Independent Films, Film Profiles

Doctor Zhivago (film)
by David Lean

Doctor Zhivago (Russian: Доктор Живаго) is a 1965 American epic or drama-romance-war film directed by David Lean and loosely based on the famous novel of the same name by Boris Pasternak.The film takes place for the most part during the tumultuous period of 1912-1925, the years which include World War I, the Russian Revolution, and Russian Civil War, as the regime of Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown and the Soviet Union established. A framing device, from which the film is narrated, takes place in the 1950s, though a specific date is not mentioned.The film's framing device involves Police General Yevgraf Zhivago (Alec Guinness) searching for the love child of his brother, poet and doctor Yuri Zhivago (Omar Sharif), and his mistress Larissa ("Lara") Antipova (Julie Christie); Yevgraf believes a young woman named Tonya Komarovskaya (Rita Tushingham) working on a dam project, (referred to as "The Girl" in the credits) may be his niece. Yevgraf narrates the story for her, periodically appearing in it, though he rarely interacts with any other characters in the flashbacks.Yevgraf tells the girl the story of his brother's life. Yuri's parents died when he was very young—the opening scene is the burial of Yuri's mother—leaving him only a balalaika, and he went to live with the Gromekos—Alexander (Ralph Richardson) and Anna (Siobhán McKenna)—and their daughter Tonya (played as an adult by Geraldine Chaplin), whom Zhivago later marries. Gromeko was a retired professor living in Moscow, and so Zhivago is able to enter medical school, studying under Professor Boris Kurt (Geoffrey Keen). Though he is already a poet of some renown, Yuri does not think that he can support himself as a poet and decides to become a doctor: he also believes that he should do unquestionably useful work. Lara, meanwhile, lives with her mother (Adrienne Corri), a dressmaker who is being "advised" by Victor Komarovsky (Rod Steiger), a lawyer with political connections, who had also been the friend and business partner of Zhivago's father.Lara is engaged to Pasha Antipov (Tom Courtenay), an idealistic young man, who is wounded by a saber-wielding Cossack during a peaceful protest, leaving a conspicuous scar across his cheek which would mark him for life. That same evening, Komarovsky had taken Lara to a posh restaurant (in lieu of her mother, who is ill) and then assaulted her.Lara becomes more deeply involved with Komarovsky, until her mother finally discovers their affair and tries to kill herself by swallowing iodine. Komarovsky discovers her and summons help from Kurt and his assistant Zhivago, who sees Lara for the first time.When Pasha, now a dedicated Bolshevik, tells Komarovsky that he intends to marry Lara, Komarovsky tries to dissuade Lara from doing so, and then rapes her. Afterward, he points out to Lara that her enthusiastic cooperation with the act is proof that she is nothing but a slut. In revenge, Lara takes a pistol she had been hiding for Pasha, tracks Komarovsky down to a Christmas party (where Zhivago and Tonya announce their engagement) and shoots him, wounding his arm. Kamarovsky insists that she be released and shouts, "Get her out of here." Lara is escorted out by Pasha, who had followed her into the party, and who then learns of Lara's seduction and infidelity.The movie then jumps ahead to World War I. Yevgraf enlists, intending to subvert the war effort for the party in order to help start the Revolution among a defeated people. Yuri (now married to Tonya) becomes a medical officer, and Pasha joins a volunteer regiment as well, becoming one of the few men his fellow soldiers trust. Lara has married Pasha, and has a daughter, Katya. Pasha is supposedly killed in a battle on the Eastern Front, while Lara joins as a nurse in order to look for him as the Revolution breaks out and the Russian army begins to desert en masse.Traveling with a group of deserters, Lara meets Zhivago, who is with a column of replacement troops marching to the front. The replacement soldiers mutiny, kill their officers, and join the deserters. Zhivago enlists the help of Lara to tend to the wounded. The two manage a makeshift hospital in a country estate for the remainder of the war and are parted at war's end.Yuri returns to Moscow, finding that his Aunt Anna has died and that the Gromeko's house has been apportioned by the revolutionary government to accommodate 20 or 30 other people. Yuri meets his son Sasha for the first time since the boy was an infant, and resumes his old job at the local hospital. Furious that his family is lacking in firewood for the family stove, one night Yuri steals wood from a fence, where he is spotted by Yevgraf. Yevgraf follows him home, identifies himself, and informs Zhivago that his poems have been condemned by the government as antagonistic to the new ideology, putting their whole family at risk for collective punishment. He helps arrange for rail passes for their transport to the