DVDs in Review

Dr Zhivago (David Lean, 1965)

Title: Dr Zhivago (David Lean, 1965)

Release date: May 10 2010

Certificate: PG

Format: Blu-ray

RRP: £17.99

Rating: 5/5

Reviewed by Dave Lancaster

There isn’t much more that can be said about David Lean’s epic adaptation of Boris Pasternak’s doorstopping novel ‘Dr Zhivago’ that hasn’t been said before. It lives up to its 45 years of hype. It deserves the praise.

As if Lean’s sumptuous photography and Robert Bolt’s complex yet wholly accessible screenplay wasn’t enough, ‘Dr Zhivago’ is fronted by a terrific cast, namely Omar Sharif as the conflicted doctor trying to find his way through the Bolshevik Revolution and Julie Christie as the fiery rebel Lara who he has an affair with, plus star turns from Geraldine Chaplin, Rod Steiger, Tom Courtenay and Lean’s chameleon for hire Alec Guinness.

There’s not a bad shot in this entire movie, as was the case with Lean’s previous triumph ‘Lawrence of Arabia’. While ‘Lawrence’ tended to focus on one central character (played by Peter O’Toole with unparalleled charisma ), ‘Dr Zhivago’ is much more sprawling and ensemble-driven. The Revolution is the real focus of the story, with the perfectly drawn characters filling the wintery background beautifully.

‘Dr Zhivago’ concerns itself with a period of history in which there is “no room for personal feelings” and goes on to focus on these characters’ desperate attempts to regain them through passion and violence, resulting in sexual affairs and assassination attempts, single men against entire armies. Lean focuses on these details, little moments of trapped life such as close-ups of frozen flowers before dissolving to a shot of Lara’s face or a vast train filled with frantic characters shot from a distance against the vast, empty countryside.

All this sentiment does allow ‘Dr Zhivago’ to become at one with an overly melodramatic soap opera spread across over three hours, but it’s probably the greatest soap opera ever made just in front of ‘Gone With the Wind’. Warner’s Blu-ray looks great, although not as perfect as you may expect, but if you don’t have it on DVD already, this is a true essential.