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Post by BATouttaheck on Sept 10, 2019 1:49:41 GMT
Essays, comments, images ,as always, welcomed and appreciated.  |
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Post by BATouttaheck on Sept 10, 2019 1:53:04 GMT
The images that come first to mind:    |
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Post by BATouttaheck on Sept 10, 2019 1:59:41 GMT
 "This movie was torn apart by critics when first released. Newsweek, in particular, made comments about "hack-job sets" and "pallid photography". Director Sir David Lean was so deeply affected by these criticisms (despite the popularity of the movie with the general public) that he swore he would never make another movie. Thanks in part to MGM's extreme marketing campaign and strong word of mouth, this movie became an spectacular success at the box-office and the second highest grossing movie of 1965, behind The Sound of Music (1965). It received ten Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture and Director), before eventually taking home five awards. This gave Sir David Lean the utmost confidence to continue making movies." (IMDb link )www.imdb.com/title/tt0059113/awards?ref_=tt_awd |
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Post by OldAussie on Sept 10, 2019 2:28:39 GMT
Big favourite.
Based on his career up to then, Steiger would seem to be miscast but delivers a brilliant performance.
Zhivago is still in the top 10 biggest money-making films of all time based on inflation. I believe it made more than every other Lean film combined.
An excellent short on Lean's editing genius -
My favourite transition in Zhivago is around 6 minutes 55 seconds in the video above -
1. - Zhivago looks at the puddle of blood in the virgin white snow -
cut to
2. - Lara having just been "deflowered" by Komarovsky.
Faults -
1 the chronology of the second half of the film is WAY out of whack. The bookend scenes of Rita Tushingham appear to be in post-Stalinist Russia but based on events in the film she would have been born around 1923/4 at the latest, so as a late teenager those scenes would be at the height of WWII. Since Hollywood and historical accuracy are incompatible it's only a problem for those who think about it.
2 Feel Courtenay needed another scene in the second half.
Cinema views - 5
TV/DVD/bluray - more than 20
9/10
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Post by marshamae on Sept 10, 2019 6:21:40 GMT
Dumbfounded by the complaints about the sets! What could the critics possibly mean? Those sets are among the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. I can more easily understand the concern that the film dumbed down a great novel, but I must say that never stopped me from being completely enthralled.
I never try to list Best films any more. The most I can aspire to is to list favorites . Dr ZHIVAGO is always high on that list.
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Post by politicidal on Sept 10, 2019 12:58:18 GMT
The first half of the film is one of the greatest films ever made. It’s pacing, acting, and visual scale is admirable throughout the picture. But as OldAussie beat me to it, the second half is weird. I haven’t read the book so perhaps that’s what happened. Bu it should remain accessible on its own terms without it. Still, it’s a good epic. 7.5/10 |
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Post by TheGoodMan19 on Sept 10, 2019 20:34:41 GMT
Some of the greatest supporting roles in history. Rod Steiger, Alec Guinness, Ralph Richardson and Tom Courtnay. The two leads were great but I wasn't impressed with Geraldine Chaplin. In the book (from what I remember, not an easy read). Tonya was a very strong character. She reacted well to the Revolution and the Civil War. In the film, she had a perpetually vapid look on her face. Can't understand the "pallid photography" cracks, other than the fact that winter and the steppe is a main character in the film, like the jungle in Bridge and the desert in Lawrence. Some of Lean/Young best work. The scene where the deserters persuade the replacements to mutiny is one of my favorites. others were the scenes in Varykino, when Yuri is taken by the Brotherhood of the Forest, the slaughter on the Military Academy kids. I actually liked the 2nd half better. My favorite scene, the people are looting the Zhivago's possessions, taking the balalaiks, You just see Yevgrav's back and he merely snaps his fingers and everyone scuttles away. Such was the power and fear of the Cheka.
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Post by Doghouse6 on Sept 10, 2019 21:08:23 GMT
Can't understand the "pallid photography" cracks, other than the fact that winter and the steppe is a main character in the film, like the jungle in Bridge and the desert in Lawrence. Some of Lean/Young best work. This invokes one of the aspects of Lean's work I most admire, particularly from the '50s on: his sense of place. From the humidity of Bridge On the River Kwai to the aridity of Lawrence Of Arabia, from the vastness and changing seasons of Dr. Zhivago to the windswept coasts of Ryan's Daughter; he puts you squarely into the atmosphere. You not only see and hear it, you feel and smell it. I'll probably never get to Venice, but after each viewing of Summertime, it's as though I've been there.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Sept 11, 2019 2:15:14 GMT
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