Product Description

A sweeping and visually stunning tale of a russia divided by revolution and two hearts torn by love. Special features: feature-length commentary by omar sharif rod steiger and the directors wife lady sandra lean introduction by omar sharif cast/director career highlights and much more. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 04/05/2005 Starring: Julie Christie Geraldine Chaplin Run time: 200 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: David Lean

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #398 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2001-11-06
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 197 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
David Lean focused all his talent as an epic-maker on Boris Pasternak's sweeping novel about a doctor-poet in revolutionary Russia. The results may sometimes veer toward soap opera, especially with the screen frequently filled with adoring close-ups of Omar Sharif and Julie Christie, but Lean's gift for cramming the screen with spectacle is not to be denied. The streets of Moscow, the snowy steppes of Russia, the house in the country taken over by ice; these are re-created with Lean's unerring sense of grandness. The movie is so lush and so long that it becomes an irresistible wallow, even when logic suffers--like Gone with the Wind before it and Titanic after. Sharif, who achieved stardom in Lean's previous film, Lawrence of Arabia, mostly looks noble, but the supporting cast is spiky: Rod Steiger as a fat-cat monster, Tom Courtenay as a self-righteous revolutionary, and Klaus Kinski and Alec Guinness in smaller roles. Geraldine Chaplin, in her adult debut, plays the doctor's compliant wife. Robert Bolt's screenplay won one of the film's five Oscars, with another going to perhaps the most immediately recognizable element of the movie: Maurice Jarre's romantic music, with its hugely popular "Lara's Theme" weaving in and out of a swooning score. --Robert Horton

DVD features
A stunning anamorphic widescreen print is the ideal way to appreciate David Lean's craftsmanship and Dr. Zhivago's glorious, wintry cinematography. Maurice Jarre's "Lara's Theme" and the rest of his patchwork score can be heard in a music-only track, while Omar Sharif is joined by Lean's widow, Sandra, and Rod Steiger for an intermittent commentary. The second bonus disc contains a good hourlong making-of documentary, plus 10 shorter contemporary documentaries giving various insights into the location shooting and the cast and crew. But it's the sheer beauty of the picture that will astonish and make this disc forever a treasure. --Mark Walker

Customer Reviews

out of sync
I like the movie, and the dvd set is fine, but I prefer to watch movies with the words and the mouth movements in sync. Amazon has sent me two of the two-disc special edition, and they're both out of sync.

Dr. Zhivago
Great story telling. So much story to follow, so much history to learn and wonder about how the human race can survive so much.

A masterpiece!
What am I suppose to say? words cannot describe the delicacy of its squeamish characters.