Doctor Zhivago (1965 film)

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Doctor Zhivago

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

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

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The film takes place for the most part during the tumultuous period of 1905-1922, the years of Bloody Sunday and the 1905 Revolution, World War I, the Russian Revolution, and Russian Civil War, as the regime of Emperor Nicholas II was overthrown and the Soviet Union established. A framing device, from which the film is narrated, takes place in the mid-to-late 1950s, though a specific date is not mentioned.

The film's framing device involves General Yevgraf Zhivago (Alec Guinness) searching for the love child of his brother, poet and Doctor Yuri Zhivago (Omar Sharif), and his mistress Larissa ("Lara") Antipova (Julie Christie); Yevgraf believes a young girl named Tonya Komarov (Rita Tushingham, referred to as "The Girl" in the credits) to be his niece. Yevgraf narrates the story, periodically appearing in it, though rarely interacts with any other characters in the flashbacks.

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

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

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

Julie Christie as Lara
Julie Christie as Lara

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

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

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

After serving with the Partisans for nearly two years as a medical officer, Zhivago escapes, only to find that his family has left Varykino and emigrated to Paris; he goes to Lara's home in Yuriatin, and is ultimately discovered by Lara. The two renew their relationship, but Komarovsky arrives one night and informs them that they are being watched by the Bolsheviks, due to Lara's marriage to Strelnikov (who has now come under suspicion from the government). Komarovsky offers Yuri and Lara his help in escaping, but they refuse; the two flee with Lara's daughter, Katya, to the Varykino estate, which has been left open and frozen inside. Yuri begins working on the "Lara" poems, which would make him famous. Komarovsky reappears, telling Yuri that Strelnikov has been killed and that Lara is in immediate danger; Yuri sends Lara away with Komarovsky, but remains behind.

Yuri ultimately dies in a Moscow street some years later, suffering a heart attack after seeing a woman he thought was Lara. Lara has become separated from her and Yuri's child, and enlists Yevgraf's help; Yevgraf, however, is unable to find her daughter.

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

[edit] Background

Taglines:

  • A love caught in the fire of Revolution.
  • In a land of guns and ice, there is the great sound of battle and the greater silence of lovers

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

The movie was filmed largely in Spain, 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. Some of the winter sequences were filmed in Finland (though the "ice castle" was also in Spain, a house covered in frozen beeswax). Winter scenes of the family escaping to Yuriatin by rail were filmed in Canada.

The charge of the Partisans across the frozen lake was filmed in Spain; a cast iron sheet was placed over a dried river-bed, and fake snow (mostly marble dust) was added on top. Most of the winter scenes were filmed in warm temperatures, sometimes of up to ninety degrees Fahrenheit.

[edit] Book vs. Movie

Spoilers

The film version of Zhivago is faithful to the book in a general sense; the basic plot remains the same, and storywise there are relatively few deviations from the novel. However, many of the subplots - particularly regarding the novel's historical/political facets - were glossed over or edited down. Nearly half of the book's characters were excised or had their parts reduced (particularly Anna Gromeko, Pasha, and Liberius the Partisan commander). Other characters (most notably Kuril, the Bolshevik deserter, Commissar Razin, and Petya, the Varykino groundskeeper) were created as an amalgamation of characters from the book which had been excised from the film version. Many reviewers have criticized the film in particular for reducing the depiction of World War I to a mere five minute narration sequence, and a similar treatment of Zhivago's service with the Partisans, which took up nearly seventy pages of the novel.

It should be noted that most of these cuts were made or advocated by David Lean; screenwriter Robert Bolt's original screenplay dealt with the political/historical aspects of the book in a more in-depth, if still abbreviated manner. The scenes of Yuri's service with and escaped from the Partisans included scenes where Liberius executes mortally wounded Partisans; Zhivago's horse, after his escape, is killed for food by a group of homeless children; and Zhivago coming across a group of children who are, it is hinted, cannibalizing the bodies of their parents.

Perhaps the biggest change in characterization is of the Pasha character. In the book, Pasha is a revolutionary dilettante and an apolitical military leader; his ultimate fall from grace is because of the fact that he is not a true Bolshevik. In the film, however, Bolt depicts him as a hardcore Bolshevik from the beginning, though his character still develops into a more ruthless individual over the course of the story. Bolt wanted to include the book's scene where the disgraced Strelnikov returned to Varykino, met with Zhivago, and then committed suicide; Lean, however, decided to cut it out, and Strelnikov's fate was dealt with through dialogue spoken by Komarovsky.

The present-day subplot involving Yevgraf's interview of The Girl several decades after the story's main events was added as a narration/framing device to help move along the story. Omar Sharif later joked that it was added to reassure the audience that Yuri and Lara would ultimately get together, even though the audience would have to wait until two hours into the film for it to happen.

