Rating: 
Summary: Once In Your Life, Please See This Movie
Review: The writer Henry James distainfully called Russian novels "loose, baggy monsters." Perhaps this criticism could be levelled at the sprawling epic that is the film version of Dr. Zhivago, but the viewer's ultimate reaction is likely to be, "Who cares?" This fabulous film, visually rich, plunges the viewer into the totally different, exciting, dangerous world of the early twentieth century. The author of the screenplay has done a very decent job as well of interpreting the book for the screen. Despite the movie's length, given the scope of the novel itself, many subplots and concepts were of necessity edited out, but although movie ultimately becomes a different story than the film, it is still a similar, and a good, story. The novel has more of the shape of a biography with Tolstoyese didactic departures, whereas the movie is a simpler romantic tale with a sad ending. One example of the level of care and detail devoted to the film that is rarely commented on is the use of visual images from the poetry of Yuri Zhivago. Virtually none of the poetry is quoted in the film, though we see Zhivago writing a poem at Varykino when he and Lara are in hiding there. However, a viewer who has read the novel and the poetry collection attributed to Zhivago at its end, will note, for example, the haunting visual image of a candle burning as seen through a frosted window page. This image is the primary image of the poem "A Candle Burned." There are many more such examples, but this poem is one of Pasternak's most famous. It was a nice choice to accent the imagery of the film. Another nice touch is that the set designer followed changes in Russian orthography as the film progresses through time: from the workers' banners to the newspaper with the headline declaring that the Tsar and his family had been executed, the script is accurate. The cast of this classic is impeccable: a young and vigorous Alec Guiness provides snappy menace as Yevgraf, the successful half-brother. Omar Sharif is appropriately pensive as the title character. Julie Christie is every teenage boy's dream as she evolves from nymphet to socially conscious worker to earth mother without ever totally descending to stereotype. Only Geraldine Chaplin is annoying as Tonia, who she plays merely as an annoying character rather than giving her the depth she deserves. Whether you take this film as an easy history lesson or escapist romance, you owe it to yourself to immerse yourself in this movie at least once in your life.
Rating: 
Summary: Russian Saga
Review: David Lean likes to make big movies and Doctor Zhivago is yet another in a line of his famous epics. The film is beautifully filmed from the picturesque winter Russian landscapes to the bloody battles in the streets of the Russian Revolution, Mr. Lean again provides stunning visuals. The problem with Doctor Zhivago is that the story veers towards sappy melodrama. Julie Christie is luminous as Lara, Geraldine Chapman, daughter of Charlie Chaplin, is very good in her debut and Rod Stieger is chillingly effective in his role, but Omar Shariff in the title role is dour and heavy handed. But Mr. Lean compensates for that as mentioned before with the film's stunning visual look and Maurice Jarre's score is among the most memorable in film history. The film is long and drags in places, but thanks to Mr. Lean's track record, worth a look.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic movie!
Review: I've been waiting to see this be published on DVD since the first time I saw the movie (on PBS) . . . that was about 3 yrs ago. It's melodramatic, but it sucks you in -- you can't stop watching it! (The book is pretty different in tone, be warned.)
Rating:
Summary: This will be luscious on DVD
Review: Of all the films I have most wanted on DVD this would have to be it. I am counting the days till it gets here. It is my Dads favorite movie of all time and I cannot wait to sit and watch it with him again and again and again.
Rating:
Summary: A film with so much beauty
Review: Doctor Zhivago is the best David Lean film I've ever seen in my life. It tops his film of Lawrence of Arabia in my opinion and is a lot more interesting. Omar Sharif is in a better role of a doctor who's lost his mother and grows up to be one of the best doctors in the town. Soon the Revolution has come along with the war, and Zhivago is put with Lara to help the injured. Yuri soons falls in love with Lara, but he has his wife Tanya back at home. Lara falls in love with Yuri also, but she is also married, even though she doesn't know that her husband is a traitor. That's only the beginning though, and you just don't want to stop the film, it's so beautiful. Maurice Jarre's Academy Award Winning music also holds you to the film. You also fall in love with Lara when you hear here theme. This film has to be in your movie collection if you love movies with beautiful photography, a great story line, and the right actors.
Rating: 
Summary: -Glacial as the wintry Don, Lara. -But not as deep, Doctor.
