conscripted into service by Communist partisans
Partisan (military)
A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity...
under Liberius (Gérard Tichy
Gerard Tichy
Gérard Tichy was a Spanish actor of German descent, who appeared in numerous movies, including several international productions. He was born in Weißenfels, Germany, on March 11, 1920, and died in Madrid, Spain, on April 11, 1992.Tichy participated in World War II and held the rank of a...
) while riding back to Varykino. After serving with the Partisans for nearly two years, Zhivago deserts, walking through the snow to Yuriatin in an attempt to reach Varykino, but learns that Tonya, her father and Sasha are gone. He makes his way to Lara's flat, where the two lovers rekindle their relationship. Lara reveals a letter from Tonya, where she tells Yuri that she, her father, and Sasha have emigrated to Paris. She has also given birth to a daughter, and admits at the end, "I must honestly admit that {Lara} Antipova is a good person."
However, Komarovsky arrives one night and informs them that they are being watched by the CHEKA, due to Lara's marriage to Commissar Strelnikov (who has fallen from favour with the Soviet State) and Yuri's "counter-revolutionary" poetry and desertion. Komarovsky offers Yuri and Lara his help in leaving Russia, but they refuse. Instead, they go to the Varykino estate, which has been left open and is frozen inside. Yuri begins writing the "Lara" poems, which later make him famous but incur government displeasure. Komarovsky reappears and tells Yuri that Strelnikov was arrested and committed suicide while being taken to his execution. Therefore, Lara is in immediate danger, as the CHEKA had only left her free to lure Strelnikov into the open. Zhivago scoffs at this, but Komarovsky informs him that Strelnikov had been arrested on the road only five miles from Varykino. Yuri agrees to send Lara away with Komarovsky, who has been appointed as Minister of Justice to the Soviet puppet government of the Far East. Refusing to leave with a man he despises, Yuri remains behind.
Years later during the Stalinist era, Yuri returns destitute to Moscow, where Yevgraf, now an NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
Polkovnik
Polkovnik
Polkovnik is often a military rank in Slavic countries which corresponds to a colonel in English-speaking states. However, in the Ukraine, polkovnyk was an administrative rank similar to a governor...
, obtains for him a hospital job and buys him some new clothes. While travelling on a tram
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
to his first day at work, Yuri sees a woman whom he recognises as Lara. Forcing his way off the tram, he runs after her, but suffers a fatal heart attack before she can see or notice him. Yuri's funeral is well-attended as his poetry is already being published openly due to shifts in politics and his funeral is well-attended. Among the mourners is Lara, who approaches Yevgraf and informs him that she has given birth to Yuri's daughter, but has become separated from her in the collapse of the White Government in Mongolia. After vainly looking over hundreds of orphans with Yevgraf's help, Lara disappears off the street during Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
's Great Purge
Great Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...
. "She died or vanished somewhere, in one of the labour camps," recalls Yevgraf, "A nameless number, on a list that was afterwards mislaid."
When Yevgraf starts retelling Yuri's story, Zhivago's mother dies and he inherits her balalaika
Balalaika
The balalaika is a stringed musical instrument popular in Russia, with a characteristic triangular body and three strings.The balalaika family of instruments includes instruments of various sizes, from the highest-pitched to the lowest, the prima balalaika, secunda balalaika, alto balalaika, bass...
. His adoptive father informs him that his mother had a gift. The theme of artistic talent is repeated throughout the film, as Zhivago becomes a poet of great renown. At the end, set at a hydroelectric dam during the early 1950s, Yevgraf is growing more and more convinced the young girl Tonya Komarovskaya is Yuri's and Lara's daughter, but she is reluctant to believe it. The girl ends the meeting, promising that she will "think about it", and leaves with her boyfriend, a dam operator. While walking away, the girl slings a balalaika over her shoulder, which catches the eye of Yevgraf. He calls out to her, "Tonya, can you play the balalaika?" Her boyfriend responds, "Can she play? She is an artist!" "Who taught you?" Yevgraf asks. "No one taught her." Yevgraf smiles and comments, "Ah, then, it's a gift."
