MovieChat Forums > Doctor Zhivago (1965) Discussion > Peter O'Toole would have been worlds bet...

Peter O'Toole would have been worlds better.

posted 9 years ago by jasonpatrickphipps
6 replies | jump to latest

Can Omar Sharif not make any other facial expressions? Good God, the deer in headlights and the tearing up every five minutes of an over three hour movie gets old.

[–] Jennie_Portrait 9 years ago

Darn straight, Peter O'Toole would have been much better. I think the character development in this movie was absolutely nil. The only character who seemed to be fully developed was Rod Steiger.

[–] jasonpatrickphipps 9 years ago

His was definitely the most entertaining character. A modern, non-mini-series, non-politically correct full movie should be done, without the obligatory pro-communinist rhetoric so they don't offend the millions of leftists that now infest the USA.

[–] alxnrth 9 years ago

That's just the most asinine criticism of ANY performance I've ever heard!

[–] jasonpatrickphipps 8 years ago

What is asinine about a perfect description of a performance? If you disagree then it's asinine?

[–] SergeVonn 8 years ago

That was what Lean wanted from Omar's performance. To look like a deer in the headlights.

[–] atomicstuffing 8 years ago

A lot of these "what-ifs" are interesting, and even I start playing scenes in my head with Peter O'Toole in them.

He would've played it more dynamically, for sure. I don't know if that's better, because all we have to go by is Omar Sharif's performance, which veered towards the quiet side.

While I did admire how Sharif played him with warm sensitivity (quietly observing the moon, trees and skies just as a poet would), maybe Peter O'Toole's version of Yuri would've added in details we may have preferred instead. One got a good sense of Zhivago the doctor, but some may have wanted to see more of Yuri -- the voracious reader, writer and poet.