Doctor Zhivago, a nominee for the Best Picture of 1965, is a typical David Lean film in many ways. It presents the best in cinematography and art direction and costume design; it must have cost a fortune to make, and it looks like it did. It has a huge cast of characters who fill large expanses of space. It's primarily a romantic story threaded throughout a historical narrative. In other words, it's a big movie. Lean tended to specialize in such films, and he was frequently successful at bringing them to the screen with a great deal of style. Doctor Zhivago certainly qualifies as an example of his talent as a filmmaker. I just wish it moved at a somewhat quicker pace and had a bit more heart at its core.
The title character of Doctor Zhivago is played by Omar Sharif. It must have taken guts to have an Egyptian play a Russian doctor, but we moviegoers have always been willing to accept Hollywood's strange casting rules (e.g., Rita Moreno in many of the early roles of her career). Zhivago is an intriguing man. He's a medical student who also writes poetry. He even gains a measure of fame before the Marxists assume control of Russia. People like the lyricism and beauty of his poetry. All of that will change, of course, when men like Lenin and Trotsky assume power. By then, Zhivago's poetry will seem too self-centered and sentimental, at least by those in power.
Zhivago marries his childhood sweetheart, Tonya (played by Geraldine Fitzgerald), but he has been intrigued by Lara (the angelic looking Julie Christie) from the first time he saw her. And he gets several opportunities to see her before they begin their relationship with each other. Much of the film is really about how torn his emotions are between the women. Tonya is the stable choice, certainly. He's known her all his life. She's a devoted mother, and she has tried to keep her parents safe and by her side during the Bolshevik Revolution and all of its changes to the day-to-day life of the Russian people. It's perhaps a somewhat traditional way of life that she represents that seems to bore Zhivago.
Lara, especially as portrayed by Christie, offers a far more alluring romantic partner. He keeps crossing paths with her, and he begins to see the various entanglements with men with which she is struggling. For example, Rod Steiger plays Victor Komarovsky, Lara's lover who refuses to leave her when she falls in love with a younger radical, Pasha (Tom Courtenay). So Lara shoots Victor at a Christmas Eve party in full view of the other guests. The doctor has to take care of Komarovsky, who claims to give Zhivago Lara as a "wedding present." She instead leaves with Pasha and becomes involved in the revolution.
There's actually quite a bit about the revolution itself in the film, and I suppose it's good that Lean and his team have attempted to place this love story within a historically accurate framework. Yet it does make the film drag on. At times, I thought the movie was going to last longer than the actual revolution did. We even get to see battles between the Communists and the Tsarists over control of various parts of the country, all of which tends to distract us from the romantic plot. It's tough to think about romance when you're witnessing the burning of entire towns.
Zhivago and Lara meet again and start to work together, she acting as his nurse. There are the usual separations that come with romantic films (although being commandeered to work for the Red Army is, no doubt, an unusual twist), but eventually, he and Tonya move close enough to where Lara lives that he can begins an affair, one which his wife seems to acknowledge. There's one scene of him in bed with Lara at her home followed by him in bed with Tonya in their cottage that is meant to demonstrate just how difficult and frustrating the situation is for Zhivago. We follow Sharif's character throughout all of these difficulties, getting quite a full picture of this man's life.
I could mention a point that has been discussed elsewhere: how Zhivago begins to favor the blonde, fair Lara over his darker-haired wife. In the midst of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, I suppose you could make something of that choice (and the difficulties that he faces in making that choice). Certainly, his obligations to his wife seem like such obstacles to his relationship with the lighter-haired Lara, and the film certainly makes the issue of his making the right choice between these women into one of its major themes. Yes, I'm fully aware that this film isn't about race, but it's a film about a revolution that was made and released while there was another revolution going on in the United States. There must have been some resonance there for people of the time.
I wish I could say that I loved this film. The performances are good--how could they not be with such a strong cast?--and it is a very beautiful film, like watching a series of lovely postcards from Russia. And I do admire Lean as a director so much. One of my favorite of his films is Passage to India, and I have repeatedly stated that Lawrence of Arabia is perhaps the best film ever made. Yet Doctor Zhivago leaves me somewhat cold. I don't know. Perhaps it's all of those scenes of snow and ice and frozen rivers to cross, but the passion in the film is always fleeting, temporary, delayed. Yes, I know great romantic films are often about separating the lovers and having them reunite. I just don't need the Bolshevik Revolution to do it; revolutions tend to take too long.
By the way, my mother has always loved the theme music to this film. When I was younger, I bought her a music box with what has come to be called "Lara's Theme." I was only a kid, really, but I saw how much my mother loved that music box and the song it played. It's quite a haunting piece of music.
Oscar Wins: Adapted Screenplay, Art Direction (Color), Cinematography (Color), Costume Design (Color), and Substantially Original Musical Score--you have to love the specificity with which the Academy created its categories back then
Other Oscar Nominations: Picture, Director, Supporting Actor (Courtenay), Film Editing, and Sound
No comments:
Post a Comment