Cast
- Omar SharifOmar SharifOmar Sharif is an Egyptian actor who has starred in Hollywood films including Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and Funny Girl. He has been nominated for an Academy Award and has won two Golden Globe Awards.-Early life:...
as Dr. Yuri Andreyevich Zhivago - Julie ChristieJulie ChristieJulie Frances Christie is a British actress. Born in British India to English parents, at the age of six Christie moved to England, where she attended boarding school....
as Lara Antipova - Geraldine ChaplinGeraldine ChaplinGeraldine Leigh Chaplin is an English-American actress and the daughter of Charlie Chaplin.Chaplin first came to prominence for her Golden Globe-nominated role of Tonya in David Lean's Doctor Zhivago . She received her second Golden Globe nomination for Robert Altman's Nashville...
as Tonya Gromeko - Rod SteigerRod SteigerRodney Stephen "Rod" Steiger was an Academy Award-winning American actor known for his performances in such films as On the Waterfront, The Big Knife, Oklahoma!, The Harder They Fall, Across the Bridge, The Pawnbroker, Doctor Zhivago, In the Heat of the Night, and Waterloo as well as the...
as Victor Komarovsky - Alec GuinnessAlec GuinnessSir Alec Guinness, CH, CBE was an English actor. He was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets in which he played eight different characters. He later won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai...
as General Yevgraf Zhivago - Tom CourtenayTom CourtenaySir Thomas Daniel "Tom" Courtenay is an English actor who came to prominence in the early 1960s with a succession of films including The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner , Billy Liar , and Dr. Zhivago . Since the mid-1960s he has been known primarily for his work in the theatre...
as Pasha Antipov/"Strelnikov" - Siobhán McKennaSiobhán McKennaSiobhán McKenna was an Irish stage and screen actress.-Background:Born Siobhán Giollamhuire Nic Cionnaith in Belfast, Northern Ireland into a Catholic and nationalist family, she grew up in Galway City and in County Monaghan, Ireland speaking fluent Irish...
as Anna Gromeko - Ralph RichardsonRalph RichardsonSir Ralph David Richardson was an English actor, one of a group of theatrical knights of the mid-20th century who, though more closely associated with the stage, also appeared in several classic films....
as Alexander "Sasha" Gromeko - Rita TushinghamRita Tushingham-Career:Born in Liverpool, Tushingham began her career as a stage actress at the Liverpool Playhouse. Her screen debut was in A Taste of Honey...
as Tonya Komarovskaya/"The Girl" - Klaus KinskiKlaus KinskiKlaus Kinski, born Klaus Günter Karl Nakszynski , was a German actor. He appeared in more than 130 films, and is perhaps best-remembered as a leading role actor in Werner Herzog films: Aguirre, the Wrath of God , Nosferatu the Vampyre , Woyzeck , Fitzcarraldo and Cobra Verde .-Early...
as Kostoyed Amoursky - Gerard TichyGerard TichyGérard Tichy was a Spanish actor of German descent, who appeared in numerous movies, including several international productions. He was born in Weißenfels, Germany, on March 11, 1920, and died in Madrid, Spain, on April 11, 1992.Tichy participated in World War II and held the rank of a...
as Liberius - Noel WillmanNoel WillmanNoel Willman was a Irish actor and theatre director of English descent..His films included Androcles and the Lion , The Man Who Knew Too Much , Across the Bridge , Carve Her Name with Pride , The Kiss of the Vampire , Doctor Zhivago , The Reptile...
as Commissar Razin - Geoffrey KeenGeoffrey KeenGeoffrey Keen was an English actor who appeared in supporting roles in many famous films.-Early life:Keen was born in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, England, the son of stage actor Malcolm Keen. He was educated at Bristol Grammar School. He then joined the Little Repertory Theatre in Bristol for whom...
