Great Expectations...

Rating: 9/10 (6 October 2002)

David Lean got himself into a tight corner after making movies that were larger than life and always bigger in scope: if Bridge on the River Kwai was big, Lawrence of Arabia was a true epic in every sense of the word. His carefully chosen literary adaptations seemed bound to become masterpieces, from his earlier Dickens diptych on. For his next challenge, Lean turned to Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago, on the life and times of a poet in Revolutionary Russia.
Before you roll your eyes at any perceived lack of risk-taking, consider how Foreign this work must have felt as opposed to all the other classics Lean had tackled. Consider also the numerous challenges: a very passive protagonist, yet another logistically complex shoot, and the season and decade sprawling narrative. Not a recipe for box office gold.
Yet Zhivago the film is the apex of Lean's particular style of filmmaking. That by no means makes it his best film, not by a long shot, but it pushes his style to its limits while still avoiding self-parody. That particular threshold would be crossed on Ryan's Daughter. Here Lean guides proceedings with a sure hand, giving even the smallest moment a sense of grandeur that sits comfortably both with the romantic nature of our main character and with the themes of the film.
As Zhivago, Omar Shariff makes the most of a thankless task and manages to convey our hero's yearning soul. Subtle makeup helps you forget Sheriff Ali and he generously allows the spotlight to fall on his costars. In the female court, Geraldine Chaplin and newcomer Julie Christie come across not just as cyphers but three- dimensional human beings, and to their and Lean's credit choosing one over the other is no easy task. The men are almost all scoundrels, yet hugely entertaining: Tom Courtnay is chilling as a fallen idealist and Rod Steiger oozes corruption. Alec Guinness also turns a very functional role into gold, and the icing on the cake is crazed cameo from none other than Klaus Kinski.
Once more, David Lean and screenwriter Robert Bolt succeeded admirably in creating a very intimate and human story on an epic backdrop, creating the grandest cinematic love story since Gone With The Wind. What cemented this film's place into legend are the unforgettable images and melodies crafted by two returning Lean collaborators: DP Freddie Young and composer Maurice Jarre.
It's one of those films that, like Ben Hur, keeps popping up around the holidays. One those widely recognized classics you can just drown in, along with the whole family. Unlike most of those types of pictures, it actually deserves every bit of praise thrown at it.