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Doctor Zhivago [Region 2] | ![Doctor Zhivago [Region 2]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51T4VtGnN3L._SL500_.jpg)
| Director: Giacomo Campiotti
Actors: Keira Knightley, Sam Neill, Hans Matheson, Sam Maclintock, Bill Paterson
Category: DVD
Buy New: $28.99
New (1) Used (2) from $28.99
Rating:  43 reviews
Sales Rank: 188670
Format: Pal
Language: English (Original Language)
Region: 2
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5014138300135
ASIN: B00008IAR8
Theatrical Release Date: November 2, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
The miniseries treatment is suited to Doctor Zhivago, the sprawling Boris Pasternak novel of a Russian physician-poet whose comfortable life is upended by the Revolution. And this near-four-hour British production lucidly demonstrates that Pasternak was one heck of a storyteller: the torment of Zhivago (Hans Matheson) as he must choose between his well-bred childhood sweetheart (Alexandra Maria Lara, real comer) and the tragically beautiful Lara (Keira Knightley, from Pirates of the Caribbean) remains compelling. The TV treatment can't match the epic sweep of David Lean's feature film, of course, with its cast of thousands and astonishing production design. Devotees of that 1965 version will undoubtedly yearn for Maurice Jarre's tinkly hit "Lara's Theme," too; here, Ludovico Einaudi's score is serviceable by comparison. Matheson never gets untracked in the title role, but the uncannily gorgeous Knightley and a supremely decadent Sam Neill (as her dreadful seducer) keep their characters vital. The limitations of the small screen duly noted, the frosty location shooting is handsome. Given the choice, see the Lean film on the big screen every time; but this is sturdy introduction to a classic story. --Robert Horton
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| Customer Reviews: Read 38 more reviews...
 Mostly Faithful to the Novel July 2, 2009
S. T. Thiroux (Los Angeles, CA USA)
Such a great story, and it is presented here more completely than in the movie from the 1960s. All actors are very good; Miss Knightley is a bit distracting.
 DVD's with the wrong format May 7, 2009
Steven R. Farrington
This DVD does not play in the US format and is therefor useless to me.
 Love Hurts February 10, 2009
Hikari (Lima, OH USA)
While aware of the existence of this production, I had avoided watching it until now out of the sense that it was not only a completely unnecessary remake, but bound to fall far short of the original Lean masterpiece. (Lean preferred "Zhivago" to all his other works, and his cinematic achievement is indisputable.) Having finally watched this made-for-television production, I am glad to say that it was a worthwhile investment of four hours, and that no one involved embarrassed themselves. I have to give credit to the production team for having the stones to tackle this project, with the spirit of Lean looming so heavily over their endeavors. I find a head-to-head comparison of the two versions to be somewhat counterproductive, as they basically take two different approaches to the same material. Much like the recent version of "Pride & Prejudice" (also starring Ms. Knightley, 3 years after her work here), it reworks a classic story previously done to great acclaim, and if it does not quite manage the majestic sweeping resonance of its esteemed predecessor, it still finds something fresh in the retelling. As a project for television, this version did not have the advantages of an A-list cast nor the limitless budget of Lean's massive studio release; as such it can't be faulted for not achieving the same grandeur of production design. It focuses on a more intimate canvas, and what it lacks in scale it makes up for in a more humanizing tone with additional insights into the characters.
I said a head-to-head comparison isn't productive, but it's inevitable anyway, so here goes mine.
1. The leads. Both Hans Matheson as Dr. Yuri Zhivago and Keira Knightley as Lara Antipova were relative unknowns at the time. When set beside their towering predecessors, at first blush they seem too lightweight for their respective roles and the shadows of Omar Sharif and Julie Christie loom large. However, particularly in the first half of the film, their youthful energy and unstudiedness is an advantage. They are both more age-appropriate to their characters as the story begins; Knightley at 17 was the exact age of Lara in the novel. Christie was a magnificent Lara, but she could never pass for a naive schoolgirl in the early going. Matheson, too, more successfully captures Yuri's youthful passion and idealism than I felt Sharif did in the early stages, precisely because he IS that young. With all due respect to Mr. Sharif, it was always a stretch to imagine that he was either a medical student, or a Russian. Matheson has the `look' of a young Russian student. While Sharif was more adept at mining the poetical side of Yuri's nature, Matheson makes for a more convincing doctor; at least, he is given more opportunity to show Zhivago practicing a warm bedside manner with patients. Due to their actual youth, it is more of a stretch for these young actors to fully inhabit their characters as they mature, and aging them is not really effective, leading to the decision to telescope the later events into just a few years rather than several decades. There is an undeniably contemporary edge to the young leads, particularly Knightley, who has too much of a 21st century London miss in her delivery, but if these two seem more human-sized than their predecessors, they also seem more lively and realistic. Perhaps Sharif and Christie's more contained passions were more `Russian' in their understated sensibility, but they were very often like attractive, unruffled marble statues than people, framed in Lean's painterly shots like artfully arranged still-lifes; Matheson & Knightley lack such stately artifice and instead inject flesh and blood into these two lovers, making them at times puppyish and awkward, but all the more endearing for it.
