By The Movie Expert
The first thing that comes to mind about Doctor Zhivago is the beautiful Lara’s Theme. The second thing is the Academy Award winning cinematography of Freddie Young. Here, Finland and Spain substitute for the Russian landscapes. The film tells the mostly tragic story of Doctor Yuri Zhivago, (Omar Sharif), spanning roughly three decades. His only true happiness coming when he has an affair with Lara, (Julie Christie), an unhappily married woman.
Yuri’s tragedy starts when he loses his mother, at the age of eight. The child Yuri, is played by Omar Sharif’s son, Tarek. Yuri is adopted by the Gromykos, close friends of his mother. He is given the balalaika, that was owned by his mother. Yuri grows up, and becomes a doctor. He also becomes a published poet. He has fallen in love with the Gromyko’s daughter, Tonya, (Geraldine Chaplin). They plan to announce their engagement, at a party on Christmas Eve. This announcement is interrupted, when Lara, shoots Komarovsky, (Rod Steiger), her one time lover. Steiger is very good as a man, who manages to succeed in both imperial and communist Russia. You never like his character, but he tells the hard truth. Lara is then taken out of the party, by Pasha, (Tom Courtenay). Pasha is an embittered workers party member. He has been physically and emotionally scarred by Czarist Russia. Yuri treats Komarovsky, who was shot in the arm. Zhivago remembers seeing Lara, when treating a woman who tried to commit suicide in her house. He hasn’t been able to get her out of his thoughts, since.
Life does go on for Yuri and Lara. They both marry. He marries Tonya, and she marries Pasha. Yuri seems to be in a happy marriage, but Lara is unhappily married. Pasha has become very involved in the communist party, and is so unhappy at home that he volunteers to fight in the army, against the Germans in World War I. Yuri Zhivago is pulled from his wife and son, because his services as a physician are needed. As fate would have it, Lara is a nurse, and has been assigned to work with Yuri. The two are in love but don’t consummate their feelings.
After the war ends for Russia, the revolution comes, and disrupts lives, especially the Zhivago’s.Yuri has come home to find a number of people living in his house. The new party is using his home for its own purposes. He takes his family, on a long journey by freight train, to the family’s country estate. During the journey, they see a village, that was burned to the ground, for resisting the government’s policies. It is later found out that Pasha; now a fugitive officer, ordered it burned. It is also revealed that it was the wrong village. Later, Pasha questions Zhivago’s loyalty. Zhivago points out to Pasha, that he burned down the wrong village. Pasha, by this time his heart turned to stone, says it will still send a strong message to other villages. Tom Courtenay’s portrayal of Pasha, shows a man whose only love is for the state, and the love of mankind has no meaning.
Yuri and his family have found their estate locked by order of the government. They are forced to live in the gardener’s cottage. They spend their days on a collective farm. The days of living a good life are destroyed by the revolution.
Yuri finds out that Lara is living in Yuriatin, where she is searching for her husband,who was thought to be lost in the war. Zhivago travels there, and meets Lara in the library. The two go to Lara’s apartment, and begin an affair. Yuri loves Lara, but also loves his family. He decides to go into town, and break off the affair. On the way to Yuriatin, Yuri is captured by the red army, and forced to be their doctor.
Yuri serves in the red army for months, and asks to go home. He is denied his request. He is a broken man after this, and deserts. He braves the harshest weather, shown very well by David Lean. He searches for Lara’s apartment. He finds it and Lara nurses him back to health. She also shows Yuri a letter from his wife, Tanya to her, saying she knows about the affair, and that the family moved to Moscow. The couple’s happiness is interrupted by Komarovsky, who has become a high ranking government official. He asks Lara to go with him, because her husband is a fugitive, and her lover is a deserter. Yuri angrily escorts him out, with Komarovsky threatening to come back.
This episode leads to Yuri and Lara moving to the country estate and managing to live in part of it. This leads to the famous love scenes of Yuri and Lara in the frozen estate. The couple’s happiness is again interrupted by Komarovsky. He brings news that Lara’s husband, Pasha, has been arrested, not far away, and they will come for her. Kamarovsky also tells Yuri that his family is being deported from Moscow. He offers to take them away. Yuri remains behind, because their is no room in the sled. He says he will follow, but he never arrives at the train station. Komarovsky and Lara depart for far away Manchuria. Lara tells him that she is pregnant withYuri’s child.
After Lara leaves, eight years pass, and Yuri Zhivago is destitute, unemployed and in ill health. His brother, Yegraf, (Alec Guinness), has found him, and given him a job in the hospital. His brother sees him get on the streetcar, that goes to the hospital. Yuri thinks he sees Lara walking, and gets off, and runs toward her. He collapses and has a fatal heart attack. A funeral is held, and is attended by many people, including Lara. Yuri Zhivago has become famous for his Lara poems.
The story of Doctor Zhivago has been told to Yuri and Lara’s daughter, Tanya by Yegraf. He has become a general in the army, and found Tonya, who was picked up in Manchuria. He has shown her the pictures of Yuri and Lara and told her they are her parents. Before she leaves, he asks if they can have a familial relationship, because her parents are gone and they are all thats left of the family. Tanya says she’ll think about it, before walking away.
The main theme of Doctor Zhivago is that change isn’t always good. Yuri Zhivago has his life destroyed, by the government. It is the same government that toppled the Czar’s oppressive government. He had a good life until that time. Zhivago’s hardships are conveyed by Omar Shariff fairly well. It is when he is with Lara, that everything seems better for him. Julie Christie as Lara stands out in this tragic love story. It is mainly her performance that makes this movie worth seeing.
Doctor Zhivago was the last of David Lean’s epic trilogy. The other two were Lawrence of Arabia and The Bridge on the River Kwai. The one thing that links them together, is that they all have their main characters endure severe hardships. Doctor Zhivago makes for a fitting finale.