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Doctor Zhivago (1965)

tomatometer

85

Average Rating: 7.2/10
Reviews Counted: 33
Fresh: 28 | Rotten: 5

It may not be the best of David Lean's epics, but Dr. Zhivago is still brilliantly photographed and sweepingly romantic.

60

Average Rating: 6/10
Critic Reviews: 5
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 2

It may not be the best of David Lean's epics, but Dr. Zhivago is still brilliantly photographed and sweepingly romantic.

audience

84

liked it
Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 42,505

My Rating

Movie Info

Based on the Nobel Prize-winning novel by Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago covers the years prior to, during, and after the Russian Revolution, as seen through the eyes of poet/physician Yuri Zhivago (Omar Sharif). In the tradition of Russian novels, a multitude of characters and subplots intertwine within the film's 197 minutes (plus intermission). Zhivago is married to Tonya (Geraldine Chaplin), but carries on an affair with Lara (Julie Christie), who has been raped by ruthless politician

PG-13, 3 hr. 19 min.

Drama, Television, Romance, Classics

Boris Pasternak, Robert Bolt

Jan 1, 1998

MGM

Cast

All Critics (33) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (34) | Rotten (5) | DVD (21)

Literate, oldfashioned, soul-filling and thoroughly romantic.

August 24, 2008 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | Comment
TIME Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

David Lean's 1965 adaptation of Pasternak's romance of the Russian Revolution is intelligent and handsomely mounted, though it doesn't use its length to build to a particularly complex emotional effect.

August 13, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

One of the most meticulously designed and executed films.

August 13, 2007 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Mr. Bolt has reduced the vast upheaval of the Russian Revolution to the banalities of a doomed romance.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment (1)
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Although its portentous historical drama evaporates once you return to the fresh air, watching it can be seductive.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comment
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The 45th anniversary edition contains invaluable docus, featurettes, and interviews with director Lean and stars Julie Christie and Omar Shariff and more

March 8, 2011 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

Epic drama combines romance, politics, mature themes.

December 30, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

it is to be respected for the massive success and artistry of the decade in which it was made

May 13, 2010 Full Review Source: 7M Pictures | Comment
7M Pictures

A triumph of great entertainment. Whether it is great filmmaking is a matter of taste.

April 29, 2010 Full Review Source: Film Snobbery | Comment
Film Snobbery

...shot after shot, scene after scene, of glorious beauty. (Blu-ray Book Edition)

April 26, 2010 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

...a passionate movie about passionate people in passionate times.

April 26, 2010 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

[Lean] seems out of his element.

January 29, 2009 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | Comments (2)
Combustible Celluloid

Laborious, but beautifully crafted 193 minute opus from the master of epic cinema, David Lean.

March 4, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

Combining skill and kitsch in equal measure, David Lean's overbloated epic (a disappointing follow-up to Lawrence of Arabia) offers guilty pleasure so long as you don't expect a faithful adaptation of Joe Pasternak's novel about the Russian Revolution.

August 17, 2007 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

As always, Lean's handling of the purely physical aspects of the material is spectacular.

August 13, 2007 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Beautiful cinematography...and set design...together with excellent performances combine to form Zhivago's timeless appeal

August 21, 2006 Full Review Source: Cinema Writer | Comment
Cinema Writer

Steiger and Courtenay excepted, all the performances are very uncomfortable.

January 26, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

David Lean masterpiece has great performances, sets

July 13, 2005 Comment
Video-Reviewmaster.com
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Doctor Zhivago

Against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution, a poet/doctor struggles to "just live" with his wife and mistress.It's probably cliche and easy to say that a three-hour-nineteen-minute-long film is too long, but Doctor Zhivago is too long. In fact, this is the second time I watched it; the first time I fell

January 16, 2012
hunterjt13
Jim Hunter

Super Reviewer

A 200-minute-long epic set during the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. The first three hours are involving and excellent, presenting some fascinating characters like the ones played by Courtenay and Steiger, but then the film collapses in the last half hour, when most characters go through inexplicable changes of

March 20, 2010
blacksheepboy

Super Reviewer

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Foreign Titles

  • Doktor Schiwago (DE)
  • Le Docteur Jivago (FR)
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