Dr. Zhivago: a masterpiece of sound color environment tone and character.

Rating: 10/10 (8 January 2008)

I will not summarize the plot. There are many others who have done that. Besides, the script really does not have a plot: it has a series of interwoven incidents that lead to an end only because the main character dies. That's really no spoiler. It's just where the movie ends.
This movie has sumptuous sets. When people are eating, the food almost gives an aroma on the screen: the desserts almost smell sweet, the coffee is lavish and steaming like coffee which gives off a warm feeling. When people travel, the background of whites, greens and earth colors suggest the power of mother earth herself. When war comes, all the horrors of war are staged without all the blood in saving Private Ryan. Nothing is sanitized, but neither do we think of throwing up.
The characters are all molded in a way that is best described by Yevgraf Zhivago (Alec Guinness)
Even Comrade Lenin underestimated both the anguish of that 900-mile long front... as well our own cursed capacity for suffering.
That is not a complete description but it is a beginning. Lara and Zhivago and to some extent, Tonya (Geraldine Chaplin) and her father (Ralph Richardson), had seen much and understood at a very deep level that "the personal life was not dead," it was the only life that mattered. No amount of suffering should destroy the personal life. All of the main characters share that in common. Their understanding of the world makes them stronger so they transcend their suffering.
The love affair between Tonya and Zhivago and Zhivago and Lara are as natural as could be given the condition and time in which they lived. In a strange way neither one resented the other.
Some men, including me, find it puzzling that anyone could be upset by the two love affairs Zhivago enjoyed. These two women, Lara and Tonya, understood perfectly that Zhivago could love both of them equally and value both of them for what they were, not what they were not.
What Zhivago found in them were the best in women. He would have been happy with either separately if the other did not exist. He loved the familiar comfort that was Tonya's, and the mysterious feminine passive allure of Lara. Each rejoiced in what she received from the brooding Zhivago who was as earthy as he was ethereal, and as understanding as he was loving.
I have not said anything about the other parts of the film because others have said it much better that I could. All of the first 15 or so reviews where taken in by the scenery, the acting, the direction, and the appropriateness of the choice of cast members. The music is astonishing and most people noted it. Rod Steiger and Tom Courtney are engrossing and frightening as many people noted.
This is amongst my top ten films. As much as I like the other Lean pictures, I like this one the best.
Without any hesitancy 10/10.