Gromeko estate at Varykino, in the Urals.Zhivago, Tonya, Sasha, and Alexander board a heavily-guarded cattle train which contains a detachment of labor conscripts — including the hot-headed anarchist intellectual, Kostoyed Amoursky (Klaus Kinski) — and a large contingent of Red Guard soldiers. At one point, the train passes through the village of Mink, which has been shelled by Red forces commanded by a People's Commander Strelnikov. The cattle train later pulls into a rail siding to allow Strelnikov's special train to pass, where Strelnikov is revealed to be Pasha. While the Urals train is stopped, Zhivago wanders away from the train, listening to the sound of a waterfall, and stumbles across Strelnikov's armored train sitting on a hidden siding. He is arrested and brought to Strelnikov (recognized by him as Pasha) as a suspected assassin. After a tense conversation, Yuri reveals that he saw Strelnikov at the Christmas party. Strelnikov tells Yuri that Lara is alive in the town of Yuriatin — which is currently occupied by forces of the White Army — and lets Zhivago go back to his train (and family). A casual comment by the guard taking him back to his train reveals that most people interrogated by Strelnikov end up being shot.Zhivago's family arrives at Varykino but finds their main house has been boarded up with a sign indicating confiscation by the Soviet regime, a.k.a. "the people". Out of fear of being executed as "counter-revolutionaries", they desist from breaking into their own house. However, they decide to occupy the smaller guest cottage, which had not been confiscated. The family lives a mundane life until the next spring, when Zhivago goes into Yuriatin and discovers that Lara is living there with Katya, and working as a librarian. The two re-acquaint themselves and begin a sexual relationship. Zhivago is torn between Tonya and Lara, until Tonya becomes pregnant. Yuri travels to Yuriatin and breaks off his affair with Lara, only to be captured and conscripted into service by Red partisan troops under Liberius (Gérard Tichy) while riding back to Varykino.After serving with the Partisans for nearly two years as a medical officer, Zhivago deserts, only to find that his family has left Russia and emigrated to Paris; he goes to Lara's home in Yuriatin, and is welcomed by Lara. The two renew their relationship, but Komarovsky arrives one night and informs them that they are being watched by the Bolsheviks, due to Lara's marriage to Strelnikov (who is now out of favor with the government). Komarovsky offers Yuri and Lara his help in escaping, but they refuse; the two go with Lara's daughter, Katya, to the Varykino estate, which has been left open and is frozen inside. Yuri begins writing the "Lara" poems, which would later make him famous but incur government displeasure. Komarovsky reappears, telling Yuri that Strelnikov has killed himself while being walked to his execution, and that Lara is now in immediate danger, as she only remained free to lure Strelnikov into a trap. Zhivago scoffs at that, but Komarovsky informs him that Strelnikov was arrested on the road only five miles from Varykino. Yuri agrees to send Lara away with Komarovsky who has been appointed as Minister of Justice in Mongolia. Yuri remains behind.Years later, almost an invalid, Yuri returns to Moscow, where Yevgraf gets him a hospital job and buys him some clothes. While riding a tram to his first day at work, he sees a woman he recognizes as Lara, forces his way off the tram, and runs after her. He suffers a fatal heart attack in the street; she walks on without seeing or hearing him. Lara comes to his funeral, surprised and saddened by his death. Lara had given birth to Yuri's daughter, but become separated from her when revolution broke out in Mongolia. She enlists Yevgraf's help to find the child. After looking over hundreds of orphans, she gives up. By that time, Zhivago's poetry has been allowed to circulate due to change in party policy and his burial has been widely attended, despite being denied a state funeral.At the beginning of the film, Zhivago's mother dies and he inherits her balalaika. His adoptive father tells him that his mother had a gift. The theme of artistic talent is repeated throughout the film, as Zhivago becomes a poet of great renown. At the end, set at the hydroelectric dam, Yevgraf is still uncertain whether the young girl Tonya Komarovskaya is Yuri and Lara's daughter. The girl ends the meeting, denying that she is Yevgraf's niece, and leaves with her boyfriend, an engineer. While walking away, the girl slings a balalaika over her shoulder, which catches the eye of Yevgraf. He calls out to her, "Tonya, can you play the balalaika?" Her boyfriend responds, "Can she play? She is an artist!" After being informed that the girl plays well without having had any lessons, Yevgraf says about her talent, "Ah, then, it's a gift." He is now convinced that the girl, abandoned in Mongolia as a child, is indeed the daughter of Yuri and Lara, thus bringing a coda to the framing device.