Doctor Zhivago (45th Anniversary Edition)
This is easy. I don't know a single thing about this movie. I don't know a single about the actors, director, or the plot. It's pretty simple really; you name it, I don't know about it.
After having watched the movie:
(Possible spoilers below)
I didn't realize it until I put the disc in that this was going to be nearly three hours long. I wanted to start the week with something fresh, and light. Some how I managed to find the one movie from the week that is probably the exact opposite from what I wanted. I should be careful of how I phrase things here, because the movie is neither dark or heavy really, it's one of those that you have to really sit down and watch every minute of. If you're going to be getting up to go to the bathroom, you had better just pause the movie. If you don't you risk missing two words from an entire conversation that changes the direction we're going in and suddenly you'll end up wondering the Tundra in the middle of winter separated from the group.
It took me a while to figure out where the story was going and how all of the characters were related. I had to back the DVD up a few times because I missed what seemed like two or three words. I blame a little of it on the way the movie was mixed. The dialogue in the movie is so quiet compared to the music and foley and sound effects. I tend to like dialogue to be a little louder than "background sounds." Once I realized which direction the story was kind of taking me in, I was on board.
There were are also a few things in the timeline of the movie that I wasn't really sure about. It was almost as though suddenly and around the same time both Lara and Tonya suddenly have babies, both fathered by Zhivago. Although after reading a couple of reviews it seems the unlikely run-ins, and the characters who vanish from pages and return again later in the story is both common in the movie as well as the book. The movie also seemed as though everything took place in winter, or perhaps we were just father North than where I placed all of the events mentally. Either way, Russia has kind of been cemented as one of those places I would prefer not to venture to as an out of pocket trip. If I won the trip in a sweepstakes or from a raffle, I could have my bags packed in twenty minutes. This is because I live in Florida, and I don't have a lot of clothes that would be appropriate for Russian winters.
There were a lot of really nice things about the movie; although most of them tend to be prior to the revolution. I don't like watching movies where beautiful homes and buildings end up in ruins. I die a little each time I watch Gone With the Wind and see that Twelve Oaks is destroyed. I think if I had known before watching the movie that the story was going to span the time of the revolution, I would have had a little time to adjust to a war and revolution type of environment.
Although at the heart of the plot is a love story, or rather a love triangle between Dr. Zhivago who loves, marries, and has a son Tonya and his wondering eye for the notorious Lara, who he later also fathers children with.
Here's the great thing about Tonya, she isn't an idiot. She realizes while she is pregnant with her second child by Dr. Zhivago that her husband is continuing to have an affair with his mistress, Lara. However, Tonya seems to remain faithful to Zhivago. Before Tonya, Shasha the first born of Dr. Zhivago's children, and her father leave the small cottage they all shared she writes to her husband in care of Lara before they leaving for Moscow. Although despite what you may think, Tonya isn't the deserter in this case. Prior to her writing her letter and having a "sit down" with Lara, Tonya's husband declares he is going to go into town for medicine and supplies. But really Zhivago leaves to break off his long time affair with Lara. However, while on the return tirp back from town, where Lara lives, he is captured and forced to play army doctor yet again for more than a year before he is able to return back to his first family. I really can't say I would blame Tonya. I would prefer to go back to Moscow with my two children and elderly father than to try to survive in the middle of Russia miles from the nearest village thinking my husband just rode off to be with his mistress.
Once he realizes his first family has left for Moscow, Dr. Zhivago ventures back to warm and open arms of Lara. He spends a little more time with her before what is perceived as "poor circumstances" or what I think is just another series of poor choices, looses contact with Lara and her two children both of which he has fathered. And at a time non the less this happens when Lara is pregnant. Although because as an audience we're suppose to realize how in love and meant for each other Lara and Dr. Zhivago are it's intended to be tragic that Lara and Dr. Zhivago will never see each other again.
I just don't buy into the idea that after you loose your first family you would let the woman you "really" love ride off in hopes of surviving the crazy Russians who are threatening both of your lives with someone you've never really trusted. And at that, why would you go upstairs to watch them ride off together rather than trying to saddle up a horse to go with them?
Final thoughts: Here is the biggest problem I had with the movie, Dr. Zhivago. The biggest tragedy is that Zhivago depicted to be this truly compassionate doctor and poet, yet he continues to drop the ball when it comes to his family. This I can not get on board with, I do not believe these major characteristics would comprise the same person.
I did however absolutely love the way the movie ended. It was a moment of, "Oh wow" when you see Tonya (not the wife, but the daughter of Zhivago) sling the instrument over her shoulder and walk off with the boy she loves.
OFFICIAL COUNT 29 DOWN 336 TO GO
Next up: Goldfinger
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