2. Supporting characters. This production really has a chance to stretch its wings with the supporting parts, since those are less locked in stone in the popular mind than the two leads. I can unequivocally say the one aspect in which this version is unabashedly superior to Lean's film is in the characterization of Viktor Komarovsky and the conceptualization of his toxic relationship with Lara. Perhaps due to censorship concerns in 1965, Lean did not delve much into this vital, if squeamy component of the plot, but it is crucial to understanding Lara's subsequent actions and attachment to Zhivago; Christie's Lara was presented as a ritual lamb to the slaughter who was sexually and emotionally brutalized by the predatory Komarovsky, played in full-on leer mode by Rod Steiger. Here, Sam Neill inhabits a much more multi-faceted villian, and one who is much more interesting. His emotional hold over Lara is much more fully-explored; though experientially innocent, Knightley's Lara is presented as completely aware of Kamarovsky's carnal interest in her; she reasons that if he is going to take what he wants anyway, she will be more of an equal partner in the relationship by offering herself willingly and making Komarovsky into her tutor in the art of love. Neill's Komarovsky is still a villian, but is an urbane, persuasive, witty and sexy one. He personifies the charismatic attractiveness inherent in being bad and masks his brutality with charm. Their love scenes are not explicit, but it is implied that Komarovsky is a skilful lover, not a heartless rapist, and that far from being a powerless victim, Lara is a full participant in her liaison with this older man. She recognizes just how much she enjoys both his attentions and the world of easy luxury which he represents, and she hates herself for it. We know Komarovsky is destructive and self-serving, but Neill makes it difficult for us to hate him, particularly after his hedonistic sugar daddy reveals tenderer feelings for his protege. Missing is the infamous Steiger line, "You my dear, are a slut." But Neill's Komarovsky never says that because he never views her as such. His single-minded quest to possess Lara is not just about ownership; in his own twisted way, he calls it love.
Also more fully-realized here is Yuri's wife, Tonya. As played by the vivacious, very beautiful and ironically named Alexandra Maria Lara, Tonya is a much stronger and more prominent character, both in the story and in Yuri's affections. When set beside her beauty and passionate love for her husband, Zhivago's obsessive attraction to the waifish and wan Lara essayed by Knightley is harder to swallow. We always felt bad for Geraldine Chaplin's girlish, left-behind Tonya, but it was never any contest against the breathtakingly gorgeous Julie Christie. Between the two ladies here, it feels more of a fair fight, though one Tonya is still destined to lose. She loses Yuri, but not without spirit. There is a nice moment between Zhivago's two women where they acknowledge that in loving the same elusive man, they are both victims--a moment which Lean never offered us.
Less successful is Kris Marshall's rendering of Strelnikov nee Pasha Antipov. Like his co-stars, he shows us a younger and less polished version of the idealistic student who loves Lara than we saw from Lean, but his Pasha is too much of a whiny oaf to win Lara's affections. In contrast, Tom Courtenay's Pasha Antipov was a scholar and idealist in a class with Zhivago, but something of a cold fish who loved Lara as an ideal rather than as a real woman; his later transformation into Strelnikov is believably chilling. Marshall's Strelnikov never loses that little boy lost aspect, making it a hard sell that he is in his way now a charismatic leader of men, or that Lara ever did view him as more than a cherished pet.
On the whole the production has a realistic sense of time and place, aided by grainy real-life news footage that is interwoven into the cinematic action. Slow-mo shots are frequently employed to no apparent purpose however and soon begin to annoy. For everything I found to like, this production unfortunately suffers from two notable lacks: a completely forgettable score, which makes no reference at all to native Russian music (Of course they couldn't just copy Maurice Jarre's memorable themes with their haunting use of the baililka, but they could have used some traditional instruments and melodies and tried just a bit harder than the throwaway piece here) and no convincing portrayal of Zhivago as a poet. Though Matheson often sits at a desk, we get no sense that he is actually writing poems, since he favors a lot of blank staring into space and little else. Contrast this with my favorite scene in the Lean version, where Yuri is inspired to put pen to paper with the first of the "Lara" poems while she sleeps in the background--we actually see him writing her name in Russian with an ink pen. A very small touch--but powerful in suggesting that Zhivago is indeed a man of letters in deed--he doesn't just talk about it. Matheson's Zhivago, for all his boyish good looks, lacks the heft for such a vivid interior life.
These quibbles aside, I found this version of "Doctor Zhivago" to be a worthwhile project on its own merits. It may be truer in spirit to Pasternak's novel; in contrast to Lean's bombastic sweep, this one hones in on one man and the women who love him like with a zoom lens. This Yuri is not a noble cultural hero of literature or medicine but simply a deeply conflicted man trapped in the chaos of history and of his own disordered heart. It may be the more immediately accessible version for newcomers to this story; I will never know what my viewing experience might have been like if I was approaching this story for the first time here. For cinematic grandeur, Lean has no equal, but this smaller and heartfelt take might fill in some of the cracks.
