Doctor Zhivago (1965, PG-13)

Directed by: David Lean

Grade: B

We all know David Lean for what he is, or at least for what we ask him to be.  He is presumably the master of epic filmmaking, and the figure in cinematic history who set the rules for how an epic should be completed.  He set the guidelines; his films enforced them.  Indeed, Lean is one of the most prominent and important individuals in the arts of making cinema come to life, and the most famous examples of his epics are, in the order they were released: the Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, Ryan’s Daughter and a Passage to India.  I saw the Bridge on the River Kwai a while ago, years back, and I am a very supportive admirer of Lawrence of Arabia, which in my honest opinion is an unsurpassed onscreen biography as well.  I have yet to view either Ryan’s Daughter or a Passage to India, so I’ll have to get around to that some other time.  I just watched Doctor Zhivago about a week back, and feel ashamed that I had not composed my review sooner than I am.

Lawrence of Arabia was a crowning splendor in the history of movie making.  The reason why it’s so influential is really because it was so mercilessly ambitious in setting forth the rules for how an epic should be performed.  Lawrence of Arabia was such a landmark in that way.  Doctor Zhivago, Lean’s follow-up to Lawrence of Arabia, is a more then credible film that easily goes down as one of those ‘must see three hour long, exquisitely made dramas’.  Doctor Zhivago is a film that is superbly told and exquisitely shot. 

There is one central problem though from which spout out its other flaws, and that is the fact that Doctor Zhivago is not as ambitious as some of Lean’s other projects, such as a Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia.  To put it in more pragmatic terms, Doctor Zhivago follows the rules that were ground-breakingly established in Lawrence of Arabia, and doesn’t really make any new ones of its own.  To condense it all into one simple statement, Doctor Zhivago is only a downgrade from Lawrence of Arabia.  Otherwise, it’s a formidable piece of work as long as we can forgive that one predicament. 

Almost all the scenes in Doctor Zhivago work very well; the only big dissatisfaction that comes around is the  beginninig, confusing half hour in which the characters are put into play.  As a whole, the piece is a gratifying even if traditional romantic drama, told mostly in flashback, set against that emblematic  backdrop of war: before, during and after World War I.  At the film’s beginning, the Bolshevik Party is protesting in large numbers among Russia’s streets, at the very dawn of Russia’s entry into the Great War.  Skim past a few years, and we land in the middle of the film where Russia’s armies have been defeated by German and Austrian troops.  Rather than rally together to make a last-ditch stand against the foreign invaders, the Russians turn on each other, engulfing the country into Civil War.  We all know that the Bolsheviks will win and the first swing of Communism would be put into motion; so it’s necessary for the film then to turn back to the character of Yuri Zhivago.

I am sorry to say that the film doesn’t offer a powerful climax; the film’s ending brings about no definitive conclusions, so as a result the audience is left to itself to consider what has happened over the film’s narrative, and then to come to their own conclusions.  Truthfully, I didn’t really care much for Zhivago as a character, so my own conclusions may not come about as sympathetic as one might think.

I did deeply care for the way this movie was performed.  There is never a moment that shows a lack of remarkable production value, acting in good health, and worthy direction.  Like I said before, Lean is a director who has some serious talent.  He solidified that in his two earlier motion pictures, the 1957 Bridge on the River Kwai and the 1962 Lawrence of Arabia, by laying down the principles of epic moviemaking.  Doctor Zhivago follows those principals precisely, even if it’s not totally willing to lay down any new ones for us to praise.  B