A beautiful historical epic

Rating: 8/10 (21 April 2018)

While not quite as good as David Lean's other masterpieces The Bridge on the River Kwai or Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago is still a stunning cinematic achievement. It has, much like the previously named titles, beautiful cinematography & an excellent score by Maurice Jarre once again.
The most obvious and greatest thing about this film is definitely the cinematography. It is a beautiful film to look at, with many memorable scenes and extraordinary camera techniques ( Such as the one where it follows Rod Steiger's character sideways from room to room ). The shot right before Zhivago is picked up by the reds when trying to return to his wife is also one that springs to mind, a bit reminiscent of the final scene in The Third Man (1949), the shots of Varykino, the train ride, or any other shot in general of the beautiful winter scenery. It has critically acclaimed cinematography, and for good reason since it is one of the most beautiful movies you could ever see.
However, i found that the performances seemed to be a bit flat in general. Omar Sharif doesn't have that ability to absord you as the audience into feeling a lot of sympathy for his character like Peter o'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia could or the raw natural acting talent that Alec Guinness and William Holden show in The Bridge on the River Kwai, except for the couple of teary eyed scenes which he pulled off extremely well. The two women in Zhivago's life, played by Julie Christie & Geraldine Chaplin, also seemed to be able to lack this strong screen presence most characters had in Lean's previous films. The only actors that really had excellent performances were probably Rod Steiger & Ralph Richardson, especially the former as the intelligent businessman. Ofcourse Alec Guinness is in this film too, but surprisingly he also seems a bit flat and does not quite compare to his great role in The Bridge on the River Kwai.
The first half of the movie is a character piece whereas the second is more of a romance picture. It does a tremendous job of taking its time to properly set up its characters in the first half of the film, something that if often way too hasty these days. The second probably features more great shots, but still seems inferior to the first as a character development piece. Still, the second half is beautiful enough on its own and as a motion picture it is a stunning achievement.
In the end this creates an epic atmospheric historical epic of a film, unfortunately devoid of the performances that made Lawrence of Arabia and The Bridge on the River Kwai stand out, but still a very worthy picture.