as Professor Boris Kurt - Bernard KayBernard KayBernard Kay is a British actor with an extensive theatre, television and film repertoire.Kay began his working life as a reporter on Bolton Evening News, and a stringer for The Manchester Guardian. He was conscripted in 1946 and started acting in the army...
as Kuril, the Bolshevik - Jack MacGowranJack MacGowranJohn Joseph "Jack" MacGowran was an Irish character actor, whose last film role was as the alcoholic director Burke Dennings in The Exorcist. He was probably best known for his work with Samuel Beckett.-Stage career:...
as Petya, the Groundskeeper
Production
This famous film version by David LeanDavid Lean
Sir David Lean CBE was an English film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor best remembered for big-screen epics such as The Bridge on the River Kwai , Lawrence of Arabia ,...
was created for various reasons. Pasternak's novel had been an international success, and producer Carlo Ponti
Carlo Ponti
Carlo Ponti was an Italian film producer with over 140 production credits, and the husband of Italian movie star Sophia Loren.-Career:...
was interested in adapting it as a vehicle for his wife, Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren, OMRI is an Italian actress.In 1962, Loren won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Two Women, along with 21 awards, becoming the first actress to win an Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance...
. Lean, coming off the huge success of Lawrence of Arabia
Lawrence of Arabia (film)
Lawrence of Arabia is a 1962 British film based on the life of T. E. Lawrence. It was directed by David Lean and produced by Sam Spiegel through his British company, Horizon Pictures, with the screenplay by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson. The film stars Peter O'Toole in the title role. It is widely...
(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
Omar Sharif
Omar Sharif is an Egyptian actor who has starred in Hollywood films including Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and Funny Girl. He has been nominated for an Academy Award and has won two Golden Globe Awards.-Early life:...
, who had played Lawrence's right-hand man Sherif Ali in Lawrence of Arabia. 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
Tom Courtenay
Sir Thomas Daniel "Tom" Courtenay is an English actor who came to prominence in the early 1960s with a succession of films including The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner , Billy Liar , and Dr. Zhivago . Since the mid-1960s he has been known primarily for his work in the theatre...
). Sharif was quite surprised when Lean suggested that he play Zhivago himself. Peter O'Toole
Peter O'Toole
Peter Seamus Lorcan O'Toole is an Irish actor of stage and screen. O'Toole achieved stardom in 1962 playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, and then went on to become a highly-honoured film and stage actor. He has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, and holds the record for most...
, star of Lawrence of Arabia, was Lean's original choice for Zhivago, but turned the part down; Max von Sydow
Max von Sydow
Max von Sydow is a Swedish actor. He has also held French citizenship since 2002. He has starred in many films and had supporting roles in dozens more...
and Paul Newman
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...
were also considered. Michael Caine
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules ....
tells in his autobiography that he also read for Zhivago, but (after watching the results with David Lean) was the one who suggested Omar Sharif. Rod Steiger
Rod Steiger
Rodney Stephen "Rod" Steiger was an Academy Award-winning American actor known for his performances in such films as On the Waterfront, The Big Knife, Oklahoma!, The Harder They Fall, Across the Bridge, The Pawnbroker, Doctor Zhivago, In the Heat of the Night, and Waterloo as well as the...
was cast as Komarovsky after Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
and James Mason
James Mason
James Neville Mason was an English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. Mason remained a powerful figure in the industry throughout his career and was nominated for three Academy Awards as well as three Golden Globes .- Early life :Mason was born in Huddersfield, in the...
turned the part down. Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...
was considered for Tonya, while Robert Bolt lobbied for Albert Finney
Albert Finney
Albert Finney is an English actor. He achieved prominence in films in the early 1960s, and has maintained a successful career in theatre, film and television....
to play Pasha. Lean, however, was able to convince Ponti that Loren was not right for the role of Lara, saying she was "too tall" (and confiding in screenwriter Robert Bolt
Robert Bolt
Robert Oxton Bolt, CBE was an English playwright and a two-time Oscar winning screenwriter.-Career:He was born in Sale, Cheshire. At Manchester Grammar School his affinity for Sir Thomas More first developed. He attended the University of Manchester, and, after war service, the University of...
that he could not accept Loren as a virgin for the early parts of the film), and Yvette Mimieux
Yvette Mimieux
Yvette Carmen Mimieux is a retired American movie and television actress.-Early life and career:Yvette Mimieux was born in Los Angeles, California, to a French father and Mexican mother, Carmen Montemayor...
