This marks the last of the great films by David Lean that we’ve watched and with more than three hours of running time it is certainly qualifies as an epic. I’m not sure how it is in the original novel but this film itself is framed as a romance that takes place amidst the tumult of the Russian Revolution. I don’t really care for the romance aspect but the film is effective at showing the massive changes that took place in Russia and how families are torn apart and people change in unpredictable ways during all this.

The film recounts the life of Yuri Zhivago, trained as a medical doctor but well-known for being a poet, framed as a search for the identity of a woman suspected of being his daughter. Orphaned at a young age and raised by friends of his parents, he subsequently marries their daughter Tanya. Meanwhile Lara is being groomed as a lover by a wealthy and powerful man Victor Komarovsky who is supposed to be her mother’s lover. Her boyfriend is Pasha is a zealous supporter of the Bolsheviks and is injured when soldiers violently suppress one of their protests. Zhivago and Lara’s paths cross when Lara’s mother attempts suicide and Zhivago is called upon to assist. Later when Lara attempts to shoot Komarovsky at a Christmas party, Zhivago is present again and tends to Komarovsky while Pasha takes her away. They would meet again and again, after Lara marries Pasha, Zhivago has a son of his own with his wife and as Russia is invaded by Germany and subsequently becomes embroiled in civil war.

Lavish as the production obviously is and packed as it is full of acting talent, this film nonetheless suffers from some plausibility issues. They could not really film in Russia for one thing as the novel it was based on was banned in the country at the time and Lean seems content to let his performers use their natural accents for their respective roles. It’s so jarring to me to have Omar Sharif as Zhivago use his own native accent while so many of the others use British accents. I also don’t really like the central romance of the story and how heavily the film relies on the musical leitmotif that serves as Zhivago and Lara’s theme song. It’s so weird how Zhivago seems expected to marry Tanya when he is raised alongside her as step siblings and everyone remarks on how he is the most celebrated Russian period of the era, but we never actually get samples of his poetry. The film leaves out a lot as while. We never know how the KGB general Yevgraf is Zhivago’s step-brother or what really happened to Tanya and Sasha, Zhivago’s son with her. In general, everyone seems to act sympathetically towards Zhivago because of his reputation as a poet but it doesn’t feel really earned to me.

The film does work as a general view of the era. Zhivago makes for an appealing point of view character in this regard as his background and education make him part of the elite but as a doctor and a poet, he is sympathetic towards those who want change. He amiably goes along even when the Communists insist that the large house he stays in with his family must be shared with the people. We also see how the resourceful and cynical Komarovsky remains powerful even after the change in government and how Pasha’s zeal turns him first into a ruthless weapon for the revolutionaries until he becomes so fearsome that the Communists finally turn against him. Most of all, you get a sense of how families are ripped apart and lives are upended during the chaos.

On the whole, I still feel that this is one of the weakest of Lean’s great films. It’s quite insistent on focusing on the romance between Zhivago and Lara and that’s just not that interesting. It doesn’t even want to show us the years he spent as a doctor treating soldiers on the battlefield. Despite the harsh needs of everyday survival, the film treats Zhivago being inspired to write poetry again as the most significant event of all, a romantic angle that glosses over the worst horrors of the time. Lean’s craftsmanship as a filmmaker is an impressive as ever, even if he seems insouciant about how unrealistic the accents are, but approaching this first and foremost as a romantic film seems ill conceived from the start.