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Romancing the revolution
Saturday, July 19, 2025
To listen to a recording of our CineVerse group discussion of Doctor Zhivago, conducted earlier this month, click here (if you get an error, simply refresh the page).
Watching the film now, 60 years removed from its original theatrical run, it's easy to see how significantly movies have changed from that era, a time when old-school craftsmanship and blow-’em-away casting were part of the DNA of top-shelf films. Although this work certainly shows its age, it also has a lot to teach us about narrative style, visual compositions, creative editing choices, and pre-digital artistry.
Zhivago’s lavish production values, thanks to its big budget and the A-list talent involved, position it in a high caliber, lending a sheen and cache that prevent it from crumbling under its own weight. It pays great attention to detail, benefiting from period authenticity as well as high artistry and realism imbued in the sets, props, and costumes. It inarguably remains visually stunning and sumptuous, due to the vibrant color used, the widescreen aspect ratio employed, and epic scope and scale.
The characters and their actions aren’t written overly grandiose or important; they could have been crafted as major instigators in historical events, or, as BluRay.com reviewer Kenneth Brown put it, “iconic revolutionaries” who “lead a movement, inspire a rebellion or fuel the terrible events that come to bear on their lives.” Instead, they are flawed, utterly mortal, and ravaged by the rise of the Soviet machine around them.
This was the first Hollywood movie to depict the Russian Revolution, later covered by films like Nicholas and Alexandra, Reds, and Anastasia. And, according to TCM reviewer Frank Miller, it “marked a new path for the historical epic. Previous films had simply focused on the scope of world-shaping events. With Zhivago, director David Lean and scriptwriter Robert Bolt brought a new romantic sensibility to the epic. That Victorian ideal would inform such later blockbusters as Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), Lady Gray (1986), and Titanic (1997).”
Yet, Doctor Zhivago has been accused of trivializing history by placing momentous, bloody events like World War I, the Russian Revolution, and the Russian Civil War as backdrop set pieces against which a soap opera-ish love story is played out. Additionally, many viewers struggle trying to understand the motivations, rationales, and actions of key characters, including Zhivago himself, who arguably doesn’t seem that fully developed and whose choices can be difficult to comprehend, making him harder to identify with. The man simply can’t seem to decide which woman he wants to be in love with—Lara or his wife—and his vacillating nature can frustrate audiences.
Perhaps most problematic is that, despite the marketed and remembered as a timeless love story, the romance between Zhivago and Lara is a case of “too little/too late”; the characters don’t even talk to each other until 80 minutes have elapsed. The film could have benefited from earlier setups where the attraction and longing were more firmly established. Arguably, we aren’t shown enough pining, pain of separation, or tears between these two characters. Likewise, the filmmakers missed an opportunity to amplify the love triangle aspect involving Tonya, and how she might have learned of her husband’s affair and its emotional impact on her.
Also, having the brother Yevgraf serve as the voiceover narrator confounds the narrative for many because Zhivago appears to be more of a spectator in his own story. And talk about extreme runtime: approximately 200 minutes, which can be a long sit for many viewers who could easily become fatigued, especially considering that the unresolved character threads and repetitive elements (such as the overuse of “Lara’s Theme”).
Still, lovers of the film point to the evergreen nature of its central theme: the power of love to withstand chaos and upheaval. Doctor Zhivago is a crowd-pleasing tale of star-crossed lovers who maintain and nurture their not-so-hidden affair despite this tumultuous time in history and the massive social turmoil that threatens to keep them apart. The narrative also reminds us of the importance of maintaining humanity, dignity, sensitivity, and creativity in the face of dehumanizing forces that favor politics and collectivism over personal matters. Ruminate on how Zhivago never loses his romantic passion, self-actualization, poetic sensibilities, or value as an individual, even though overwhelming historical forces and extreme hardship stand in his way.
This is, too, a loss of innocence parable. Lara represents Russia itself in her relationships with three different men who symbolize different paths the country can take. She is seduced and raped by the manipulative and licentious Komarovsky, who represents the opportunists and corrupt powerbrokers who previously dominated Russia; she marries and fathers the child of Antipov, who transforms into the brutal Bolshevik commander Strelnikov, a character who signifies Russia’s oppressive future; and she also loves Yuri Zhivago, a compassionate and kind lover who stands for what Russia could have become or secretly desires to be. Lara’s character disappointingly lacks agency, yet this helps her function as an embodiment of the country itself, which, like Lara, is an object of possession by different forces and types.
Similar works
- Gone with the Wind (1939)
- War and Peace (1956)
- Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
- Out of Africa (1985)
- Reds (1981)
- The English Patient (1996)
- Anna Karenina (1997)
- Atonement (2007)
Other films by David Lean
- Blithe Spirit (1945)
- Brief Encounter (1945)
- Great Expectations (1946)
- Oliver Twist (1948)
- The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
- Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
- A Passage to India (1984)