, Sarah Miles
Sarah Miles
-Early life and career:Sarah Miles was born in the small town of Ingatestone, Essex, in South East England.She first attended Roedean but at the age of 15 she enrolled at RADA, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art...
and Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...
were considered for the role. Ultimately, Julie Christie
Julie Christie
Julie Frances Christie is a British actress. Born in British India to English parents, at the age of six Christie moved to England, where she attended boarding school....
was cast based on her appearance in Billy Liar
Billy Liar (film)
Billy Liar is a 1963 film based on the novel by Keith Waterhouse. It was directed by John Schlesinger and stars Tom Courtenay as Billy and Julie Christie as Liz, one of his three girlfriends. Mona Washbourne plays Mrs. Fisher, and Wilfred Pickles played Mr. Fisher...
(1963), and the recommendation of John Ford
John Ford
John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
, who directed her in Young Cassidy.
Since the book was banned in the Soviet Union, the movie was filmed largely in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
over ten months, with the entire Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
set being built from scratch outside of Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
. Most of the scenes covering Zhivago and Lara's service in World War I were filmed in Soria
Soria
Soria is a city in north-central Spain, the capital of the province of Soria in the autonomous community of Castile and León. , the municipality has a population of c. 39,500 inhabitants, nearly 40% of the population of the province...
, as was the Varykino estate. Due to uncooperative weather in Spain, some of the winter sequences were filmed in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, mostly landscape scenes, and Yuri's escape from the Partisans. Winter scenes of the family travelling to Yuriatin by rail were filmed in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
The "ice-palace" at Varykino was filmed in Soria as well, a house filled with frozen beeswax
Beeswax
Beeswax is a natural wax produced in the bee hive of honey bees of the genus Apis. It is mainly esters of fatty acids and various long chain alcohols...
. The charge of the Partisans across the frozen lake was filmed in Spain, too; a cast iron sheet was placed over a dried river-bed, and fake snow (mostly marble dust) was added on top. Some of the winter scenes, were filmed in summer with warm temperatures, sometimes of up to 30 °C (86 °F).
Reception
The film was entered into the 1966 Cannes Film Festival1966 Cannes Film Festival
The 19th Cannes Film Festival was held on May 5-20, 1966. To honour the festival's 20th anniversary, a special prize was given.-Jury:*Sophia Loren *Marcel Achard *Vinicius de Moraes *Tetsuro Furukaki...
.
Despite being a huge box office hit, Doctor Zhivago received mixed reviews at the time of its release. It was criticised for its length and depiction of the romance between Zhivago and Lara. The preview cut, which ran to over 220 minutes, was criticized for its length and poor pacing; Lean felt obliged to remove up to 17 minutes of footage before the film's wide release
Wide release
Wide release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing nationally . Specifically, a movie is considered to be in wide release when it is on 600 screens or more in the United States and Canada.In the US, films holding an NC-17 rating almost never have a...
, and the missing footage has not been restored or located. Lean took these criticisms very personally, and claimed at the time that he would never make another film. However, numerous critics — including Richard Schickel
Richard Schickel
Richard Warren Schickel is an American author, journalist, and documentary filmmaker. He is a film critic for Time magazine, having also written for Life magazine and the Los Angeles Times Book Review....
and Anna Lee — defended Doctor Zhivago, and its box office success allowed Lean to write off his critics. Lean made Ryan's Daughter
Ryan's Daughter
Ryan's Daughter is a 1970 film directed by David Lean. The film, set in 1916, tells the story of a married Irish woman who has an affair with a British officer during World War I, despite opposition from her nationalist neighbours...
in 1970, then waited until 1984 to make his final film, A Passage to India
A Passage to India (film)
A Passage to India is a 1984 drama film written and directed by David Lean. The screenplay is based on the 1924 novel of the same title by E. M. Forster and the 1960 play by Santha Rama Rau that was inspired by the novel....
