Long and sprawling but very rewarding

Rating: 8/10 (19 August 2015)

While not one of David Lean's finest films (Lawrence of Arabia, Bridge on the River Kwai, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Brief Encounter), Doctor Zhivago is nonetheless worthy of this great director's talents. It is a very good and rewarding film, so many great merits, but as can be seen with the reviews here it is one of those films that induce polarizing opinions.
Doctor Zhivago has a lot of characters and subplots, and while most of them are interesting and very well-written sometimes it does feel like too many characters and too much going on with not enough time spent on them. It also drags a little in the last third (or last hour), and gets a little too improbably coincidental and soap-opera-ish.
On the other hand, as always with a Lean film Doctor Zhivago is superbly made, with very evocative and richly detailed settings and period detail – with a brilliantly realized contrast between the plush rich and the poverty-striken- and very atmospheric and sweeping cinematography from Freddie Young, especially telling in the train ride and in the moments with the Bolsheviks. Lean directs masterfully, like in the train ride, and there is a rousing and also hauntingly beautiful music score from Maurice Jarre, Lara's theme is one of his most recognisable themes along with the main theme for Lawrence of Arabia and one can see why. The script is incredibly thought-provoking and flows well, the narration could have been intrusive but it was interestingly used and actually moved the story forward.
The story is not perfectly executed, but the first two hours are astonishingly fascinating with many memorable scenes like the train ride and the demonstration and while it is a long film and not always the easiest to follow it didn't feel to me like three hours twenty minutes and there was enough meat to the characters and their situations that the story was always riveting. The very end is heart-wrenching and I appreciate the intimacy of the love story. The characters do lack the depth that they do in the book, but they still do have their complexity particularly Komorovsky and Pasha. Doctor Zhivago contains great performances from a strong cast. Omar Sharif is not as stiff as he can be, instead he is expressive and understated. Julie Christie is glamorous and affectingly vulnerable, and Geraldine Chaplin excels too in the more sympathetic female role.
Rod Steiger is a truly malevolent, but more restrained than he can be, Komorovsky, while Tom Courtenay brings humanity and intensity to Pasha and Klaus Kinski is riveting in his short screen time. Alec Guiness did deserve a bigger role but is appropriately thoughtful, while Ralph Richardson while also not in the showiest of roles does what he can with it.
All in all, a very good film but not quite a masterpiece. 8/10 Bethany Cox