Doctor Zhivago () is a 1965 epic historical romance film directed by David Lean with a screenplay by Robert Bolt, based on the 1957 novel by Boris Pasternak. The story is set in Russia during World War I and the Russian Civil War. The film stars Omar Sharif in the title role as Yuri Zhivago, a married physician and poet whose life is altered by the Russian Revolution and subsequent civil war, and Julie Christie as his love interest Lara Antipova. Geraldine Chaplin, Tom Courtenay, Rod Steiger, Alec Guinness, Ralph Richardson, Siobhán McKenna, and Rita Tushingham play supporting roles.
While immensely popular in the West, Pasternak's book was banned in the Soviet Union for decades. For this reason, the film could not be made in the Soviet Union and was instead filmed mostly in Francoist Spain. It was an international co-production between Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Italian producer Carlo Ponti.
Contemporary critics were critical of its length at over three hours and claimed that it trivialized history, but acknowledged the intensity of the love story and the film's treatment of human themes. At the 38th Academy Awards, Doctor Zhivago won five Oscars: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, and Best Costume Design. It was nominated for five others (including Best Picture and Best Director), but lost four of these five to The Sound of Music. It also won five awards at the 23rd Golden Globe Awards including Best Motion Picture - Drama and Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama for Sharif.
, it is the eighth highest-grossing film of all time in the United States and Canada, adjusted for ticket-price inflation. It is also one of the top ten highest-grossing films worldwide after adjusting for inflation. In 1998, it was ranked by the American Film Institute 39th on their 100 Years... 100 Movies list, and by the British Film Institute the following year as the 27th greatest British film of all time.
Plot
Part one
Against a backdrop of World War I, the 1917 Russian Revolution and ensuing civil war, the film uses a narrative framing device set later, involving NKVD Lieutenant General Yevgraf Zhivago's search for the daughter of his half-brother Dr Yuri Zhivago and Larissa ("Lara") Antipova. Yevgraf believes a young worker, Tanya Komarova, may be his niece and explains why.
After his mother's burial, the orphaned child Yuri, who owns only an inherited balalaika, was taken by family friends Alexander and Anna Gromeko to Moscow. In 1913, Zhivago, now a doctor and a poet, becomes engaged to the Gromekos' daughter Tonya after her schooling in Paris.
Lara, 17 years old, is seduced by her mother's much older friend/lover, the well-connected Victor Komarovsky. Lara's friend, the idealistic Pasha Antipov, who wishes to marry her, is wounded by mounted police at a peaceful demonstration. Pasha's wound is treated by Lara, who hides a gun he picked up.
Learning of Lara's relationship with Komarovsky, her mother attempts suicide. Komarovsky attempts to dissuade Lara from marrying Pasha. She refuses and he rapes her. A traumatised Lara later follows Komarovsky to a party; she shoots him in the arm, and is escorted out by Pasha. Pasha marries her, despite now knowing about her relationship with Komarovsky. They leave Moscow.
During World War I Yuri, now married to Tonya, becomes a battlefield doctor. Pasha joins up, but is reported missing. Lara enlists as a nurse to search for him and encounters Zhivago. For the next six months, they serve at a field hospital, as unrest grows in Russia after exiled Vladimir Lenin returns. Zhivago and Lara fall in love, but Zhivago remains faithful to Tonya.
After Russia leaves the war, Yuri returns to Tonya, their son Sasha and the widowed Alexander Gromeko in their Moscow house, which had been confiscated by the Soviet government and now houses many other people. Yevgraf, now a Cheka officer, tells Yuri that his poems have been condemned as anti-communist. Yevgraf provides documents so the family can travel to the Gromekos' country home, "Varykino", located in the Urals near Yuriatin. On a heavily guarded train they travel through contested territory where the Bolshevik commander Strelnikov is fighting anti-Communist White forces.