Wasn't worth the wait!

Rating: 5/10 (4 January 2008)

Over the years there have been movies and actors/actresses that have held no interest for me, ones that I instinctively knew I wouldn't appreciate at the time, and that I haven't seen or learned to appreciate until I've gotten much older and perhaps a bit wiser. I'm always amazed when I finally sit down to watch something I've avoided for years or decades, discover a real gem, and know that the only reason I appreciate it is because I'm older and wiser.
The other night, with the winter cold seeping through the windows and doors, I sat down to watch Dr. Zhivago for the first time. It was like sitting down in the middle of a summer heatwave to watch Lawrence of Arabia for the first time about fifteen years ago. Great cinematography, the perfect atmosphere, and a great cast. And that's where it ended. Unlike Lawrence, Zhivago, for all of its fine qualities, is a tragedy from beginning to end, with an ending so weak and lame-brained, that the events in the Soviet Union 20 years ago make it seem even worse today.
As much as I've enjoyed Omar Sharif in many other movies, here he's an unsympathetic wimp, just a leaf blowing in the socio-political winds of time, with a wife (and actress Geraldine Chapman) who is as unexciting and he is spineless. As much as I don't appreciate Rod Steiger, he usually seems to be the man I most like to hate in a film, his villainous character here is appreciated because it has the most life of any of the movie's other performances. So many of the other fine actors are wasted in parts that seem only to be part of a beautiful cinematic canvas and little else.
I was constantly being annoyed by Russians using the French term "monsieur" all the time. It was almost as annoying as Hemingway using "thee" and "thou" in the novel For Whom the Bells Toll to describe the Spanish use of the formal and familiar "you". "Thee" and "thou" didn't work there and "monsieur" doesn't work here.
On the other hand, the use of "comrade", a term often associated with Communists, is as plain as day, even though I can't recall Communists mentioned once in the movie. When the story of Dr. Zhivago ends, we're lead to believe that the tragic destruction of families, a way of life, and a country by a political movement that caused the meaningless deaths of tens of millions of people, forced poverty and suffering on even more for several generations, and eventually lead to a miserable failure of a "grand experiment" in less than 75 years, has somehow been rationalized by the common man building and operating an energy generating dam at the end, though being supervised and frightened by a fatherly military/political presence in the form of Alec Guinness. Talk about propaganda!
If you have to chose between some quality time with your family or watching this movie, please choose the former. Spending at least five minutes with the family is worth more than 200 minutes with Dr. Zhivago.