Review – Doctor Zhivago

Someday someone is going to make a small movie about the Russian Revolution. From October to Reds, just about everything set in this place and time turns out to be a sweeping epic filled with huge casts, overblown cinematography, brain-bending running times, the whole nine yards. So it goes without saying that director David Lean isn’t going to break the mold and depart from the big-movie formula that brought him success with The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia. And in a way that’s a shame, because the story here (based on Boris Pasternak’s novel) centers around normal human relationships amid turbulent times. Indeed, if not for the aspect ratio, army of extras and lavish location work, this would rarely rise above the level of common soap opera. And Lean seems ill-equipped to deal with human characters, particularly women. Though this is by no means the worst movie I’ve ever seen, it falls short of other work done by just about everyone involved. Mildly amusing