Long

Rating: 8/10 (27 December 2003)

'Doctor Zhivago' contains a lot of little stories, all kept together by the character Yuri Zhivago (Omar Sharif). The movie doesn't really finish one part before starting the next and therefore it kind of feels like a complete movie. Every single little story was interesting enough to like this movie, but as a whole it has a lot of flaws.
The story is about Yuri and how he marries Tonya (Geraldine Chaplin) but falls in love with Lara (Julie Christie) when he is a doctor on the front. The story is also about the Russian Bolshevik revolution. Yuri is a poet and the new leaders don't like what he has to say, it is too personal. After he gets back from the front and arrives in Moscow he has to flee with his wife, his son and his father. They go to a little place where they try to be happy. In a city nearby he is reunited with Lara and has an affair with her. Then he is taken by the Red Garde and has to be a doctor on the front again.
The story also tells us a bit more about Lara and her affair with Komarovsky (Rod Steiger) who has an important role later in the story. During this affair Yuri first sees Lara. All this episodes in Yuri's life are little movies and they are all combined to one. Some of the events are big clichés, but with a director like David Lean the movie gets away with it.
I have to say that there is much beauty in this movie. It is not shot on location but I would not be surprised if it was. There is a scene where a house has turned in a deserted ice palace and it looks so beautiful. Because of the beauty, the performances by Sharif, Christie, Steiger and also Alec Guinness as Yuri's half-brother, a fine direction by Lean and the interesting little stories this movie turned out to be pretty good.