Search This Blog

Friday, 23 October 2020

Doctor Zhivago


Not the book. Haven't read it. I understand it weighs in at one hundred and sixty thousand words so I've read longer. In fact I'm in the middle of Moby Dick which is even longer than that. 

No, I'm talking about the film. It's a leviathan of a movie. As one critic said, it tries to do for snow what the same director's Lawrence of Arabia did for sand. In that aim it fails. Lawrence of Arabia is Lean's masterpiece, Zhivago is an emptier vessel - magnificent to look at and despite its length never dreary but with a vacancy at its core. Another problem - the music is famous but in its context within the film it fails. It jars - there's a bad pun wrapped up in that statement - I'll leave you to work it out. 68/100. 

No comments:

Post a Comment