The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015. Remaining movies: 107 Days to go: 71
Movie #333: Doctor Zhivago
I love movies with Cyrillic in them. I don’t remember much of the Russian I took in college, but I do still know the Cyrillic alphabet — or, more importantly, how to pronounce it — so I go through movies with Cyrillic in them clumsily sounding out the words. Sometimes I can divine the meaning from the pronunciation, often I can’t. But I still do it. I love the feel of Russian on my tongue, the deep, swirling accent. Sadly, Doctor Zhivago doesn’t have any of those burly, rumbling accents. It has clipped, proper British ones, which, I’ll admit, was kind of disappointing.
Doctor Zhivago is like the epic tragic romance to end all epic tragic romances, or at least that’s its reputation. I definitely thought it was touching in places — and Omar Sharif (as Zhivago) and Julie Christie (as Lara) are gorgeous and mesmerizing — but mostly I thought it was long.
I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to feel about a lot of it. Is this in the vein of traditional Russian tragedy? Is it a backdoor Cold War-era repudiation of Communism? It’s actually both of these things, sort of mashed together, which is fine, if not exactly my cup of tea.
I also thought some of the early characterizations were muddled, leaving me unsure who these people were at first. For instance, young Lara apparently enters into her affair with Komarovsky (Rod Steiger) willingly, but I just thought the whole thing was creepy and that Lara didn’t look as into it as she supposedly was. And when her mother attempts suicide it’s Komarovsky who finds her naked in her bed. Was he sleeping with both of them? Did Lara know? Yuri Zhivago shared my feelings on the creepiness, at least, and Lara obviously comes to hate Komarovsky after he rapes her (as indicated by her shooting him), but I still feel like she was never all that into it, but rather pressured and bullied into it. I guess that works toward making Komarovsky more detestable, and maybe it was supposed to be uncomfortable, but I don’t like feeling uncomfortable, for obvious reasons.
I also felt the love affair of Yuri and Lara — the entire crux of the film — needed more back story to it. I mean, it’s obvious that Yuri is startled and enticed by Lara’s extreme beauty, and in the first two times he sees her he feels pity toward her combined with protective of her, followed by intense admiration of her. The admiration only grows as they work together in the field hospital during the war, and he loves her when he returns to his wife Tonya (Geraldine Chaplin, daughter of Charlie) in Moscow. But what are Lara’s feelings? The whole film, I feel like she’s a mystery. Her feelings toward Komarovsky are unclear until she shoots him. Her loyalty to her husband Pasha (Tom Courtenay) is built from longstanding friendship and admiration, but does she love him? She doesn’t see him for years (since before she and Yuri meet at the field hospital) and yet she moves to Yuriatin to look for him. And what of Yuri? How does she come to love him? We see him as a sensitive and upstanding man, always striving to live right, but we have no opportunity to see Lara reacting to him — not until they are holed up in Varykino and have already been in love for years. I would’ve liked more of that, but the movie is more about the suffering of war.
As much as the plot tends to plod through Russian Revolutionary politics, however, the characters are quite compelling. Other than opportunistic villain Komarovsky or the murderous Strelnikov Pasha became, they all are very likable and charming in their different ways. I even really like the KGB officer Yevgraf (Alec Guinness) who frames the film with his search for his brother Yuri’s long-lost daughter. I guess it’s just impossible for Alec Guinness to not be lovely and likable. And even as Lara is mysterious, she’s fascinating and resilient. She draws you in, and you want to get to know her better. It’s easy to see why so many loved her, at least.
Doctor Zhivago is beautifully filmed and rendered, and I feel like it’s the kind of movie in which the more I think about it, the more I need to think about it. I can feel it already settling in, like it’s going to stay awhile in my mind — the same way the musical score is never going away. “Lara’s Theme” is the most recognizable piece in the film, and even though I’d never seen the movie before, I’ve heard that melody hundreds of times elsewhere. Probably selling dish soap.
One of my friends has told me before that Doctor Zhivago is her mother’s all-time favorite movie. And while I don’t think it could ever have affected me in that way, even if I’d seen it back in 1965, I can definitely see the appeal. Though it does make me wonder if maybe my friend’s mom had a long-lost secret lover she’s pined for all these years. Wouldn’t that be interesting?
Viable Option 