A classic of the big screen - and I mean big

Rating: 9/10 (12 December 2015)

I saw a restored print of this classic this afternoon, complete with intermission. Fifty years after release it inevitably looks and sounds dated at times, though that is lessened by the historical setting. It demands to be watched in a cinema, without distractions and getting the full impact of Jarre's score. As others have commented, Lean managed to extract career best performances from Christie, Sharif, Courtenay and Steiger, which is quite something. The script by Robert Bolt struck me as less successful. At times he sums up quite complicated political points deftly and even memorably ('the personal life is dead in Russia'), but he manages more straightforward exchanges less competently than a TV soap scriptwriter would. Still, the impression this movie makes on the viewer remains powerful. There are so many brilliant set pieces and they are skilfully deployed by Lean, e.g. the two battle scenes during the partisan sequence are set in midwinter and midsummer, gaining the benefit of the visual contrast in the seasons while telling the viewer how long Zhivago is away from his family and Lara. And the WW1 sequence - which has to be done quickly - is nonetheless very strong. Yes it's sentimental but this is truly an amazing film, a great one despite its faults.