Doctor Zhivago January 20, 2009
Diane T. Granata (Lilburn, GA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have mixed feelings about this edition of Dr. Zhivago. I still am dedicated to the original movie with Omar Sharif as Yuri and Julie Christie as Lara. Ofcourse, it could be my age of 57 years! The new production appeals to the younger crowd. My son, age 30, likes the current production better than the original production. I do think there's a possibility that it is a closer rendition to the book. I am listening to to the book on CD right now for comparision. I do think the new production is well done. Hans Matheson playing Yuri is excellent. Still I favor Sharif. In fact he won the Golden Globe Best Actor for his title role. I also think the first production had a little more class. I like Christie above Keira Knightley. The first production left more to your imagination in the love scenes.
A Majestic Film With Excellent Performances, Well Directed, And A Better Adaptation; But Missing The Music Of Lean's Production August 16, 2008
Dr. Karl O. Edwards (Helena, Montana)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I purchased this movie based on other reviews, and do not regret my decision. Unfortunately, for the entire 225 minutes I kept waiting for "My Love (Lara's Theme)," the stirringly romantic theme indelibly chiseled into my mind for all time. But that is the signature of a true epic, and completely befitting David Lean's "Doctor Zhivago." On the other hand, this version of "Doctor Zhivago," directed by Giacomo Campiotti is everything else that Lean's film was not--except perhaps in terms of cinematography for which Lean's version won the Academy Award.
While I truly enjoyed Omar Sharif as Dr. Yuri Zhivago, I do think that Hans Matheson's portrayal is far less Hollywood and more in line with Boris Pasternak's character in his book; albeit not as moving or powerful as Sharif's portrayal. Conversely, Keira Knightley's performance, poise, and grace put to shame Julie Christie's portrayal of Larisa (Lara) Antipova. I am more than surprised that her performance did not receive more critical attention. However, for me, the true surprise was Sam Neill's brilliance as Viktor Komarovsky. While many may disagree, I never did feel that Lean's choice of Rod Steiger as Viktor Komarovsky was an appropriate one. In my opinion, Sam Neill portrayed the Viktor Komarovsky that I envisioned in the book, and is one of his finest acting performances. The one character that falls extremely short in this version of "Doctor Zhivago" is Pavel "Pasha" Antipov (poorly played by Kris Marshall). In Pasternak's book (as well as Lean's film), Pasha is a far more developed character with a very strong story line. Why Giacomo Campiotti did not fully flush out the role of Pasha, I cannot say--or maybe it ended up on the "floor." On the other hand, it would be easy to contest that Keira Knightley's performance was a better use of time and film. (Note: While not a true character in the book, the character I remember most from Lean's production--maybe thanks to "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Star Wars"--is Sir Alec Guinness as Gen. Yevgraf Zhivago).
Yuri Zhivago, adopted as a young boy by his future wife's family, is sensitive and poetic nearly to the point of mysticism. In medical school, one of his professors reminds him that bacteria may be beautiful under the microscope, but they do ugly things to people. Yuri Zhivago's idealism and principles are constantly challenged to the point of demoralization in the face of the horrors of World War I (where he meets Lara, who is a nurse, for the first time--almost love at first sight), the anger and purging of the Russian Revolution, and the insanity and chaos of the subsequent Russian Civil War. As Lara and Zhivago work together in a make shift "hospital" during the First World War, the two fall in love; but Yuri remains "faithful" to his wife. After the war Yuri Zhivago returns home to devastation and family ruin. Yuri and his wife decide to move to a country home their family owns, which by coincidence is near where Lara has moved in her search for Pasha. After considerable time, Yuri surrenders to his "desires" and seeks out Lara. Even though they had loved each other very much, they never consummated their relationship until Zhivago goes to her in the nearby town of Yuriatin after the Zhivago's have moved to the country. When Yuri's wife finds out, she leaves him for the city. Yuri and Lara struggle until Victor Komarovsky arrives. The events for the characters go "down hill" from that point on.
A major theme of the novel is how the mysticism of things and idealism are destroyed by both the Bolsheviks and the White Army alike, as both sides commit horrible atrocities--and Giacomo Campiotti's "Doctor Zhivago" easily outstrips David Lean's portrayal of this important theme. Yuri witnesses the reality of trench warfare, including dismemberment, deprivation, and starvation suffered by both the "average" soldier and the civilian population during all of this turmoil. In the end, even the love of his life, Lara, is taken from him.
All in all, "Doctor Zhivago" is a master piece that deserves greater appreciation and wider viewing. It is a wonderful evening of romantic, dramatic adventure.
Please Note: If this review was not helpful to you, I would appreciate learning the reason(s) so I can improve my reviews. My goal is to provide help to potential buyers, not get into any arguments. So, if you only disagree with my opinion, could you please say so in the comments and not indicate that the review was not helpful. Thanks.
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