A Filmmaker's Review: “Dr Zhivago” (1965)

A film based on a book by Boris Pasternak which itself has had many things based upon it, most recently the book “The Secrets We Kept” by Lara Prescott that deals with the turbulent history behind the book. But nothing quite like this film has presented us with a physical display of what this book means to classic literature and what this film means to cinema history. One of the considerably great epics of the 1960s, it stands alongside “Lawrence of Arabia” (1962) for its wide shots of cold and snowy Russia, moving into the mountains and the large, open city streets normally packed full of people with discerning political views. It is a spectacular display of cinematic excellence and the overture at the beginning sets a great tone for the next wonderful piece of storytelling. The contrasting colour schemes teach us about the ways Russia is changing and the popularity of certain colour schemes slowly adapted by certain characters means that this is a permanent and very quick change, but not one that is happy - instead it is full of civil war and with each step towards the Russian Revolution, this film sheds a new light on the faults and fumbles of both sides and the rights and wrongs of the Russian political system. All this sets a backdrop for a turbulent love affair between two people who are married to others in this epic story of love and war.

From the very opening scene of the film (not of the overture) we get a hard-hitting political feel that is both dark and dreary. One of Soviet Russia and our requirement is to understand that this message to us is meant to present only one side of an argument that we will see of Russian history in the film. The other side is presented to us by various scenes of houses, not of people, grand decors and royal reds and creams, golden colours and grandeur in every direction. It is a vivid and somewhat obvious contrast, but for the premise of the film this works quite nicely due to its forte as staying attached to the Russian atmosphere of snow and freezing temperatures.

One thing that was very remarkable about this film, although it seems small at first, is the way in which all the literary aspects of the film are written in Russian. Each newspaper, each letter, each flyer and even the signage on shops etc. were all written in Russian, giving the film some great authenticity that normally we do not see in our own modern times.

Quite possibly the best scene, again a seemingly small one in the vastness of the film, is the funeral scene near the beginning in the first act. It is filmed absolutely beautifully because we get these constant close-ups of the child’s face and then, we finally get a flashback to the mother who lies dead on the open casket. Its as if we are trying to keep in time with what the child is feeling every step of the way and the blacks that the mourners where in contrast with the purple that the dead woman wears makes us see just how important she was to this young boy. The final shot we get is of the dead body under the ground, locked safely in a coffin where seemingly nothing can get to it. She is preserved perfectly as if she were sleeping and it is through this that we know just how the little boy feels about the death of his mother.

All in all, the film is an amazing feat of cinema. The acting is extraordinary and the way in which it is filmed is grand, giving rise to differing political values in Russia at the time of the revolution. Through this we can definitely see the ways in which this film was practically made to be a classic. That is what the director had in mind. The only downside that makes this film lose one mark is that every single time I have watched it, I have really forgotten how long it was. Standing at just under three and a half hours, this epic is something you should make time to watch more than once. And since I was 14 years’ old, I’ve really been meaning to watch it again. It took ten years but here we are.