Doctor Zhivago (1966) - Trailer
Doctor Zhivago is a 1965 romantic epic drama Spain-Finland co-production directed by David Lean and based on Boris Lenidovic Pasternak's 1957 novel of the same name. It won five Oscars and five Golden Globes (including Best Dramatic Motion Picture). Set in Russia between the years of World War I, the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War, key parts of the film take place around Christmastime, most notably a Christmas Eve party where the heroine, Lara Antipova, attempts to exact revenge on Viktor Komarovsky, a man who sexually abused her.
Synopsis[]
A high-ranking Russian General arrives at an industrial project office at night on personal business: He is looking for his niece. Somehow, in the past decade, he has managed to find her, or at least someone who appears to be the daughter of his half-brother. The would-be niece, Tanya Komarova, is skeptical, and afraid. General Yevgraf Zhivago tells her the details of the life of his half-brother.
Yuri is a boy when his mother dies, somewhere in central Asia, not far from Mongolia. He is adopted by his mother's close friends, the Gromekos, an upper class family with a home in Moscow and a country estate near the Ural Mountains. The Gromekos have a daughter, Tonya.
Yuri, now a young man, becomes a doctor, preferring to see "life" in General Practice rather than be a researcher. He is also an accomplished and published poet. Late one winter evening, a lonely group of socialist demonstrators is slaughtered by a Czar Cavalry Unit. Yuri witnesses the entire event from his balcony and attempts to care for the wounded. He is forced back into his home by the soldiers. He is shaken by the event.
The following winter, at a music recital, Yuri's mentor is summoned to treat a woman who has attempted suicide, possibly by drinking Iodine. Yuri accompanies his mentor and sees "life" firsthand. It is at this woman's home where he first sees the woman's daughter, Lara, and is smitten. Shortly after, at a Christmas party, Yuri and Tonya's engagement announcement is interrupted by Lara shooting Viktor Komarovsky, Lara's sometime lover and companion. Komarovsky is only slightly wounded and Lara is escorted out of the party by her fiancé, Pasha.
World War I erupts and Yuri is posted to a field unit far to southwest near Ukraine. Lara is a volunteer nurse in the same area. Her husband disappears during a battle and is presumed dead. As the summer of 1917 ends, the October Russian Revolution occurs, changing the entire political landscape. WWI for the Russians had begun to wind down the previous summer, ending in the winter. Yuri and Lara, having worked together in an old country estate converted to a hospital, are the last to leave the now empty facility. They are clearly in love with each other, but have managed to keep their passions suppressed.
Yuri returns to his Moscow home to find his stepmother deceased, and his stepfather's home occupied by 13 additional families. The Bolsheviks are now in full control of the large cities, and collectivization has begun. But Moscow is in trouble; with virtually no food supplies or heating fuel, the impending Russian winter will be deadly. One night, Yuri decides to steal some fence boards that can be burned. He is observed by Yevgraf (now a policeman and party official) and is followed home. Yevgraf knows this man is his half-brother; rather than arrest Yuri, the two connect for the first time. But the works of Yuri Zhivago, the published poet, have fallen out of favor with the authorities, putting the lives of Yuri, his wife Tonya, his son Shasha, and his step-father Alexander, in danger. Yevgraf arranges all the necessary travel papers and the family departs Moscow eastbound in a crowded boxcar. Their destination is Yuriatin, the small town near the family's country estate at Varykino.
En route, the train stops due to civil war activity in the area. Yuri wanders away, only to stumble into the military train of a communist general. The general turns out to be Lara's husband, Pasha, now known as People's Commander Strelnikov. He has become a renegade, and uses his army to fight the remaining White Russians however he can. Strelnikov and Zhivago discover they have seen each other before, at the Christmas party where Komarovsky was shot. Suspicions that Yuri is an assassin or spy are determined to be groundless and Strelnikov uncharacteristically releases Yuri. Yuri's family reaches their distant estate.
In early spring, the main house has been sealed by the local communist authorities, but the gardener's cottage remains available. The family gets the vegetable garden back in shape, and settles in for what is expected to be a multi-year stay. The family thrives and remains in the cottage, living almost invisibly. That summer, the czar and his family are executed. The family remains in the cottage through the winter.
Finally, the next summer, Yuri takes a short trip into Yuriatin. Lara has lived in Yuriatin for about a year, having returned there in search of Pasha. Yuri and Lara meet in the local library, and an affair between the two begins. But Yuri cannot live with the conflict of the affair. His pregnant wife loves him deeply, and so does Lara. Yuri rides into Yuriatin to break off the affair. On the way home, Yuri is kidnapped by a Red Partisan unit and drafted to be their medical officer.
