Doctor Zhivago

Dir: David Lean, 1965 (9.0*)

Best Picture (GG)

The same David Lean film crew that made The Bridge On the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia then filmed the Boris Pasternak novel of the era of the Russian Revolution. Omar Sharif plays the title role, a poetry writing doctor whose life takes two left turns during World War I, then the revolution, each time bringing him closer to nurse Julie Christie, while his faithful wife, Geraldine Chaplin (daughter of Charlie) remains at home in Moscow, with father Ralph Richardson. Christie's revolutionary boyfriend, Tom Courtenay, is also an intregral part of the love story, as is older suitor Rod Steiger.

Maurice Jarre's Oscar-winning music is haunting, the cinematography (Oscar®) artistic without being distracting. Perhaps a little soapy, but one of the world's great love stories. And it's still another archetypal epic from master director David Lean. This lost the best picture Oscar® to the sentimental and shallow crowd-pleasing The Sound of Music.