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Written by: Boris Pasternak (from the novel by), Robert Bolt (screenplay by)
Directed by: David Lean
Starring: Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Alec Guinness, Rod Steiger
Rated: Approved [PG-13]
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Plot
A Russian physician and poet, although married, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during World War I and then the October Revolution.
Verdict
A romance that spans civil and world wars, love contrasts with the ongoing unrest which poses as the opposition that cruelly keeps the two apart. It's also difficult to root for Yuri and Lara as he's already married, but war is this constant thread throughout their relationship. It's the reason they continue to meet, but it's also what tears them apart. War is responsible for separating Yuri from the people he loves, and that turmoil makes it difficult to reunite. When he deserts, he does so to return to his wife not his mistress. As strong aspect to this movie is the longing for peace, be it for a country or a man.
Watch It.
Review
Lean was a renowned director, known for Lawrence of Arabia and The Bridge on the River Kwai among others.
The movie spans pre-revolution Russia, the Russian civil war, and the rise of the Soviet Union, book ended with Yevgraf Zhivago (Alec Guinness) looking for his niece. He finds a dam worker he thinks may be the person and tells her the story of the man she suspects is her father, Yuri (Omar Sharif). He's a doctor and a poet, his poems later becoming famous. Yuri first meets Lara (Julie Christie) while helping her mother. That's also when he meets Komarovsky (Rod Steiger) who has a forced relationship with Lara. Komarovsky is arrogant and entitled with Lara, and when Yuri asks him what will happen to Lara when he's through with her, Komarovsky is flippant about it.
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| Rita Tushingham, Alec Guinness play Tanya, Yevgraf Zhivago |
World War I begins, but for Russia it's a class war. Yuri is now married to Tonya, but he becomes a battlefield doctor. That's where he meets Lara again. She joined as a nurse to find her husband Pasha who was lost in battle. Yuri has fallen for her, but she stops him, reminding him they've done nothing to regret, yet. Yuri returns home to his wife. When the war ends and the Russian armies return home, that's when the revolution begins. It's a different life where Yuri doesn't even have enough firewood to keep his family warm. The government confiscates their home to house others. Yuri and his family flee Moscow, in part due to his poems.
Yuri starts a new life in a nearby town but he runs into Lara. He's torn between passion and promise. He married Tonya because his adoptive parents wanted him to, and he knew her well. Now he's found Lara again and he's conflicted. It's this romance set against the backdrop of civil war, but war isn't the focus. It's a contrast to the life Yuri wishes to live and reality. It's what love can build and in turn what war can destroy.
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| Geraldine Chaplin , Omar Sharif play Tonya, Yuri |
He's drafted as a doctor in an army, though he has no choice. When he gets the opportunity he deserts, returning and searching for Tonya. She's gone, but Lara is still in town, and they start a relationship again. It's revealed Tonya knew what was going on, leaving a final letter and Yuri's belongings with Lara before she and the kids were deported.
As indicated in the beginning of the movie, we know Yuri achieved some level of success with his poems. Through the movie we see the life events that inspired him; the tragedies and difficulties of war as well as passion and desire. We don't know what he wrote, but I imagine it explores how war and the fallout has destroyed his home and relationships. Even when he builds again, an army snatches away everything he has.
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| Julie Christie, Omar Sharif play Lara, Yuri |
Yuri and Lara begin a relationshiop, but Komarovsky shows up. He offers protection for Lara due to her connections to Pasha, though we wonder if he's sincere. Yuri agrees, knowing that if he doesn't agree she won't accept it. He doesn't make the train, and they're separated yet again.
Back in the present day the General states he promised to find his niece. He thinks he has, and this even provides a nice little callback to reinforce that the woman he found may indeed be his niece.
I can't help but think about Gone With the Wind, another war spanning romance. What's striking about both is that these romances don't have happy endings. In both, characters are forced to rebuild during war, both their relationships and lives.
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