---
title: "Doctor Zhivago"
year: 1965
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/doctor-zhivago"
fi1m_score: 70
critics_score: 64
critics_reviews: 11
published: "2026-09-20T04:28:49.181107+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-20T04:29:12.780242+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Doctor Zhivago (1965)

Directed by David Lean · 3h 20m · MPA PG-13 · Drama, Romance, War

**Fi1m score: 70** · Critics 64 from 11 reviews

*In a sentence:* Russia collapses for three and a half hours and the hero mostly gazes at it through frosted glass

> David Lean’s Russian epic is as handsome as anything he made, and it is long, and its hero mostly watches. Julie Christie and Rod Steiger give it the pulse the script does not, and Freddie Young’s camera does the rest.

## Synopsis

Somewhere in the Soviet Union, years after the Revolution, General Yevgraf Zhivago (Alec Guinness) questions a young dam worker (Rita Tushingham) he believes may be his half-brother’s daughter, and the story goes back. Yuri Zhivago (Omar Sharif), orphaned as a boy, is raised in Moscow by the Gromekos (Ralph Richardson and Siobhán McKenna) alongside their daughter Tonya (Geraldine Chaplin), and grows up to train as a doctor while writing poems. Across the city Lara (Julie Christie), a dressmaker’s daughter, is being pursued by Viktor Komarovsky (Rod Steiger), her mother’s lawyer and lover, while the student Pasha Antipov (Tom Courtenay) loves her and hands out pamphlets. A peaceful march through the snow meets the cavalry, and Yuri, called out one night to Lara’s mother, sees Lara for the first time.

## Review

David Lean, having crossed the desert with [*Lawrence of Arabia*](https://film.one/film/lawrence-of-arabia), turns to Boris Pasternak’s novel and to snow. Robert Bolt’s screenplay strips the book down to a love story with a revolution behind it: Yuri Zhivago (Omar Sharif), a doctor who writes poems, married to Tonya (Geraldine Chaplin) and pulled across the years towards Lara (Julie Christie). It runs 200 minutes and we felt most of the last eighty. But the first half is as fine a stretch of historical film-making as Lean managed, and the whole thing is a pleasure to look at even when it is not moving.

Freddie Young photographs Moscow in gaslight yellows and slush greys, the countryside as a white sheet with one black train drawn across it, and the interiors by candle and stove. John Box builds a Moscow boulevard with trams running down it, and a country house at Varykino in which every surface, chair, chandelier and bedpost, is furred with ice; that house is the image people remember from the film, and it deserves to be. Phyllis Dalton puts Lara in plain wool and Komarovsky in fur collars, the coat of a man who means to be warm whichever side wins. The early set piece is the one that got us. Marchers come singing down a snowy street at night, dragoons ride out of the dark with sabres drawn, and Lean cuts to Yuri watching from a balcony, then to the emptied street with the snow going red. We were shaken. Almost nobody speaks, and it tells you the film’s method: Yuri looks, and the century happens in front of him.

Rod Steiger’s Komarovsky is the best thing in it. He plays the lawyer as a man who enjoys being disliked, taking Lara to a restaurant and ordering for her, telling the truth about himself with a smile because he knows nobody can afford to hear it. Julie Christie gives Lara a hardness under the famous face, and she is never the passive object the plot keeps trying to make her. Tom Courtenay’s Pasha is a schoolboy idealist who turns into something else, and Courtenay lets us see the boy still in there. Alec Guinness narrates as Yevgraf, the half-brother who went over to the Bolsheviks, in a dry murmur that keeps the sentiment from spilling over. Ralph Richardson potters and worries as Tonya’s father and is a pleasure every time he appears.

Then there is Sharif. He has a warm, wet-eyed face built for receiving, and the script gives him little else to do. Yuri wants to write, to love whichever woman is in front of him, and to be left alone, and a man who wants to be left alone is a hard thing to hang 200 minutes on. Maurice Jarre’s balalaika theme arrives whenever Lara does and often when she does not; by the third hour we had started counting. Norman Savage cuts the political scenes fast and the love scenes slow, so the film picks up speed whenever it is interesting and settles down whenever it wants to be adored.

