Doctor Zhivago ***** (1965, Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Alec Guinness, Rita Tushingham, Ralph Richardson, Tom Courtenay, Rod Steiger) – Classic Movie Review 2692

Director David Lean’s lovingly made 1965 movie version of Boris Pasternak’s great Russian novel stars Omar Sharif as the Moscow doctor and poet Yuri Zhivago, who is embroiled in the horrors of the Russian revolution and heartbreakingly parted from his true love Lara (Christie).

Lean and his cinematographer Freddie Young shoot the movie spectacularly on locations in Finland and Spain. Produced by Lean with Carlo Ponti, this expensively and eye-catchingly produced product of the huge-scale international film-making of the Sixties succeeds through its stirring set-pieces, impressive acting, gorgeous cinematography, Maurice Jarre’s lush romantic score and Robert Bolt’s intelligent screenplay, making a good job of compressing the long, complex novel, and providing workable dialogue.

Among the actors, especially eye-catching performances come from the luminous Christie, the dashingly handsome Sharif, Alec Guinness as Zhivago’s half brother Yevgraf and Rod Steiger as Komarovsky, Lara’s mother’s lover.

Also starring are Rita Tushingham, Ralph Richardson, Tom Courtenay, Geraldine Chaplin and Siobhan McKenna.

Also in the cast are Noel Willman, Geoffrey Keen, Adrienne Corri, Jack MacGowran, Klaus Kinski, Lucy Westmore, Jeffrey Rockland, Gerard Tichy, Eric Chitty, Mark Eden, Gwen Nelson, Peter Maddern and Roger Maxwell.

Tarek Sharif (son of actor Omar Sharif and actress Faten Hamama) plays Yuri at eight years old. He is the father of actor Omar Sharif Jr.

It opened to some hostile reviews and an initially indifferent public, but went on to become one of the cinema’s most popular films, with its inherent qualities recognised and celebrated. It cost $11,000,000 and took $111,722,000 at the US box office.

With 10 nominations, it scooped five Oscars, though all of them were technical awards, and Lean (nominated as Best Director) missed out on his hoped-for third Oscar in a row as director of the Best Film (for producer Carlo Ponti) to The Sound of Music. The Oscars went to: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Colour Cinematography, Best Colour Art Direction-Set Decoration (John Box, Terence Marsh, Dario Simoni), Best Colour Costume Design (Phyllis Dalton) and Best Original Score. The only acting nomination was for Tom Courtenay as Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

It was re-released in 1992 and in 1999.

It was remade as a TV mini-series in 2002 with Keira Knightley, Sam Neill and Hans Matheson.

Omar Sharif died of a heart attack on July 10 2015 in Cairo, Egypt, aged 83. He remained best known for playing Sherif Ali in Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and the title role in Doctor Zhivago.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2692

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