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Doctor Zhivago
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Doctor Zhivago (1965) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
8.0/10   24,882 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 12% in popularity this week. See rank & trends on IMDbPro.
Director:
David Lean
Writers:
Boris Pasternak (novel)
Robert Bolt (screenplay)
Contact:
View company contact information for Doctor Zhivago on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
22 December 1965 (USA) more
Genre:
Drama | Romance | War more
Tagline:
The entertainment event of the year! more
Plot:
Life of a Russian doctor/poet who, although married, falls for a political activist's wife and experiences hardships during the Bolshevik Revolution. full summary | add synopsis
Awards:
Won 5 Oscars. Another 15 wins & 10 nominations more
User Comments:
Drowned in the Purity of Sentiment more

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Omar Sharif ... Dr. Yuri Zhivago

Julie Christie ... Lara
Geraldine Chaplin ... Tonya

Rod Steiger ... Komarovsky

Alec Guinness ... Gen. Yevgraf Zhivago
Tom Courtenay ... Pasha
Siobhan McKenna ... Anna
Ralph Richardson ... Alexander
Rita Tushingham ... The Girl
Jeffrey Rockland ... Sasha
Tarek Sharif ... Yuri at 8 years old
Bernard Kay ... The Bolshevik
Klaus Kinski ... Kostoyed
Gérard Tichy ... Liberius (as Gerard Tichy)
Noel Willman ... Razin
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Additional Details

MPAA:
Rated PG-13 for mature themes.
Runtime:
197 min | UK:192 min (1999 re-release) | UK:193 min | UK:200 min (1992 re-release)
Country:
USA
Language:
English | Russian
Color:
Color (Metrocolor)
Aspect Ratio:
2.20 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
4-Track Stereo (35 mm magnetic prints) | 70 mm 6-Track (Westrex Recording System) (70 mm prints) | DTS (re-release) (35 mm prints) | Mono (35 mm optical prints)
Certification:
Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Iceland:12 | South Korea:12 | Brazil:Livre | West Germany:12 (f) | USA:Approved (original rating) | USA:GP (re-rating) (1971) | Canada:PG (video rating) | USA:PG-13 (re-rating) (1995) | UK:15 (1987) | UK:A (1966) | UK:PG (1992) | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Spain:13 | Sweden:11
Filming Locations:
Alberta, Canada more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
When David Lean told the studio that he wanted Maurice Jarre to provide the score, he was told, "Maurice is very good on sand, but I'm sure we have someone better on snow." Jarre, of course, won the Oscar for best original score for this film. more
Goofs:
Revealing mistakes: In the deserters scene, after the speaking officer is shot and falls in the water barrel, several of the extras can clearly be heard speaking Spanish. more
Quotes:
Liberius: [looking at the bodies of slain White soldiers, whom he was found to be teenagers] St. Michael's Military School?
[finds their instructor's body]
Liberius: You old bastard!
more
Movie Connections:
Featured in "Northern Exposure: War and Peace (#2.6)" (1991) more
Soundtrack:
Prelude in G minor, Op.23-5 more

FAQ

How closely does the movie follow Pasternak's novel?
Is it possible to read the Lara poems online?
What dishes did Komarovsky and Lara order in the ritzy restaurant?
more
83 out of 119 people found the following comment useful:-
Drowned in the Purity of Sentiment, 9 December 2004
Author: Ion Martea from London, UK

No wonder the highest directorial achievement for direction of the British Academy of Film and Television is named after David Lean. An artist who knew how to combine great performances, with breathtaking settings, haunting soundtrack, in order to create works of art that are to remain as pillars for the future generations of film-makers.

"Doctor Zhivago" is definitely one of his most outstanding works, a film that breathes with life, and suffers with passion. Neither, though, of the credited people can take as much credit for it, as David Lean. Omar Sharif delivers one of his best performances of his career, Julie Christie has never been as stunning, or Rod Steiger as Komarovsky or Tom Courtenay as Antipov ever left more memorable performances than these ones. Not even Maurice Jarre, who composed one of the most unforgettable themes in film history, or Robert Bolt, for his skillful adaptation on Pasternak's difficult novel, not even Freddy Young's cinematography, can rise above the vibration of genius, which is David Lean. We almost feel the complexity of the universe collapsing on us with a mad power that we instantly become part of it, and fall in love with all its particles.

For those who haven't seen the film, this might make little sense, and it can give a misleading understanding of what one is to expect. "Doctor Zhivago" is a poet, who at the beginning of the 20th Century is caught in the historical Bolshevik revolution. An outstanding doctor, married to his childhood friend, Tonya (Geraldine Chaplin in a warm performance), finds that there is beauty beyond deceit, love beyond commitment, by starting an affair with an enigmatic lady which appears often in his path in the most unnoticeable of moments. Their destiny is as confused as Russia in the turmoil started by the Reds, it is shaped by history without their approval. There is no solution for a country that abandoned its passions in its desire of self-improvement, just as for the two lovers, which find themselves abandoned in the middle of the Siberian taiga.

This is a slow film and for the good reasons. We are allowed to breathe the story, to give it momentum, and to judge it from within, as if the choices were not Yury's, Lara's or Tonya's, but our own creation. And this is the brilliance of Lean's direction. The story transcends time and space, and it melts within the triviality of our life. Beyond it, we are left with nothing but love, pure and blindingly real.

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