They don't make 'em like that anymore

"Doctor Zhivago" is the kind of sprawling, majestic widescreen epic that Hollywood stopped making many moons ago. Watching the film now, 50 years since its original theatrical run, it's easy to see how movies have changed from a time when old-school craftsmanship and blow-em-away casting were part of the DNA of top shelf films. Although this flick shows its age, it also has a lot to teach us about narrative style, visual compositions, creative editing choices, and pre-digital artistry. Here is what our CineVerse group concluded about" Doctor Zhivago":

WHAT ARE THIS FILM’S GREATEST STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES?

• It’s lavish production values, thanks to a high budget, and A-list talent involved (director David Lean, stars Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Alec Guinness, Rod Steiger, and Ralph Richardson, and composer Maurice Jarre) put it in a high caliber and gave it a sheen and cache that prevent it from crumbling under its own weight.

• It pays great attention to detail, benefitting from period authenticity as well as high artistry and realism imbued in the sets, props and costumes. 

• It looks visually stunning and sumptuous—due to the vibrant color used, widescreen aspect ratio employed, and epic scope and scale. 

• The characters and their actions aren’t written overly grandiose or important; they could have been crafted as major instigators in historical events, or, as Kenneth Brown, BluRay.com reviewer, put it, “iconic revolutionaries” who “lead a movement, inspire a rebellion or fuel the terrible events that come to bear on their lives.” Instead, they are flawed, utterly mortal, and ravaged by the rise of the Soviet machine around them.

• It was also the first Hollywood movie to depict the Russian Revolution, later covered by films like Nicholas and Alexandra, Reds, and Anastasia. “Doctor Zhivago marked a new path for the historical epic. Previous films had simply focused on the scope of world-shaping events. With Zhivago, director David Lean and scriptwriter Robert Bolt brought a new romantic sensibility to the epic. That Victorian ideal would inform such later blockbusters as Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), Lady Gray (1986) and Titanic (1997),” wrote TCM writer Frank Miller.

• Yet, it has been accused of trivializing history by placing momentous, bloody events like World War I, the Russian Revolution, and the Russian Civil War, as backdrop set pieces against which a soap opera-ish love story is played out.

• Many have problems understanding the motivations, rationales and actions of characters, including Zhivago himself, who arguably doesn’t seem that fully developed and whose choices can be difficult to understand, making it harder to root for him. He can’t seem to decide which woman he wants to be in love with—Lara or his wife—and his vacillating nature can frustrate audiences.

• Many also have ethnicity authenticity problems with the casting: Sharif, while an excellent actor, looks and sounds Middle Eastern not Russian; and the English accents used by the English actors cast is off-putting, too.

• The runtime is extreme: approximately 200 minutes, which can be a long sit for many viewers who can grow bored and weary of an epic, especially if character threads aren’t fleshed out/resolved or elements become repetitive (such as the overuse of “Lara’s Theme”).

• Also, having the brother Yevgraf be the voiceover narrator confounds the narrative for many because Zhivago appears to be more of a spectator in his own story. 

• Some critics feel the film hasn’t aged well. Brown further wrote: “Doctor Zhivago isn’t teeming with modern sensibilities—embracing sentiment, reveling in majesty and extravagance, and focusing on star-crossed lovers above all else. It shows every one of its (50) years.”

THIS PICTURE IS HEAVY ON USE OF SYMBOLS AND MOTIFS; CAN YOU CITE ANY EXAMPLES?

• Trains and trolleys

• window panes, mirrors and glass

• Cold weather, snow and ice

• Candles

• Wolves

• Orphans

• Coincidences, happenchance encounters, and good or bad timing

OTHER MOVIES THAT “DOCTOR ZHIVAGO” BRINGS TO MIND

• Gone With the Wind

• Reds

• The English Patient

• Anna Karenina

OTHER FILMS BY DAVID LEAN

• 1945 Blithe Spirit

• 1945 Brief Encounter

• 1946 Great Expectations

• 1948 Oliver Twist

• 1957 The Bridge on the River Kwai

• 1962 Lawrence of Arabia

• 1984 A Passage to India