History Film / DoctorZhivago

''Doctor Zhivago'' was also heralded as the last of MGM's great {{epic movie}}s, as they announced even during production. They simply didn't have the money to finance these vast vista works with thousands of extras and a cast full of stars: the next movie they made was one twentieth of this cost. The effort seemed to be worth it; when adjusted for inflation, ''Zhivago'' is currently the 8th-highest-grossing domestic film of all time, according to [=BoxOfficeMojo.com=], with its $111 million take in 1965 coming out to nearly ''a billion dollars'' in 2014.

A [[EpicMovie generation-spanning epic]] about TheRussianRevolution, starring [[TallDarkAndHandsome Omar Sharif]] as Yuri Zhivago, a doctor meeting the challenges of a WorldGoneMad. Featuring Julie Christie as TheIngenue Lara, the object of Yuri's [[TheDulcineaEffect affections]], and Rod Steiger as the manipulative [[MagnificentBastard Komarovsky]]. Other cast members include Creator/AlecGuinness, Geraldine Chaplin, Tom Courtenay, and Ralph Richardson.

With its epic scope, vivid performances, and dramatic SceneryPorn vistas, this is generally regarded as one of Lean's greatest films. Nominated for ten AcademyAwards, it won for Best Adapted Screenplay (Bolt), Cinematography (Freddie Young), Original Score (Maurice Jarre), Art Direction, and Costume Design.

With its epic scope, vivid performances, dramatic SceneryPorn vistas, and magnificent Maurice Jarre score (highlighted by the world-famous Lara's Theme"), this is generally regarded as one of Lean's greatest films. It was also heralded as the last of MGM's great {{epic movie}}s, as they announced even during production. They simply didn't have the money to finance these vast vista works with thousands of extras and a cast full of stars: the next movie they made was one twentieth of this cost. The effort seemed to be worth it; when adjusted for inflation, ''Zhivago'' is currently the 8th-highest-grossing domestic film of all time, according to [=BoxOfficeMojo.com=], with its $111 million take in 1965 coming out to nearly ''a billion dollars'' in 2014.

Lean's follow-up to ''LawrenceOfArabia'', this film features similarly dramatic SceneryPorn vistas, this time of the Russian steppe. It's generally regarded as one of Lean's greatest films. It is also notable for Maurice Jarre's music score, which includes the world famous [[AwesomeMusic/{{Film}} "Lara's Theme"]].

It was also heralded as the last of MGM's great {{epic movie}}s, as they announced even during production. They simply didn't have the money to finance these vast vista works with thousands of extras and a cast full of stars: the next movie they made was one twentieth of this cost. The effort seemed to be worth it; when adjusted for inflation, ''Zhivago'' is currently the 8th-highest-grossing domestic film of all time, according to [=BoxOfficeMojo.com=], with its $111 million take in 1965 coming out to nearly ''a billion dollars'' in 2014.

->''"{{In a world}} of guns and ice, there is the great noise of battle and the greater silence of Lovers.''"

Though there have been many screen adaptations of the [[Literature/DoctorZhivago epic novel]] by Russian poet and writer Boris Leonidovich Pasternak, this one -- scripted by Creator/RobertBolt, directed by Creator/DavidLean and released in 1965 -- is probably the most famous.

Though there have been many screen adaptations of the [[Literature/DoctorZhivago epic novel]] by Russian poet and writer Boris Leonidovich Pasternak, this one -- directed by Creator/DavidLean and released in 1965 -- is probably the most famous.

[[caption-width-right:300:InAWorld [[WorldGoneMad Gone Mad]],\\
[[AsLongAsThereIsOneMan One Man]] chose to make a difference...\\
By becoming a Doctor!]]

Though there have been many screen adaptations of the [[Literature/DoctorZhivago epic novel]] by Russian poet and writer Boris Leonidovich Pasternak, this one from 1965 is probably the most famous. A [[EpicMovie generation-spanning epic]] about TheRussianRevolution starring [[TallDarkAndHandsome Omar Sharif]] as a doctor meeting the challenges of a WorldGoneMad. Directed by Creator/DavidLean as a follow-up to ''LawrenceOfArabia'' with similarly dramatic vistas, this time of the Russian steppe.

Featuring Julie Christie as TheIngenue Lara, the object of Yuri's [[TheDulcineaEffect affections]], and Rod Steiger as the manipulative [[MagnificentBastard Komarovsky]]. Other cast members include Creator/AlecGuinness, Geraldine Chaplin, Tom Courtenay, and Ralph Richardson.

For its [[SceneryPorn epic scope]], Sharif's performance, and Creator/DavidLean's visual style, the film is generally praised as a classic. It is also notable for Maurice Jarre's music score, which includes the world famous [[AwesomeMusic/{{Film}} "Lara's Theme"]].

Legendary 1965 [[EpicMovie generation-spanning epic]] about TheRussianRevolution starring [[TallDarkAndHandsome Omar Sharif]] as a doctor meeting the challenges of a WorldGoneMad. Directed by Creator/DavidLean as a follow-up to ''LawrenceOfArabia'' with similarly dramatic vistas, this time of the Russian steppe.

Though there have been many adaptations of the [[Literature/DoctorZhivago epic novel]] by Russian poet and writer Boris Leonidovich Pasternak, this one is probably the most famous.

