A Romantic Epic, But One That Is Missing Out On Another Great Love Story

Rating: 8/10 (12 November 2004)

Although I agree that this is a wonderful film (if a bit overlong), and is worth watching, I feel that, in his effort to make another "epic" and trying to match his incomparable "Lawrence Of Arabia" and "The Bridge On The River Kwai" , David Lean missed out on a more in-depth and meaningful plot.
The novel, is more or less, a love story that takes place during the Russian Revolution, and the turmoil that this event inflicted on the human spirit. Boris Pasternak was basically calling things as he saw and experienced them, since he witnessed this upheaval. While the movie is gorgeous and fascinating to look at, and the music is superb, adding to the haunting quality of the story and the characters, the film fails to become a more intimate look at the people's lives, and therefore is missing some of the crucial elements of the book. Not to demean the late Robert Bolt, who was a very gifted screenwriter, and he deserved the Oscar he received, but he didn't (or perhaps, couldn't) recreate the labor of love that Pasternak penned.
It was wonderful to see Julie Christie and Tom Courtenay together again on-screen, as they had such a smashing success with John Schlesinger's delicious "Billy Liar" (1963). However, the love story of Lara and Pasha, so sweetly detailed in the novel, is relegated to pretty much a back story or a minor plot element, perhaps to capitalize on Lara's destructive affair with Victor Komorovsky (the late and wonderfully devious Rod Steiger), and her upcoming, face-to-face encounter with Yuri Zhivago (Omar Sharif). I saw the movie before I read the novel, but even then, I felt very sorry for the character of Pasha, because we really were not given a lot of insight into him, or what it was that turned him from such an adoring lover to Lara, to the brutal Strelinkov, and since his character dies off-screen, I felt cheated out of a meaningful conclusion of that storyline. I was so touched by the book's information about their affection for one another, and the way the book had Zhivago and Pasha meet and discuss the love of both their lives - Lara. The 2002 Masterpiece Theatre TV miniseries starring Hans Matheson, Keira Knightley and Kris Marshall was much more faithful to the novel, and presented something closer to the full story.
Julie Christie is always lovely and magnetic, and she obviously has an eye for great material. Her electric blue eyes and sensitive, full lips often say more that the viewer has heard her say. Geraldine Chaplin, as Zhivago's wife, Tonya, is sweet and gentle, but you have to wonder why she was so endlessly understanding toward him, even after he causes her so much heartbreak. The late Sir Alec Guinness is an interesting narrator to have for the story, and he always worked well with Lean. Sir Ralph Richardson and Sioban McKenna come off well as Tonya's parents, and Rita Tushingham excels in a small but pivotal role of the love child of Yuri and Lara. She was excellent in Tony Richardson's "A Taste Of Honey", and you have to wonder why she didn't have more of a career. Watch for the late Klaus Kinski in a brief but very effective portrayal of a man who becomes a prisoner of forced labor - his scenes on the train are riveting. Jack MacGowran has an interesting little part as well. Those 60s hairstyles do say something about the fashion then, even in a period film. You have to love to hate the despicable Komorovsky, who thought he was God's gift to women or something (and in the miniseries, Sam Neill is just as repulsively right in the role). Sharif's portrayal of Zhivago is impressive, but doesn't it seem like he is always brooding or crying?
It has its flaws, but it is still romantic and I am still entranced with it, especially, for some strange reason, during Christmas. It is one of the best made films of all time, and it gives romantics a run for their money! Watch it, but get out the Kleenex!