IMDb > Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Doctor Zhivago
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Doctor Zhivago (1965) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
8.0/10   25,782 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 14% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
David Lean
Writers:
Boris Pasternak (novel)
Robert Bolt (screenplay)
Contact:
View company contact information for Doctor Zhivago on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
22 December 1965 (USA) more
Genre:
Drama | Romance | War more
Tagline:
The entertainment event of the year! more
Plot:
Life of a Russian doctor/poet who, although married, falls for a political activist's wife and experiences hardships during the Bolshevik Revolution. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
Awards:
Won 5 Oscars. Another 15 wins & 10 nominations more
User Comments:
One of the Best Epic Films Ever Made more (204 total)

Cast

  (in credits order) (verified as complete)

Omar Sharif ... Dr. Yuri Zhivago

Julie Christie ... Lara
Geraldine Chaplin ... Tonya

Rod Steiger ... Komarovsky

Alec Guinness ... Gen. Yevgraf Zhivago
Tom Courtenay ... Pasha
Siobhan McKenna ... Anna
Ralph Richardson ... Alexander
Rita Tushingham ... The Girl
Jeffrey Rockland ... Sasha
Tarek Sharif ... Yuri at 8 years old
Bernard Kay ... The Bolshevik
Klaus Kinski ... Kostoyed
Gérard Tichy ... Liberius (as Gerard Tichy)
Noel Willman ... Razin
Geoffrey Keen ... Medical Professor
Adrienne Corri ... Amelia
Jack MacGowran ... Petya
Mark Eden ... Engineer at Dam
Erik Chitty ... Old Soldier
Roger Maxwell ... Beef-Faced Colonel
Wolf Frees ... Delegate
Gwen Nelson ... Female Janitor
Lucy Westmore ... Katya
Lili Muráti ... The Train Jumper (as Lili Murati)
Peter Madden ... Political Officer
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Luana Alcañiz ... Mrs. Sventytski (uncredited)
Assad Bahador ... Colonel of Dragoons (uncredited)
José María Caffarel ... Militiaman (uncredited)
Emilio Carrer ... Mr. Sventytski (uncredited)
Catherine Ellison ... Raped woman (uncredited)
Pilar Gómez Ferrer ... (uncredited)
Víctor Israel ... (uncredited)
Inigo Jackson ... Major (uncredited)
Gerhard Jersch ... David (uncredited)
Jari Jolkkonen ... Siberian boy (uncredited)
Leo Lähteenmäki ... Siberian husband (uncredited)
María Martín ... Gentlewoman (uncredited)
José Nieto ... Priest (uncredited)
Ricardo Palacios ... Extra (uncredited)
Ingrid Pitt ... Extra (uncredited)
Robert Rietty ... Kostoyed (voice) (uncredited)
Mercedes Ruiz ... Tonya at 7 (uncredited)
Aldo Sambrell ... (uncredited)
Virgilio Teixeira ... Captain (uncredited)
Brigitte Trace ... Streetwalker (uncredited)
María Vico ... Demented woman (uncredited)
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Directed by
David Lean 
 
Writing credits
Boris Pasternak (novel)

Robert Bolt (screenplay)

Produced by
Arvid Griffen .... executive producer
Carlo Ponti .... producer
 
Original Music by
Maurice Jarre (original music composed by)
 
Cinematography by
Freddie Young 
Nicolas Roeg (some scenes) (uncredited)
 
Film Editing by
Norman Savage 
 
Casting by
Irene Howard (uncredited)
 
Production Design by
John Box 
 
Art Direction by
Terence Marsh 
Gil Parrondo (uncredited)
 
Set Decoration by
Dario Simoni 
 
Costume Design by
Phyllis Dalton 
 
Makeup Department
Anna Cristofani .... hair stylist (as Anna Christofani)
Grazia De Rossi .... hair stylist (as Gracia de Rossi)
Mario Van Riel .... makeup artist (as Mario van Riel)
 
Production Management
John Palmer .... production supervisor
Agustín Pastor .... production manager (as Agustin Pastor)
Douglas Twiddy .... production manager
Tadeo Villalba .... unit manager (uncredited)
 
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Roy Rossotti .... second unit director
Roy Stevens .... assistant director
Pedro Vidal .... assistant director
Peter Beale .... second assistant director (uncredited)
José María Ochoa .... assistant director (uncredited)
Michael Stevenson .... second assistant director (uncredited)
 
Art Department
Ernest Archer .... assistant art director
Fred Bennett .... construction
William Hutchinson .... assistant art director (as Bill Hutchinson)
Gus Walker .... construction
Roy Walker .... assistant art director
José María Alarcón .... assistant set decorator (uncredited)
Benjamín Fernández .... assistant art director (uncredited)
Mickey Lennon .... chargehand dressing prop: Spain (uncredited)
Julián Martín .... painter (uncredited)
Wallis Smith .... draughtsman (uncredited)
 
Sound Department
Paddy Cunningham .... sound recordist
Winston Ryder .... sound editor
Van Allen James .... sound editor (uncredited)
Franklin Milton .... sound director (uncredited)
William Steinkamp .... sound (uncredited)
A.W. Watkins .... supervising sound editor (uncredited)
 
Special Effects by
Eddie Fowlie .... special effects
 
Visual Effects by
Gerald Larn .... matte painter (uncredited)
 