Featuring Julie Christie as TheIngenue Lara, the object of Yuri's [[TheDulcineaEffect affections]], and Creator/RodSteiger as the manipulative [[MagnificentBastard Komarovsky]]. Other cast members include Creator/AlecGuinness, Geraldine Chaplin, Tom Courtenay, and Ralph Richardson.

Legendary [[EpicMovie generation-spanning epic]] about TheRussianRevolution starring [[TallDarkAndHandsome Omar Sharif]] as a doctor meeting the challenges of a WorldGoneMad. Directed by Creator/DavidLean as a follow-up to ''LawrenceOfArabia'' with similarly dramatic vistas, this time of the Russian steppe.

* AWorldHalfFull: A major them of the film.

* {{Adorkable}}: Pasha Antipov

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:DownerEnding]], depending how you look at it.
** [[spoiler:The downer ending is that Yuri and Lara die apart, with Yuri especially dying of a heart attack chasing after a woman he thinks is Lara. The bittersweet ending is that Zhivago's adopted brother, trying to find Yuri and Lara's love child years later, thinks he's found the young woman. However, the young woman refuses to admit it, fearful that the Soviet general would punish her rather than delight in finding her.]]

* DamselInDistress: Lara.

* DeathOfTheHypotenuse: [[spoiler:Pasha. It doesn't stick.]]
* DirtyCommunists: subverted, as events are shown from their perspective.
* DistantFinale: Lara's daughter, hard at work building a dam, gets her balalaika back from Yevgraf.

* DoomedMoralVictor: Sort of.

* EpicMovie
* MrFanservice: Omar was ''big'' in [[TheSixties the '60s]].

* HeroicBSOD: [[spoiler:Pasha]]
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: [[spoiler:Pasha]], arguably.
* HeWhoMustNotBeSeen: Strelnikov

* {{Intermission}}

* LaResistance: Pasha Antipov.
* LawOfChromaticSuperiority
* LongLostRelative: Yevgraf.
* ManipulativeBastard: Komarovsky.
* MementoMacguffin: The balalaika.

* OneDegreeOfSeparation: The story is packed full of odd coincidences.

* RapeAsDrama
* RealLifeWritesThePlot
* ReleasedToElsewhere
* TheReveal: The last ten minutes of the movie's first half build up the fear of Strelnikov, the merciless Bolshevik general. And then as his [[LawOfChromaticSuperiority Bright Red]] [[CoolTrain War Train]] passes, we see... [[spoiler: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hCczioWiZk It's PASHA!]]]]

* ShoutOut: The scene where Yuri and Lara meet among the army deserters is one to a scene of KingVidor's ''Film/TheBigParade'', one of Lean's favorite films.

* ThatManIsDead: There is only Strelnikov.

* ThouShaltNotKill: Dr. Zhivago
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Pasha

* YouAreInCommandNow

* ShoutOut: The scene where Yuri and Lara meet among the army deserters is one to a scene of KingVidor's ''TheBigParade'', one of Lean's favorite films.
* SpiritualSuccessor: to ''LawrenceOfArabia''.

* DissonantSerenity: The abandoned dacha (palace) full of ice.

* MoscowCentre: Yevgraf is stated to be a high ranking officer in the SecretPolice (when he introduces himself for the first time to his brother, he is apparently a CHEKA officer. He appears as an NKVD colonel in Moscow, about the time of Yuri's death. He is a KGB general when the movie opens and ends). Local communist party leaders fear him. Strelnikov despises him. A rare sympathetic and human portrayal of a Soviet secret policeman, neither a villain as in the West or socialist superhuman as in official Soviet media.

* MoscowCentre: Yevgraf is stated to be a high ranking officer in the SecretPolice. Local communist party leaders fear him. Strelnikov despises him. A rare sympathetic and human portrayal of a Soviet secret policeman, neither a villain as in the West or socialist superhuman as in official Soviet media.

* MoscowCentre: Yevgraf is stated to be working for the SecretPolice. Local communist party leaders fear him. Strelnikov despises him.

* GoldenAgeOfHollywood: Creator/DavidLean.

* ActorAllusion: Completely unintended (the filmmakers couldn't possibly have known) but effective all the same, for a modern audience, when Yevgraf tells Tonya, "I knew your father" early in the film, thus anticipating the same line used almost twenty years later by Alec Guinness to a like-aged character [[ANewHope in another film for which he is better remembered by younger viewers]].

* DawsonCasting: Alec Guinness as Yevgraf is an egregious example. Going by the novel, he's supposed to be in his late teens-early 20s during the flashback scenes. Guinness was 51 at the time and looks it.

* FakeRussian: Omar Sharif is Egyptian. The rest of the actors were mostly British.

* LifeImitatesArt: Yuri's poetry only becomes politically correct with the Soviets after his death.

* ThickerThanWater: Yuri's long lost half-brother, Yevgraf, is working for the Bolshevik government and arranges passes for Yuri and his family out of Moscow when his poetry is condemned.

* WidescreenShot: Part of Lean's SignatureStyle, many shots are done in this movie, from trains roaring through the snow, to the final shot of the damn.

* TheReveal: The last ten minutes of the first half of the movie build up the fear of Strelnikov, the merciless Bolshevik general. And then as his [[LawOfChromaticSuperiority Bright Red]] [[CoolTrain War Train]] passes, we see... [[spoiler: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hCczioWiZk It'S PASHA!]]]]!