watched it because i heard Joe Wright (Pride and Prejudice, Atonement) likes David Lean and i couldn't believe how bad it was!
i hope the guy's other movies are better than this, otherwise it's also sad his name sounds like Lynch. i mean... to confuse those two, sad. :D
It's hard to tell how old you are by a screenname, but i'd guess you are either very young, or not at all a student of history. Anyone watching this movie for thrills and excitement is in for a surpirise: it has little. This is by far more a movie that requires a high degree of familiarity with the explosive nature of the human condition and the desperation the Russian populance felt during the turn of the 20th century. Unless you know the difference between Red and White Russia, Bolsheviks and Royalists or German and English political influences on Russia during the First World War this movie won't make sense.
Unfortunately a person would need to posess more than a little depth of knowledge and character to fully comprehend the subtleties and complexities of this kind of cinema.
Some people just don't "get it".
BTW- Even tho i do "get it", i have a hard time sitting thru the whole thing after seeing it once. I love history, and cinema, but Zhivago DOES kind of drag in places...so maybe kid has a point...
are you Russian? Because I am and I know it's history, and this movie did a terrible job doing it. It's sad knowing that such a great director made such a mediocre movie. The book was great yet the crew couldn't do well adapting it.
shareI am curious as to what you find disappointing in Lean's portrayal of Russian history?
shareI tried to compile a timeline of the film's events after my latest viewing last Friday, and I found it near-impossible to do so. The film's chronology of the Revolution and its own story is hopelessly out of whack, primarily due to it apparently conflating the February and October Revolutions into one event. The few arbitrary sign posts Lean and Bolt provide (eg. the execution of the Tsar) only muddle things further.
Whatever happens, we have got/The Maxim Gun, and they have not!
Actually I might argue the more you know about Russian history, specifically this time period, the less satisfying you would find that aspect of the film.
Whatever happens, we have got/The Maxim Gun, and they have not!
Very well stated scooter 21! Zhivago is a rare masterpiece of film making.
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i've never seen it. tho, i didn't think it was this polarizing.
A bird in hand makes hard to blow nose-Confucius
I agree, It's terrible. There's nothing to like. The history is wrong and it's offensive.
shareThat made no sense.
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heh heh very good! I've seen this film a few times and I just think it is one of the greatest ever. Lean does a masterful job of linking up the "personal life" with the great themes and actions of Russian history. he pulls it off so well storywise and with the incredible cinematography. You don't find these elements in too many films. we'll never see a film like this one again...that is if the producers have about 1 billion bucks. And forget about using CGI. We "know" it would be fake!
shareI liked the movie, but it is not as good as the book. As we hear often, good books seldom become good movies. Read the book, it is superb. The movie does not do justice to the book. However, it is a decent movie.
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