Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Winter wonder epic in Bolshevik Russia.
Presentation:
The work of David Lean has had a tremendous impact on cinema for its portrayal of epic landscapes and vast numbers of people. After conquering the deserts of Arabia and the jungles of the River Kwai, Lean tackled the snowy wonderland of Russia. There’s a lot of political drama, but Doctor Zhivago is primarily a complex romance film during the Bolshevik Revolution, and should be hard to follow since it makes no effort to patiently explain Russian history or the groups involved. I think the film takes cues from Gone With the Wind, but the scope of the film feels so large that it was hard to connect with the characters. I just couldn’t immerse myself into seeing them as Russians with their British accents. I didn’t care for them or their love as a result of the neutrally presented chemistry, nor do I think the director did either since his attention was always toward the magnificently framed vistas. However, without this film, we probably wouldn’t have Roger Deakins and you can see a lot of compositional tricks he has learned from this film.
Conclusion:
This is basically anti-communist propaganda, though much subtler than films like I Am Cuba. It may seem criminal for a cinephile to not give this film a high rating, but there are stronger films. This is a technically momentous film, but I simply found it unbearably boring like trudging through an avalanche of dense snow. There are boomers who may appreciate the glacial pacing, but for me to watch a film over 3 hours it had better be worth my time and the movie just ends flatly in realistic fashion. I think the context behind the book was more interesting than the film itself. It was one of the few literatures with subtle critiques of communist Moscow that was able to leak through the cracks so the CIA promoted it. I think that would have made a much better story than this convoluted romance of 2 Russians running around during a communist revolution. Just watch Lawrence of Arabia.
Recommendations
Winter wonder epic in Bolshevik Russia.