It's a shameless historical romance set primarily in Moscow and the Ural Mountains of Russia before, during, and after the Russian Revolution. It follows six people as their lives intersect during those tumultuous years.
At the film's beginning, General Yevgraf Zhivago (Alec Guinness) is trying to identify his niece, born to his half-brother, Yuri (Tarek Sharif/Omar Sharif) and Lara Antipova (Julie Christie). After Yuri's mother died in about 1900, he was cared for by wealthy Alexander (Ralph Richardson) and Anna (Siobhán McKenna) Gromeko. Their daughter, Tonya (Geraldine Chaplin), is highly educated in Paris and becomes Yuri's wife. Yuri has become a medical doctor and a well-known poet. He has restrained political views, but his half-brother is a Bolshevik.
Lara is 17 years old in 1913, living with her mother, and is engaged to Pavel Antipov (Tom Courtenay), a radical but not a communist. However, her mother's lover, Victor Komarovsky (Rod Steiger), sexually mistreats her. Victor is a rich political chameleon who finds his way into the prevailing party. Lara and Yuri first meet when Lara tries to take revenge on Victor for his maltreatment.
The three-hour and twenty-minute film follows Yuri's romantic and physical despair in his struggle between Tonya and Lara and the demands of the changing political situation. Pavel's personality changes as a result of his World War I experiences. Victor plots and schemes until the end.
"Doctor Zhivago" is an epic Russian romance portrayed in a glorious, sometimes manipulative, soap opera. The cinematography of some winter scenes is genuinely memorable. And no one who sees the film forgets the musical theme that constantly returns. I'm a hopeless romantic, so I loved this movie even though I recognize it's not great. Sharif and Christie have proper chemistry, and Chaplin is properly long-suffering. Unfortunately, so much of the novel is left out that many questions remain about the characters like Tonya.
At the film's beginning, General Yevgraf Zhivago (Alec Guinness) is trying to identify his niece, born to his half-brother, Yuri (Tarek Sharif/Omar Sharif) and Lara Antipova (Julie Christie). After Yuri's mother died in about 1900, he was cared for by wealthy Alexander (Ralph Richardson) and Anna (Siobhán McKenna) Gromeko. Their daughter, Tonya (Geraldine Chaplin), is highly educated in Paris and becomes Yuri's wife. Yuri has become a medical doctor and a well-known poet. He has restrained political views, but his half-brother is a Bolshevik.
Lara is 17 years old in 1913, living with her mother, and is engaged to Pavel Antipov (Tom Courtenay), a radical but not a communist. However, her mother's lover, Victor Komarovsky (Rod Steiger), sexually mistreats her. Victor is a rich political chameleon who finds his way into the prevailing party. Lara and Yuri first meet when Lara tries to take revenge on Victor for his maltreatment.
The three-hour and twenty-minute film follows Yuri's romantic and physical despair in his struggle between Tonya and Lara and the demands of the changing political situation. Pavel's personality changes as a result of his World War I experiences. Victor plots and schemes until the end.
"Doctor Zhivago" is an epic Russian romance portrayed in a glorious, sometimes manipulative, soap opera. The cinematography of some winter scenes is genuinely memorable. And no one who sees the film forgets the musical theme that constantly returns. I'm a hopeless romantic, so I loved this movie even though I recognize it's not great. Sharif and Christie have proper chemistry, and Chaplin is properly long-suffering. Unfortunately, so much of the novel is left out that many questions remain about the characters like Tonya.