Doctor Zhivago: 30th Anniversary Edition [VHS]
by David Lean
![Doctor Zhivago: 30th Anniversary Edition [VHS]](/images/Doctor-Zhivago-30th-Anniversary-Edition-VHS-B0000040EJ-L.jpg)
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VHS Tape Cover Information
Actor: Alec Guinness, Geraldine Chaplin, Julie Christie, Omar Sharif, Rod SteigerDirector: David Lean
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC, Special Edition
Running Time: 197 minutes
Release Date: 1995-09-26
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Publisher: MGM
Studio: MGM
VHS Movie Reviews of Doctor Zhivago: 30th Anniversary Edition [VHS]
Movie Review: Doctor Zhivago
Summary: 3 Stars
It is easy to understand why this film has retained its popularity over such a long period of time- the gorgeous visuals, the attractive cast, the exotic design and cinematography, and the sweeping musical score. However, all the disparate parts never coalesced for me into a unified whole. The film plods along at a glacial place, and for the majority of it we only have Zhivago to guide us through it. He himself is a noble man of character, but in terms of the narrative he just isn't interesting enough to carry such a big picture. Omar Sharif plays him as intelligent, dedicated, and kind, but there just isn't enough drama in how the revolution is impacting him to keep the story afloat. This may also be the fault of the screenwriter; long, languorous scenes follow one after the other, each doing nil to further the plot but rather working as set pieces to show off the film's handsome production values in the hope of impressing its audience with style over substance (which it obviously succeeded at). It felt to me as if David Lean set out to make a gigantic epic, and relied too heavily on the tenets of the genre at the expense of giving the film a real heart. Even the Zhivago-Lara romance, featured so heavily in any publicity for the film, is hurried, unconvincing, and introduced far too late in the film. However, history has been kind to the film, and it makes for good (not great) viewing today partly because it is such a piece of the 1960's zeitgeist. The character of Zhivago, while almost dull, is also a nuanced metaphor for the state of Russia as it went through the revolution, and makes for interesting analysis. Lukewarm recommendation for fans of the great 60's epics or for those with an abundance of patience.
Summary of Doctor Zhivago: 30th Anniversary Edition [VHS]
David Lean focused all his talent as an epic-maker on Boris Pasternak's sweeping novel about a doctor-poet in revolutionary Russia. The results may sometimes veer toward soap opera, especially with the screen frequently filled with adoring close-ups of Omar Sharif and Julie Christie, but Lean's gift for cramming the screen with spectacle is not to be denied. The streets of Moscow, the snowy steppes of Russia, the house in the country taken over by ice; these are re-created with Lean's unerring sense of grandness. The movie is so lush and so long that it becomes an irresistible wallow, even when logic suffers--like Gone with the Wind before it and Titanic after. Sharif, who achieved stardom in Lean's previous film, Lawrence of Arabia, mostly looks noble, but the supporting cast is spiky: Rod Steiger as a fat-cat monster, Tom Courtenay as a self-righteous revolutionary, and Klaus Kinski and Alec Guinness in smaller roles. Geraldine Chaplin, in her adult debut, plays the doctor's compliant wife. Robert Bolt's screenplay won one of the film's five Oscars, with another going to perhaps the most immediately recognizable element of the movie: Maurice Jarre's romantic music, with its hugely popular "Lara's Theme" weaving in and out of a swooning score. --Robert HortonDrama VHS Video
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