And yet the frozen house got us too. Yuri sits up at night with a candle, writing, while Lara sleeps and wolves call outside, and we were moved more than we had expected to be by a scene of a man doing nothing but hold a pen. It is Young’s light and Box’s ice and Sharif’s stillness all doing the same work at once, and for ten minutes the passivity is the point rather than the problem. We were also, by then, tired, and slightly cross with ourselves for being tired, which is a fair account of the whole second half.

Against Lean’s own record it is the softer film. [*The Bridge on the River Kwai*](https://film.one/film/the-bridge-on-the-river-kwai) (1957) and *Lawrence of Arabia* (1962) were about men who decided things and paid for it. Zhivago is a man things are done to, and Bolt’s script knows it, and has Guinness say as much. Knowing it does not fix it.

See it in a cinema if one near you is showing it, because Young’s frames were made for a wall and shrink badly. At home, take the interval where Lean put it and come back the next night; the second half is kinder in a separate sitting. It carries a PG and opened in Britain on 27 April 1966.

*Fi1m score 70, published 20 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics come down in favour, but the spread is wide: seven approve and four do not, with nobody sitting in the middle. Praise clusters on the look of the thing. Lean’s camera, the recreated snowbound Russia and the production design are admired almost everywhere, and Rod Steiger’s Komarovsky is named more often than either lead. Several critics admit the romance is soppy and say they are swept along regardless.

The reservations cluster on the story rather than the craft: passive characters, sentimentality, and a running time that some find hard to justify. The dissent falls into two camps. The reviews from 1966, in The New York Times and The New Yorker, fault the narrow romantic focus and characters who stand for virtue rather than do anything. The later objections, from Little White Lies and Collider, are simpler: a turgid slog. Even the admirers concede the plot; the disagreement is whether the pictures carry it.

### Reviews we read (11)

- **Radio Times**, David Parkinson (5/5): The critic praises the film's epic sweep, stateliness, and intimate love story within historical events. Highlights strong production design, cinematography, and key performances. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-2ka8xk/doctor-zhivago/)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, James Powers (90/100, inferred): The critic hails David Lean's film as a majestic epic that humanizes the Russian Revolution through the story of an individual resisting the state. It singles out the sweeping visuals, strong performances (especially Julie Christie), and the buoyant spirit amid historical turmoil for praise. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/doctor-zhivago-1965-review-958823/)
- **Time Out**, Cath Clarke (4/5): The critic celebrates it as a classic epic romance with sweeping visuals and strong supporting performances. Notes the sappy elements but finds it swoon-worthy overall. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/doctor-zhivago)
- **Empire**, Ian Nathan (70/100, inferred): The critic finds that Lean’s ambition overtakes his craft compared with earlier epics, resulting in a film that is less incisive, though the romantic story itself contributes to this. The review praises the tale’s real majesty, Lean’s poetic camera, gorgeous visuals even of hardship, and strong performances, especially Rod Steiger’s Komarovsky. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/doctor-zhivago-review/)
- **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (70/100, inferred): Ebert finds the restored film seductive in its old-style craftsmanship and visual beauty despite a soppy romantic plot and manipulative elements. He singles out the meticulous recreation of snowy Russian settings and supporting performances like Rod Steiger's for praise. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/doctor-zhivago-1995)
- **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (70/100, inferred): The critic finds David Lean’s epic adaptation of Pasternak’s novel still sweeps audiences along with its grand romance and detailed vision of the Russian landscape despite some dated elements. Bradshaw singles out the vehement storytelling and contemporary relevance regarding a suppressed writer for praise. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/nov/26/doctor-zhivago-review-vehement-storytelling-still-conjures-great-romance)
- **Little White Lies**, David Jenkins (3/2/2): The critic deems the three-hour epic unnecessary and turgid upon re-release. Praises one intricate camera shot for its emotional depth amid the film's overall flaws. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/doctor-zhivago)
- **The New Yorker** (30/100, inferred): The review calls Doctor Zhivago a grievous disappointment, criticizing its stillness, lack of action, and failure to develop characters beyond stereotypes despite a strong cast. It singles out the screenplay's emphasis on passive embodiments of virtue over dynamic storytelling. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1966/01/01/action-is-character)
- **The New York Times**, Bosley Crowther (30/100, inferred): Crowther criticizes the film for its narrow romantic focus and failure to capture the epic scope of social upheaval compared to Gone With the Wind. He notes the passive characters and overly sentimental approach as major flaws. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1966/01/09/archives/gone-with-the-purga-re-dr-zhivago.html)
- **Eye for Film**, Jeff Robson (80/100, inferred): The critic praises Lean's magnificent 50th-anniversary restored epic as a true blockbuster in the old sense, with breathtaking images, a memorable score, a compelling script, and outstanding performances from a world-class cast that serve a grand yet human story of love and revolution. While noting minor flaws like occasional stretches of credibility and a passive protagonist, the review highlights the film's perfect blend of epic spectacle and personal pathos as still deeply moving on the big screen. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/doctor-zhivago-1965-film-review-by-jeff-robson)
- **Collider**, Andre Dellamorte (40/100, inferred): The critic finds the film a slow, unengaging slog that fails to hook despite its epic scope and cultural status, wishing it had been directed by Douglas Sirk for more moral ambiguity. Rod Steiger's lively performance as Komarovsky is singled out as the standout element that enlivens the picture. [Read](https://collider.com/doctor-zhivago-anniversary-edition-blu-ray-review/)