[edit] Reception

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

Nonetheless, Lean's production of Zhivago has stood the test of time. The film left an indelible mark on popular culture and fashion, and to this day remains an extremely popular film: Maurice Jarre's haunting score - particularly Lara's Theme - became one of the most famous in cinematic history. Over the years, the film's critical reputation has gained in stature, and today Zhivago is considered to be one of Lean's finest works and is highly critically acclaimed, along with Lawrence and Bridge on the River Kwai. In 1998, the American Film Institute ranked Doctor Zhivago #39 on its "100 Greatest Movies" list.

As with the novel itself, the film was banned in the Soviet Union. It was not shown in Russia until 1994.

[edit] Primary cast

[edit] Awards

[edit] Award nominations

[edit] Academy Awards

Award Person
Best Costume Design Phyllis Dalton
Best Art Direction John Box
Terence Marsh
Dario Simoni
Best Cinematography Freddie Young
Best Adapted Screenplay Robert Bolt
Best Music Maurice Jarre
Nominated:
Best Director David Lean
Best Supporting Actor Tom Courtenay
Best Film Editing Norman Savage
Best Picture Carlo Ponti
Best Sound A.W. Watkins
Franklin Milton

[edit] Trivia

  • Adjusted for inflation, Zhivago is the 8th highest grossing movie ever to be released in the United States.
  • Current US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts named Zhivago as one of his favorite films during his confirmation hearings (see here for context).
  • The film's portrayal of Strelnikov is based on Leon Trotsky, while the book's portrayal of him more closely resembled Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky.
  • Alec Guinness and David Lean quarreled frequently on the set of the film. Lean often insulted Guinness on the set, saying he was "too old" to play Yevgraf in the scenes of him as a young man and accusing him of drinking. The two men had a falling out and subsequently did not work together again until A Passage to India (1984) (see Piers Paul Read, Alec Guinness: The Authorized Biography, pp. 382-4). Guinness had wanted to play Alexander (who was ultimately played by Ralph Richardson) but Lean convinced to him to be Yevgraf.
  • Rod Steiger frequently improvised on the set, most notably his French-kissing of Julie Christie during the sleigh scene and his slapping Christie with his glove during the prelude to his rape of her.
  • While filming the scene where the woman from the burnt village (Lili Murati) jumps onto the moving train, Murati can be seen slipping and falling under the train. The shot in the film is of this actually happening. Murati was seriously injured, but despite rumors to the contrary, she did not actually lose her legs in the accident. Snopes article
  • Tom Courtenay and Rod Steiger became very close friends on the set of this film and remained such until Steiger's death in 2002.
  • Julie Christie turned down the part of Lara several times before ultimately accepting it. Christie was cast because Lean was impressed by her "look" in Billy Liar (1963), in which she had appeared with Tom Courtenay.
  • The young Yuri Zhivago is played by Omar Sharif's son Tarek.
  • Carlo Ponti had purchased the rights to the book intending for it to star his wife, Sophia Loren, but David Lean convinced Ponti she was "too tall" to play Lara.
  • During the filming of the demonstration scene where the demonstrators sing the Internationale, citizens of the town where it was filmed had thought that Spanish dictator General Franco had died and began celebrating. Local police had also heard the singing and had to be convinced by the production company that it was a movie, rather than a real revolution (see the DVD documentary and commentary, as well as Kevin Brownlow: David Lean).
  • Yevgraf's alias of Petrov, which he gives while enlisting during World War I, was one of the first pseudonyms used by Lenin during his early days as a Bolshevik agitator.
  • The fictional town of Yuriatin was based on the real-life town of Perm, a town in the Ural Mountains which frequently changed hands between the Reds and Whites throughout the Civil War.
  • The Partisans' charge across a frozen lake is a reference to the famous Soviet propaganda film Alexander Nevsky (1938).
  • Though the charge of the dragoons has been compared by many to the Odessa Steps scene in Battleship Potemkin (1925), the scene was not a reference for the reason that Lean had never seen the film.
  • Geraldine Chaplin based her performance as Tonya very closely on her mother Oona O'Neill, whom she described as "a woman who was willing to give her life to an artist."
  • Another possible choice for Lara was Sarah Miles. Robert Bolt disagreed, referring to Miles (his future wife) as "a North Country slut".
  • Lean initially lobbied for Audrey Hepburn to play Tonya, but was so impressed by Geraldine Chaplin's screen test that he cast her on the spot.
  • William Smith's character in the film Red Dawn is named Colonel Strelnikov, possibly a reference to this movie.
  • The James Bond film GoldenEye (1995) features a villain, Alec Trevalyan (Sean Bean), who uses an armored military train as his headquarters, akin to Strelnikov.

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
David Lean
1940s In Which We Serve (with Noel Coward) | This Happy Breed | Blithe Spirit | Brief Encounter | Great Expectations | Oliver Twist | The Passionate Friends
1950s Madeleine | The Sound Barrier | Hobson's Choice | Summertime | The Bridge on the River Kwai
1960s Lawrence of Arabia | Doctor Zhivago
1970s Ryan's Daughter
1980s A Passage to India
Television Lost and Found: The Story of Cook's Anchor (1979)
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