A year and a half later, in the dead of winter, Yuri wanders away from the Red Guard Unit. He makes his way back to Yuriatin, discovering that his family has left Varykino for Moscow. He goes to the only other place he knows, Lara's small apartment. Starving and nearly dead, Lara brings him back to health. Lara gives Yuri a letter from Tonya, addressed to him care of Lara and dated six months earlier. Tonya had known of Yuri's affair, and Tonya and Lara had met. Yuri's family has escaped back to Moscow, and is being deported from Russia. Shortly thereafter, Komarovsky unexpectedly appears at Lara's apartment. He brings news that Lara's husband Strelnikov is "gone", Yuri is considered a deserter, and their days are numbered. Komarovsky offers help by way of transportation to the far east of Russia, Vladavastok, from which they can go anywhere in the world. Lara and Yuri refuse the offer, but know Komarovsky is right, their days are numbered.
Lara and Yuri move to Varykino, and occupy a small portion of the main house. They stay there through most of the remaining winter. Again, Komarovsky finds them and tells them that Strelnikov has been arrested five miles from Varykino. Lara and Yuri must now move quickly to survive. They accept Komarovsky's offer of protection and transportation to Manchuria, and leave Varykino immediately. But Yuri remains behind, ostensibly to bring his own sledge to the train station. Lara and Komarovsky wait for Yuri on the train at the Yuriatin train station, but Yuri does not arrive. The train leaves, and Lara announces to Komarovsky that she is pregnant with Yuri's child.
Eight years later, Yuri is found in Moscow by Yevgraf, in poor health, malnourished and jobless. Yevgraf arranges for Yuri to get his old job back at the hospital and sees him off at the street car stop on his first day. On the ride, Yuri thinks he sees Lara walking in the direction of the street car. He attempts to get off the car, succeeds and collapses in the street, dying of a heart attack.
At the memorial, huge numbers of people pay their respects, much to Yevgraf's amazement. One of them is Lara, searching for her daughter Tanya, lost somewhere near Mongolia during the far east civil war. Yevgraf and Lara search Moscow's orphanages, but Tanya is not found. Speaking of Lara, Yevgraf narrates: "One day she went away and didn't come back. She died or vanished somewhere in one of the labor camps; a nameless number on a list that was afterwards… mislaid. That was quite common in those days."
The story finished, the scene returns to the project office. Tanya (age 18) wants to believe who were her parents, but only if the fact is true. Morning has come, and Yevgraf makes a final request, that Tonya think about establishing with Yevgraf a family relationship. Neither have any relatives, and Tanya promises to think about it. As she walks away, Yevgraf notices that Tanya carries a balalaika, an instrument Yuri's mother was gifted at playing. Questioning whether she could play the balalaika, her fiancé answers that she's self taught. Yevgraf smiles and assumes it's a "gift" and determines that Tanya really was Yuri and Lara's child after all. Tanya and Yevgraf part on what promises to be a beautiful day.
Cast[]
| Actor/actress | Character |
|---|---|
| Omar Sharif | Yuri |
| Julie Christie | Lara |
| Geraldine Chaplin | Tonya |
| Rod Steiger | Viktor Komarovsky |
| Alec Guinness | Yevgraf Zhivago |
| Tom Courtenay | Pasha |
| Siobhan McKenna | Anna |
| Ralph Richardson | Alexander |
| Rita Tushingham | The Girl |
| Jeffrey Rockland | Sasha |
| Tarek Sharif | Yuri (age 8) |
| Bernard Kay | The Bolshevik |
| Klaus Kinski | Kostoyed |
| Gerard Tichy | Liberius |
| Noel Willman | Razin |
| Geoffrey Keen | Medical Professor |
| Adrienne Corri | Amelia |
| Jack MacGowran | Petya |
| Mark Eden | Engineer at Dam |
| Erik Chitty | Old Soldier |
| Roger Maxwell | Beef-Faced Colonel |
| Wolf Frees | Delegate |
| Gwen Nelson | Female Janitor |
| Lucy Westmore | Katya |
| Lili Murati | The Train Jumper |
| Peter Madden | Political Officer |
| Uncredited | |
| Luana Alcañiz | Mrs. Sventytski |
| David Areu | Oficial |
| Assad Bahador | Colonel of Dragoons |
| José Caffarel | Militiaman |
| Emilio Carrer | Mr. Sventytski |
| Pamella Carrington-Coutte | 1st Tonya (Age 7) |
| Catherine Ellison | Raped Woman |
| Pilar Ferrer | |
| Víctor Israel | Hospital Inmate |
| Inigo Jackson | Major |
| Gerhard Jersch | David |
| Jari Jolkkonen | Siberian Boy |
| Leo Lähteenmäki | Siberian Husband |
| Álvaro Marenco | Militiaman |
| María Martín | Gentlewoman |
| José Nieto | Priest |
| Ricardo Palacios Ingrid Pitt |
Extras |
| Robert Rietty (voice) | Kostoyed |
| Robert Royal | Dancer |
| Mercedes Ruiz | Tonya (age 7) |
| Aldo Sambrell | |
| Virgilio Teixeira | Captain |
| Brigitte Trace | Streetwalker |
| María Vico | Demented Woman |
External links[]
- Doctor Zhivago at the Internet Movie Database
- Doctor Zhivago at the Movie Database
- Doctor Zhivago at Rotten Tomatoes
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