A great film but despite being too long still comes up a little short

Rating: 9/10 (3 March 2006)

Of all the words often use to describe this film, epic, masterful, unforgettable, sweeping, stunning, seductive, romantic etc..one that I can't apply to it is riveting. It's just a little to long. The love angle between Yuri and Lara never really seems to take off to keep pace with the film. A superstar cast with Omar Sharif, Julie Chrisite, Geraldine Chaplin, Rod Steiger, Alec Guiness, Ralph Richardson and Tom Courtenay, Christie may have been overworked that year. She was nominated for and won Best Actress for the 1965 Academy Award for her role in Darling. She wasn't nominated for Zhivago. The 1965 Academy Awards were basically Doctor Zhivago vs. The Sound of Music with each being nominated for 10 awards and each receiving five. Zhivago won for Best Adapted Screenplay from the Nobel Prize winning novel by Boris Pasternik, Best Color Cinematography for which cinematographer Freddie Young deservedly won, Best Art Direction, Best Original Music Score and Best Costume Design. The art direction, score and costume design awards were a given. Zhivago was nominated for but did not win in Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Sound and Best Editing. David Lean truly made an epic film here but at 197 minutes it is too stretched out. It needed more war, more love or both. This could have been a 10 but I would give it a 9.0.