Close but no cigar - perhaps a Panatella

Rating: 6/10 (19 September 2001)

It all comes down to the writing - and Robert Bolt apparently did what he could, but the wandering story robs the setting of what could have been great. Still, this is an instructive movie in all areas BUT story: cinematography (or the painterly framing of scenes), set design, integration of music to scene, acting, costumes... much was done well. But for every scene in which Zhivago is realistically called away from a cheering crowd to a bloody hospital, there's a scene from the framing story that contrasts the rough revolutionary days with the "better" present as represented by the hydroelectric dam, actually a chimeral PR boondoggle.

Even the poster work was above average, foregoing photography for actual paintings. But not a focused or aware story to be found...