(1984).
The film left an indelible mark on popular culture and fashion, and to this day remains an extremely popular film: Maurice Jarre
Maurice Jarre
Maurice-Alexis Jarre was a French composer and conductor.Although he composed several concert works, he is best known for his film scores, and is particularly known for his collaborations with film director David Lean. Jarre composed the scores to all of Lean's films since Lawrence of Arabia...
's score—particularly "Lara's Theme
Lara's Theme
"Lara's Theme" is the generic name given to a leitmotif written for the film Doctor Zhivago by composer Maurice Jarre. Soon afterward, it became the basis of the song "Somewhere My Love."- Original composition :...
"—became one of the most famous in cinematic history. Over the years, the film's critical reputation has gained in stature, and today Doctor Zhivago is considered to be one of Lean's finest works and is highly critically acclaimed, along with Lawrence of Arabia
Lawrence of Arabia (film)
Lawrence of Arabia is a 1962 British film based on the life of T. E. Lawrence. It was directed by David Lean and produced by Sam Spiegel through his British company, Horizon Pictures, with the screenplay by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson. The film stars Peter O'Toole in the title role. It is widely...
, Brief Encounter
Brief Encounter
Brief Encounter is a 1945 British film directed by David Lean about the conventions of British suburban life, centring on a housewife for whom real love brings unexpectedly violent emotions. The film stars Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway and Joyce Carey...
, The Bridge on the River Kwai
The Bridge on the River Kwai
The Bridge on the River Kwai is a 1957 British World War II film by David Lean based on The Bridge over the River Kwai by French writer Pierre Boulle. The film is a work of fiction but borrows the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942–43 for its historical setting. It stars William...
, and A Passage to India
A Passage to India (film)
A Passage to India is a 1984 drama film written and directed by David Lean. The screenplay is based on the 1924 novel of the same title by E. M. Forster and the 1960 play by Santha Rama Rau that was inspired by the novel....
.
As with the novel itself, the film was banned in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. It was not shown in Russia until 1994.
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
gives the film an 85% 'Fresh' rating.
American Film Institute recognition
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 MoviesAFI's 100 Years... 100 MoviesThe first of the AFI 100 Years… series of cinematic milestones, AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies is a list of the 100 best American movies, as determined by the American Film Institute from a poll of more than 1,500 artists and leaders in the film industry who chose from a list of 400 nominated movies...
- #39 - AFI's 100 Years... 100 PassionsAFI's 100 Years... 100 PassionsPart of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years…100 Passions is a list of the top 100 greatest love stories in American cinema. The list was unveiled by the American Film Institute on June 11, 2002, in a CBS television special hosted by American film and TV actress Candice Bergen.-The...
- #7 - AFI's 100 Years of Film ScoresAFI's 100 Years of Film ScoresPart of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores is a list of the top 25 film scores in American cinema. The list was unveiled by the American Film Institute in 2005.-The List:-External links:**...
- Nominated - AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) - Nominated
- AFI's 10 Top 10AFI's 10 Top 10AFI's 10 Top 10 honors the ten greatest American films in ten classic film genres. Presented by the American Film Institute , the lists were unveiled on a television special broadcast by CBS on June 17, 2008....
- Nominated Epic Film
Awards
The film won five Academy Awards and was nominated for five more:Won
- Best Art DirectionAcademy Award for Best Art DirectionThe Academy Awards are the oldest awards ceremony for achievements in motion pictures. The Academy Award for Best Art Direction recognizes achievement in art direction on a film. The films below are listed with their production year, so the Oscar 2000 for best art direction went to a film from 1999...
