It's 1965. Three years previous, director David Lean released his masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia. Now, he returns with another historical epic, exchanging desert vistas for the mountains of Russia and the society of Soviet Revolution-era Moscow. Based on the Nobel Prize-winning novel, Doctor Zhivago follows the titular doctor (and poet) as his life and loves intersect with the violence and utopian dreams of the Bolshevik Revolution.

What Doctor Zhivago offers casual movie fans who have always meant to watch classic movies: stunning, wide-screen cinematography; a sweeping epic in a period not often covered by Hollywood; a story of, um, romantic adultery; and a frustratingly opaque protagonist.

Show Notes