Review: A lot of people clearly loved this movie, but here is a minority report. _Dr Zhivago_ is a film in which a lot of very talented people did some of their worst work. David Lean seems to have forgotten the "motion" part of the term "motion pictures". Robert Bolt provided a stilted, occasionally ludicrous script: Pasternak's book is not really a Great Novel, but it deserved better than this shallow treatment. And cast of famous names, including Ralph Richardson and Alec Guiness in smaller roles as well as Shariff and Christie, give us (with one startling exception) bland, forgettable acting. Omar Shariff and Julie Christie look good in the many (all too many)searching close-ups of their face, but Lean's focus on these essentially blank faces only emphasies the vacuity of these performances. (Julie Christie has acted well in other films, but not in this one. And Shariff, here and for the rest of his career, merely showed that his soulful performance in _Lawrence of Arabia_ was a fluke, a one-off.) Tom Courtenay's noble revolutionary, Lara's husband, is a one-note show of suffering sincerity. Geraldine Chaplin makes no impact either, as Zhivago's long-suffering wife. The length and the ostensible subject, the Russian Revolution, make it clear that Lean intended to create Epic, but instead Lean gives us Soap Opera, another notoriously long-winded genre. The film is severely weakened by concentrating on the Eternal Triangle, with the sweeping historical events of Russia's nightmarish 20th century history as mere background. Epic needs to keep the two elements, the personal and the historical, in balance. But what _fatally_ weakens the film is the sheer banality and tedium of the personal story. Zhivago's and Lara's story is told so conventionally that it would be lucky to hold the interest for a normal film length, but at over three hours it is excruciatingly and unrewardingly slow. Lean may have been thinking of this film as his _Gone with the Wind_, another long film about people who married the wrong people, and who fail to solve their problems while history burns around them. But _Gone with the Wind_ cheerfully knew that it was soap while _Dr Zhivago_ is pompous, and _Wind_ had the benefit of strong performances at the centre and a director who believed in keeping things moving, while _Zhivago_ has a vacuum at its centre and moves as sluggishly as a frozen river. That "frozen river" brings us to the film's one great strength, which is where it earned most of its two stars: the cinematography, which is absolutely at its best when the cameras stop pointing at the actors and go off and film snow, rivers, trees, banks of yellow flowers, while Maurice Jarre's famous music plays. In those moments we are reminded that Lean is a great film-maker having an off-day, but still with an eye for the grand image. But when the camera cuts away and picks up on the actors again, those shortlived moments of energy and power leach away. The film's other great strength is the approximately two minutes that Klaus Kinski spends on-screen. Famous actors are boring us on a train, when suddenly an unknown face in the background draws our attention. A man in chains comes up and fills the screen, telling us he was an anarchist who fought for the revolution. Now, betrayed by Russia's new masters, he is being sent to his death. Kinski's brief, chain-rattling performance is mesmerising; for two of its 193 minutes, this film galvanises into life. Of the few images I take away from this film - banks of yellow flowers, Julie Christie's face, and Klaus Kinski's bitter anarchist - Kinski's is the only one that _moves_. It seems almost as if making the magnificent _Lawrence of Arabia_ used up all of Lean's creative juices for a time. Lean followed up _Lawrence_ with two vastly inferior films: the worthy but dull _Dr Zhivago_ and the truly awful _Ryan's Daughter_. The DVD version offers a few extras: commentary from Omar Shariff, who (not surprisingly) is not exactly insightful, and better information from Mrs Lean. In my opinion these extras don't add a great deal of value, perhaps partly because I feel that the most interesting and honest commentary might discuss how this film went so wrong. But perhaps you can't seriously expect them do acknowledge that. So if you've seen _Lawrence of Arabia_ and perhaps _Bridge on the River Kwai_, and you want more good stuff where that came from, you're likely to find this film disappointing. _A Passage to India_ is a return to form - with reservations - in Lean's Epic style. But if you wanted to explore further with Lean's films, then his best films of all are the early non-epics, the comedy of _Blythe Spirit_ and the lively Dickens adaptations, _Oliver Twist_ and _Great Expectations_. (And above all, avoid the abysmal _Ryan's Daughter_; _Dr Zhivago_ is a failed film, but _Ryan's Daughter_'s 206 minutes of cliched nonsense are beneath contempt.) If you do watch this film, I recommend generous use of Fast Forward. Cheers! Laon
Rating:
Summary: All time classic
Review: I first saw this movie while in college, over 15 years ago, and have seen it once more since then. Most enthralling love story, with lovely music ("Lara's theme" still gives me goosebumps whenever I hear it). No words can describe the beauty & pathos in the movie. I did read part of the book, and the movie skims over the timeline that the book adheres to, but that adds to the story being told, rather than taking away from it. Again, the music score is very well used, and greatly enhances the movie. A good lesson in history too. A must see, right there with (my other must see's) Casablanca & Rebecca.
Rating:
Summary: David Lean's greatest movie
Review: Doctor Zhivago is David Lean's masterpiece. Most of those who have seen it would rate it in the top 100 movies of all time. It is, quite simply, stunning. Personally, I find it difficult to understand how some reviewers have rated Lawrence of Arabia, with its relatively simple storyline and painfully protracted camera shots, higher than Lean's true epic masterpiece, which is Doctor Zhivago. Doctor Zhivago is poignant in its personal exchanges, majestic in its historical sweep, and brimming with unforgettable imagery. It is a scandal that this film is not available in DVD. What is the studio waiting for - another Russian Revolution? Maybe we should storm the studio gates.
Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest epics of all time!
Review: Genius film director, Sir David Lean, created the masterpiece that is one of my favorite movies. All I can say after wearing myself out praising the film, is that this film NEEDS to be on DVD!!! It would be a dishonor to the new geration of DVD users to miss out on this amazing film. And if it was ever on DVD, It would have to be made by THE CRITERION COLLECTION, who already have three Sir David Lean titles in thier collection. And for 'zhivago' being my e-mail, you know it's got to be good! But, to end off, a spledidly delightful film for all time!
Rating:
Summary: My All-Time Favorite
Review: From the beginning that it came out, this movie has enchanted me. It's cinematography is some of the best and its soundtrack is so memorable with Lara's Theme winding ever about in settings which by pace and volume certainly set the stage for what's coming or happening. Set around young Zhivago from his adopted beginnings through the revolution, it contrasts much in life. Between the two significant women, Lara and Tonya, this tale is spun. Sharif and Christie are phenomenal! Have to see it once or twice a year. We named our first daughter Tonya.
| 