(John BoxJohn BoxJohn Allan Hyatt Box OBE, , was a British film production designer and art director. During his career he won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction on four occasions and won its BAFTA equivalent three times, making him the most decorated film designer of all time...
, Terence MarshTerence MarshTerence Marsh is a British production designer. He won two Academy Awards and was nominated for another two in the category Best Art Direction.-Production Designer:* Rush Hour 2 * The Green Mile...
, Dario SimoniDario SimoniDario Simoni was a set decorator. He won two Academy Awards and was nominated for another two in the category Best Art Direction.-Selected filmography:...
) - Best CinematographyAcademy Award for Best CinematographyThe Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...
(Freddie YoungFreddie YoungFreddie Young OBE, BSC , was one of Britain's most distinguished and influential cinematographers...
) - Best WritingAcademy Award for Writing Adapted ScreenplayThe Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay is one of the Academy Awards, the most prominent film awards in the United States. It is awarded each year to the writer of a screenplay adapted from another source...
(Robert BoltRobert BoltRobert Oxton Bolt, CBE was an English playwright and a two-time Oscar winning screenwriter.-Career:He was born in Sale, Cheshire. At Manchester Grammar School his affinity for Sir Thomas More first developed. He attended the University of Manchester, and, after war service, the University of...
) - Best Costume DesignAcademy Award for Costume DesignThe Academy Award for Best Costume Design is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for achievement in film costume design....
- Best Original ScoreAcademy Award for Original Music ScoreThe Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:...
Nominated
- Best PictureAcademy Award for Best PictureThe Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
- Best Supporting ActorAcademy Award for Best Supporting ActorPerformance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
(Tom CourtenayTom CourtenaySir Thomas Daniel "Tom" Courtenay is an English actor who came to prominence in the early 1960s with a succession of films including The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner , Billy Liar , and Dr. Zhivago . Since the mid-1960s he has been known primarily for his work in the theatre...
) - Best Director (David LeanDavid LeanSir David Lean CBE was an English film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor best remembered for big-screen epics such as The Bridge on the River Kwai , Lawrence of Arabia ,...
) - Best EditingAcademy Award for Film EditingThe Academy Award for Film Editing is one of the annual awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Nominations for this award are closely correlated with the Academy Award for Best Picture. Since 1981, every film selected as Best Picture has also been nominated for the Film Editing...
- Best Sound (A. W. WatkinsA. W. WatkinsA. W. Watkins was a British sound engineer. He was nominated for four Academy Awards in the category Sound Recording.-Selected filmography:* Goodbye, Mr. Chips * Knights of the Round Table...
, Franklin MiltonFranklin MiltonFranklin Milton was an American sound engineer. He won three Academy Awards for Sound Recording and was nominated for three more in the same category.-Selected filmography:...
)
Home video
On May 4, 2010, the 45th Anniversary version of Doctor Zhivago was released on DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
(two disc set) and on Blu-ray
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
(a three-disc set that includes a book). The two-disc set consists of a double-sided DVD for the main film (whereas the DVD has to be flipped for part 2 of the film), and a one-sided DVD for the extras.
The region 2 version of this release suffers partly from Newton's rings
Newton's rings
The phenomenon of Newton's rings, named after Isaac Newton who first studied them in 1717, is an interference pattern caused by the reflection of light between two surfaces - a spherical surface and an adjacent flat surface...
, an artifact probably due to chemical damage to the film base
Film base
A film base is a transparent substrate which acts as a support medium for the photosensitive emulsion that lies atop it. Despite the numerous layers and coatings associated with the emulsion layer, the base generally accounts for the vast majority of the thickness of any given film stock...
used for telecine
Telecine
Telecine is transferring motion picture film into video and is performed in a color suite. The term is also used to refer to the equipment used in the post-production process....
, particularly in part 2 of the film.