Camera and Electrical Department
Manuel Berenguer .... photographer: second unit
Ernest Day .... camera operator
Miguel Sancho .... chief electrician
Anthony Busbridge .... focus puller: second unit (uncredited)
John Crawford .... clapper loader (uncredited)
John Crawford .... clapper loader (uncredited)
Kenneth Danvers .... still photographer (uncredited)
Jim Dawes .... grip (uncredited)
Jim Kane .... grip (uncredited)
John Kerley .... clapper loader: second unit (uncredited)
Dennis C. Lewiston .... camera operator: second unit (uncredited)
Anthony B. Richmond .... clapper loader (uncredited)
Alex Thomson .... camera operator (uncredited)
Kenneth J. Withers .... focus puller (uncredited)
Ted Worringham .... camera maintenance (uncredited)
 
Editorial Department
John Grover .... assistant editor (uncredited)
 
Music Department
Maurice Jarre .... conductor
Bob Bain .... musician: balalaika (uncredited)
 
Other crew
Barbara Cole .... continuity
Hugh Miller .... dialogue coach
Andrew Mollo .... consultant (uncredited)
Lee Turner .... continuity: second unit (uncredited)
 
Crew verified as complete


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Additional Details

MPAA:
Rated PG-13 for mature themes.
Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parents
Runtime:
197 min | UK:192 min (1999 re-release) | UK:193 min | UK:200 min (1992 re-release)
Country:
USA
Language:
English | Russian
Color:
Color (Metrocolor)
Aspect Ratio:
2.20 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
4-Track Stereo (35 mm magnetic prints) | 70 mm 6-Track (Westrex Recording System) (70 mm prints) | DTS (re-release) (35 mm prints) | Mono (35 mm optical prints)
Certification:
Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Iceland:12 | South Korea:12 | Brazil:Livre | West Germany:12 (f) | USA:Approved (original rating) | USA:GP (re-rating) (1971) | Canada:PG (video rating) | USA:PG-13 (re-rating) (1995) | UK:15 (1987) | UK:A (1966) | UK:PG (1992) | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Spain:13 | Sweden:11
Filming Locations:
Alberta, Canada more
Company:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
According to Freddie Young, before he reluctantly agreed to take the director of photography job following an exhausting collaboration on Lawrence of Arabia (1962), David Lean had a major falling-out with the previous director of photography, Nicolas Roeg, over creative differences. After Young took over, an additional two weeks of photography was required to re-shoot the scenes that Roeg had shot. more
Goofs:
Revealing mistakes: When Yuri runs to a window in the Varykino estate to watch Lara leave with Komarovsky, he brushes against a banister covered in icicles. The icicles swing, revealing that they are made of wax. more
Quotes:
Pasha: The private life is dead - for a man with any manhood.
Zhivago: I saw some of your 'manhood' on the way at a place called Mink.
Pasha: They were selling horses to the Whites.
Zhivago: It seems you've burnt the wrong village.
Pasha: They always say that, and what does it matter? A village betrays us, a village is burned. The point's made.
Zhivago: Your point - their village.
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in True Romance (1993) more
Soundtrack:
Prelude in G minor, Op.23-5 more

FAQ

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User Comments

   (Comment on this title)
72 out of 99 people found the following comment useful.
One of the Best Epic Films Ever Made, 7 March 2003
Author: Casey Machula (csm23) from Flagstaff, AZ

I can't remember the origin of the quote, but I remember it distinctly. A Communist Party official of the Soviet Union, justifying the Bolshevik destruction of Tsarist Russia, told a foreign observer, `If you want to make an omelet, you've got to break some eggs.' The visitor replied, `I see the broken eggs, but Where's the omelet?' Dr. Zhivago is set at the time when the Bolsheviks, feverishly ideological, were creating their socialist state. The epochal drama that unfolds is the age-old question about whether the ends justify the means.

As materialists (matter precedes spirit, not vice versa), the Bolsheviks believed that they had found the holy grail of human progress in Marxism-Leninism, and were now able to assume the reins of history in their own hands. They believed that their violence was not only justified, but necessary, oblivious to the fact that they, too, somehow felt the angel of medieval teleology smiling over their shoulders.

In contrast to the Bolsheviks, Zhivago's ethos, if he had one, was almost identical to Kant's `categorical imperative,' which had just one axiom: treat people as ends in themselves, and not as ends to a mean. There couldn't be a sharper moral contrast.

There's a fabulous scene midway through the movie that highlights the difference in moral attitude. Dr. Zhivago confronts a communist functionary who has ordered the destruction of a village, a hamlet suspected of aiding the Mensheviks by selling them horses. To the Bolsheviks, if you weren't 100 percent behind them, you were a `counterrevolutionary,' sorta like Dubya's idea that you're either for us, or against us. And so Strelnikov, the passionate Bolshevik, glibly justifies his actions to Dr. Zhivago as easy as if he were tossing his hair aside, saying that the annihilation of the village, however cruel, is necessary to make a point. Zhivago replies: `Your point; their village.'

I love this film, a timeless epic. If there's a more beautiful heroine in all of movie-making history than Julie Christie (Lara), I'm not aware of it. And Omar Sharif is stunning as Iuri Zhivago, who heals the body with emetics, scalpels, antiseptic, and gauze, while he heals the soul with his poetry. Although the movie is three hours and 20 minutes long, the cinematography is so efficient, evocative, and densely layered that one hardly notices. This is, in my opinion, one of the best films of all time.

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