## Details

- **Director:** David Lean
- **Director:** David Lean
- **Screenplay:** Robert Bolt
- **Novel:** Boris Pasternak
- **Cinematography:** Freddie Young
- **Editor:** Norman Savage
- **Music:** Maurice Jarre
- **Production design:** John Box
- **Costume design:** Phyllis Dalton
- **Producer:** Carlo Ponti
- **Cast:** Omar Sharif as Dr. Yuri Zhivago; Julie Christie as Lara Antipova; Geraldine Chaplin as Tonya Gromeko; Rod Steiger as Viktor Komarovsky; Alec Guinness as Gen. Yevgraf Zhivago; Tom Courtenay as Pasha Antipov / Strelnikov; Siobhán McKenna as Anna; Ralph Richardson as Alexander Gromeko
- **Runtime:** 3h 20m
- **Certificate (MPA):** PG-13
- **Release (the US):** 31 December 1965
- **Genres:** Drama, Romance, War
- **Budget:** $11 million
- **Box office:** $112 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1iQ5hQTR5s

## Where to watch in the US

- Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy $12.99, hd

*Checked 2026-09-20.*

Also available in: AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, HR, IE, IN, IT, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Silver nugget for the best foreign film 1967: Silver nugget for the best foreign film (won)
- Academy Awards 1966: Best Director (nominated); Best Film Editing (nominated); Best Picture (nominated); Best Sound (nominated); Best Supporting Actor (nominated); Best Art Direction, Color (won); Best Cinematography, Color (won); Best Costume Design (won); Best Costume Design, Color (won); Best Original Score (won); Best Production Design (won); Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (won)
- Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media 1966: Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media (won)
- Golden Globes 1965: Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama (won); Best Director (won); Best Motion Picture – Drama (won); Best Original Score (won); Best Screenplay (won)

## If you liked this

- *The Leopard* (1963): Visconti’s Sicilian aristocrats watch their world end at a ball; longer, slower, and it earns every minute.
- *Burnt by the Sun* (1994): One summer day on a Soviet dacha, and the Revolution comes to collect its debt.
- *Cold War* (2018), Fi1m 85: Two lovers across fifteen years of Polish history, in black and white and under ninety minutes. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/cold-war.md)
- *Reds* (1981), Fi1m 77: Beatty’s American radicals go to Petrograd in 1917; the arguments are as good as the romance. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/reds.md)
- *Ryan's Daughter* (1970): Lean, Bolt and Young again, with one Irish storm standing in for a revolution.

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/doctor-zhivago