DOCTOR ZHIVAGO
UK, 1965, minutes, Colour.
Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Ralph Richardson, Tom Courtenay, Rod Steiger, Alec Guinness, Rita Tushingham.
Directed by David Lean.
Doctor Zhivago is a romantic version of Boris Pasternak's novel of a Russian poet-doctor early in this century. David Lean has given the film the grand romantic treatment, concentrating on the emotional lives of the principal characters and setting them in the vast panorama of Russian history, centering on the Revolution.
Lean has shown his talent for large-scale human interest stories with vivid social background and beautifully photographed settings: Summertime (1955), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Ryan's Daughter (1970).
Doctor Zhivago has been one of the most popular box office successes of all time. The stars, the balalaika-toned music, especially "Lara's Theme", by Maurice Jarre, and the breathtaking scenery have ensured constant popularity despite the strong criticism that the film was a very much watered-down version of the novel.
Zhivago himself is meant to be a complex figure, a provincial orphan who grows into a charming doctor and talented poet and who marries his childhood sweetheart. World War I disrupts his life and makes him share deeper human experiences of suffering and healing with Lara. On his return he finds his old life shattered by the Revolution. Quiet exile in the country only makes him restless and, encountering Lara again, he begins an affair with her. He breaks it; but the war intervenes and he is pressed into medical service with the Red Guards. His life is completely disrupted, his family fled to France; a brief interlude with Lara follows, then separation. Audiences find Doctor Zhivago moving in its issues of love and fidelity; they find it absorbing in its picture of the Revolution and its effects.
1. What is the main theme of the film? A poet's life? Love? Russia?
2. How do you respond to Omar Sharif as Dr Zhivago? Was he convincing or too gentle and romantic, as some critics say? Could you believe from the scenes where he composes his Lara poetry that he was a great poet? Was he a patriot? Compare his work in the World War I scenes, his attitude to the Revolution, his attitude to the Revolution, his service with the wandering bands of Red Guards?
3. Is Lara the heroine of the film? How does she change throughout the film? Trace her development from being a schoolgirl, her relationship to Komarovsky and her shooting him, her marriage to Pasha, war service with Zhivago, her life as librarian at Yuriatin, her relationship with Zhivago, her inspiration for his poetry, her finally going with Komarovsky?
4. Discuss Zhivago's love for Lara. How deep was it? Was it affected by the fact that he had known her since childhood? How did his work with Lara affect his love for her? How did the Revolution affect his love for her? How sincere was he in breaking his liaison with Lara? What is the film saying about the effect of war on love and relationships?
5. How is Czarist Russia visually presented - discuss the contrast of the Restaurant scene and the demonstration outside. (Kamarovsky puts the diners at ease by telling them that the demonstrators will sing in tune after the Revolution); the troops killing the Czarist general, Alexander as a typical, old-fashioned Russian.
6. The Revolution - does the film show that it was necessary? What are the effects of the Revolution - in Moscow homes, in train travel, in local fighting, in disruption of people's lives?
7. What is the role of Komarovsky? How does he contrast with Zhivago; in what way is he similar? How does he explain his survival from the Czarist government to the Revolutionary government?
8. Why were the scenes of the power plant and the search for Zhivago's daughter used to frame the story? How does the atmosphere contrast with the main part of the story? What did these scenes show of the development of Revolutionary Russia?
9. How did the music, the scenic effects, influence the mood of the film?
