The opening bars to the credits at 4:34 haunt me to this day (I was employed by MGM at the time of this film's release) one of the most incredible openings to any film score ever.
Agreed the melancholy sadness of Dr Zhivago, Lara and the lost hope s of the first Russian Revolution and the betrayal of it by the Bolsheviks and then the Stalinist repression...
What was your role at MGM ? Was your work connected to the film, in any way ? Those opening bars you mention, along with the segue to the visual blew me away at the Westfield, NJ theater in 1966. I didn't know you could do that in movies....had never seen anything to that effect.
There are what I call "moments" in a film. The parts that really touch your very being and soul. This music from Dr. Zhivago gives you several of these "moments". Music has a language all its own. Dr. Zhivago is 200 minutes of several memorable "moments".
Listened to this soundtrack on vinyl a lot growing up. This restored opening to the film makes me want to rent the movie and watch the whole thing again. This movie doesn't seem to get as much recognition as it should. I always loved Julie Christie in this film as she was beautiful as ever, and a great actress. Very inspiring opening. TY for sharing this.
Amen to that. Get the DVD and watch with the commentary.....Omar Sharif, Rod Steiger (RIP too), and Lean's widow provide fascinating insight throughout the film.
I’ll never forget seeing this movie for the first time in late 2010. I went to bed that night and had a strange dream. I dreamed of being old with my wife at the time, we were both in our late 20’s so I’m only 35 now, but I dreamed that I saw myself deteriorating from Alzheimer’s and the misery she was in because I could barely remember who she was. I woke up the next day, told her about it and made her swear to me that if that came to pass, she would put me in a home and leave so she wouldn’t have to watch me deteriorate completely. This piece of music is what I associate with that dream.
The opening credits from 4.34 will be played at my father's cremation service tomorrow. When I was approx. 5 years old, he used to play this b-side of the single. He knew it would always make me cry, and he held me all through the song and danced a bit with me in his arms. That's my strongest memory of those early days. Rust zacht, papa.
Over a half century later this film has lost none of its original cinematic glory not ceremonial grandeur. Classy, erudite but accessible, drop dead romantic, visually stunning and brilliantly acted, it was an event. It's hard not to somehow wish one COULD go back to late 1965 or early 1966 having only a suspicion of what the film would be like and to be treated to an overture, the vaguely Gustav Klimt partly Saul Bass opening credits - end the best cut to intermission ("Yes...that's Strelnikov...') and re-entry from intermission (the black screen which turns out to be a tunnel) of any film I can think of. An event...that's what those 'road' show' screenings were...and we shall never experience the like of them again.
If anything, the passage of time ADDS to the magnificence of this film.... as contemporary films generally become ever more trivial in comparison. This is a definition of a "piece of art" --- it endures the passage of time. Dr. Zhivago is a true piece of art. ... Think about it the next time you watch this film: virtually EVERY camera shot is filmed as though it were a portrait.
One of my most favorite opening credits, with no gimmicks and of course no animation or CGI. Just changing backgrounds of paintings of forests with tall trees, not to mention the beautiful music. All that provide, in my opinion, the right setting and mood for the type of grand historic epic that Lean was famous for. I just have to watch this film at least once every two to three years.
I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU....The opening credits starting at 4:34 are so stirring to the soul...I have been playing it every chance I get...I asked my kids...do you feel anything when you hear this theme? They didn't feel it like I do...But YOU guys have validated my musical feelings Lol! The beginning of the opening credits and the ending with the flute...There are no words to describe how "enchanting" this music is to me...like it is awakening something from long ago. Thanks ;^)
I just noticed that the actor / actress credits are in alphabetical order. No matter the level of performance, no one was given precedence (although major players / minor players were listed thusly..but they, too, were in alphab. order. Nice touch.
Yes, me again. Just wanted to comment on the opening scene of the film. A great deal is made of the 'match' cut from the flame to the desert sunrise in 'Lawrence of Arabia', and rightfully so, but less mentioned is the stunning 'flashback' cut in this film, when Rita Tushingham 'breaks the fourth wall' and stares us down in medium close-up... then CUT to the extreme long shot of the funeral procession with the Orthodox cross in the foreground - THERE! - Lean has us - and has us again a few moments later when he cuts to the interior of the coffin - amazing - and WILL have us over and over: the first 'meeting' on the tram, the multiple mirrors in the private dining suite, Zhivago seeing Lara's hand in chiaroscuro as the train rolls over, the giant blue bottle of iodine, the candle flame in Pasha's window slowly burning away the frost as Lara confesses and the Christmas bells chime - and that's only in the first forty five minutes!
Interesting that shot from inside the coffin, that a filmmaker would think of shooting that. Sounds creepy even as I write this. I believe the idea is to show us an image of Yuri's imagination, picturing his mother, in the box, in the dark, in the earth. A thought that a child might have and never forget.
Every David Lean film is a saga. Vast visual vistas, sweeping tides of history, individuals in their private anguish, and music that ebbs and flows like pounding surf. I know I sound flowery. Blame it on the music.
@@sweetwilliamful The other night I treated myself to A Passage to India. The scene near the end with the Himalayas...it never ceases to impart a thrill. The film is the perfect curarive to the whole current Culture Wars. It enjoins all factions to be truly diverse. Be willing to look the individual in the eye and overlook...or at least strive to find the common ground...between the 2 POV's. My oldest lives near Seattle and has imbibed of all that culture has to offer. I'm a staid conservative wedded to all the conventionalities of the free market, theism, and hetero normality. Yet I hope that there is a place where our divergent views bridge.
Next time you see the movie, pay attention to the writing on signs. There is a location that shows up twice in the film, once before the revolution and then later. The revision of the alphabet shows up the second time.
I agree with rhondadoodle. I am so glad I can listen to Maurice Jarre's exquisite music whenever I want on RU-vid. You either "feel" the music or you don't.
Supposedly Maurice Jarre could not come up with a theme for this movie, so David Lean told him to go have a vacation with his girlfriend, and when Jarre came back, he gave us this.
Doctor Zhivago, 1965, LA la la la la la. I watched this movie many times when younger. I have planted European white birches in the United States. 1965 is also the year of The Sound Of Music. It is also the year the movie Battle of the Bulge came out. I have studied Russia and the Russian revolution. I have owned many Russian things, read many books, listened to Russian composers. Somewhere my love... I am LA, la la la, the city of angels, Queen Katikina is here, Queen Ischa Ina and Isa Ina too, my czarina's. I am related to the Czars. I am related to Peter the great, I am both Peter and the Wolf. LLXIIX77
And an interesting note: an ALMOST flawless film. If you watch carefully during the Moscow scenes when Komorovsky takes Lara to her first dinner, notice the voices singing 'L'internationale' in the street do not synch with the lips of the crowd singing them. Why? Most of the film was shot in Spain and there were members of Franco's secret police in the crowd of looking around to see who WAS singing /who knew the lyrics to the Communist anthem. Most of the extras were probably singing something else; the words were later dubbed in.
But in the DVD commentary, Steiger and Lean's widow say that many people commented who lived in Spain at the time and heard the singing, those folks thought there was an uptick of revolutionary fervor when they heard The Internationale being sung....so it was being sung, at least by some. So maybe another version was dubbed in later.
