RottenTomatoes.com
Log In | Register | What is RT?
Check out the new RT Community
  • Home
  • Movies
  • DVD
  • Celebrities
  • News
  • Critics
  • Trailers & Pictures
  • CommunityBeta
  • Box Office
  • | Best Of
  • | Certified Fresh
  • | Showtimes
RT Search Powered by Google
help icon Enhanced RT
searches on Google
Click here to turn on enhanced search results from RT on your Google searches.
 
Movies / On DVD / Doctor Zhivago
Doctor Zhivago

Rate this Movie Help Icon

  • Write a Review
  • Read Reviews
  • Add to List
  • Buy Poster External Icon
Bookmark and Share

Doctor Zhivago (1965)

  • T-Meter Critics
  • Top Critics
  • RT Community
  • My Critics
  • My Friends
  • DVD
83 %
Tomatometer
Template ImageTemplate Image

How does the Tomatometer work Help Icon

Reviews Counted:30

Fresh:25

Rotten:5

Average Rating:7.3/10

Consensus: It may not be the best of David Lean's epics, but Dr. Zhivago is still brilliantly photographed and sweepingly romantic.

Runtime: 3 hrs 20 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: David Lean's DOCTOR ZHIVAGO is an exploration of the Russian Revolution as seen from the point of view of the intellectual, introspective title character (Omar Sharif). As the political landscape... David Lean's DOCTOR ZHIVAGO is an exploration of the Russian Revolution as seen from the point of view of the intellectual, introspective title character (Omar Sharif). As the political landscape changes, and the Czarist regime comes to an end, Dr. Zhivago's relationships reflect the political turmoil raging about him. Though he is married, the vagaries of war lead him to begin a love affair with the beautiful Lara (Julie Christie). But he cannot escape the machinations of a band of selfish and cruel characters: General Strelnikov (Tom Courtenay), a Bolshevik General; Komarovsky (Rod Steiger), Lara's former lover; and Yevgraf (Alec Guinness), Zhivago's sinister half-brother. This epic, sweeping romance, told in flashback, captures the lushness of Moscow before the war and the violent social upheaval that followed. The film is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Boris Pasternak. [More]

Starring: Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Alec Guinness

Starring: Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Alec Guinness, Tom Courtenay, Siobhan McKenna, Ralph Richardson, Rod Steiger, Rita Tushingham, Klaus Kinski, Adrienne Corri, Geoffrey Keen, Noel Willman

Director: David Lean

Director: David Lean
Producer: Carlo Ponti
Composer: Maurice Jarre

[See More Credits]

Reviews for Doctor Zhivago

  • T-Meter Critics
  • Top Critics
  • RT Community
  • My Critics
  • My Friends
  • DVD
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

Laborious, but beautifully crafted 193 minute opus from the master of epic cinema, David Lean.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
03/04/08
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Steiger and Courtenay excepted, all the performances are very uncomfortable.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
01/26/06
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Lean's last great film.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
04/17/01
Martyn Glanville
Martyn Glanville
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Lean discovered, and fell in love with, Julie Christie, and knew straightaway that his audience would too.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
01/01/00
Ian Nathan
Ian Nathan
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

[Lean] seems out of his element.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
01/29/09
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

Literate, oldfashioned, soul-filling and thoroughly romantic.

Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | comment Comment
08/24/08
TIME Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

No review available.

comment Comment
10/17/07
Cole Smithey
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com

Combining skill and kitsch in equal measure, David Lean's overbloated epic (a disappointing follow-up to Lawrence of Arabia) offers guilty pleasure so long as you don't expect a faithful adaptation of Joe Pasternak's novel about the Russian Revolution.

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
08/17/07
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

David Lean's 1965 adaptation of Pasternak's romance of the Russian Revolution is intelligent and handsomely mounted, though it doesn't use its length to build to a particularly complex emotional effect.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
08/13/07
Dave Kehr
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader

As always, Lean's handling of the purely physical aspects of the material is spectacular.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
08/13/07
TV Guide's Movie Guide
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

One of the most meticulously designed and executed films.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
08/13/07
A.D. Murphy
A.D. Murphy
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Beautiful cinematography...and set design...together with excellent performances combine to form Zhivago's timeless appeal

Full Review Source: Perihelion Journal | comment Comment
08/21/06
Jay Antani
Jay Antani
Perihelion Journal

No review available.

comment Comment
09/21/05
Kevin N. Laforest
Kevin N. Laforest
Montreal Film Journal

David Lean masterpiece has great performances, sets

comment Comment
07/13/05
Steve Crum
Steve Crum
Video-Reviewmaster.com

No review available.

comment Comment
07/07/05
Joe Williams
Joe Williams
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

No review available.

comment Comment
06/10/04
James O'Ehley
James O'Ehley
Sci-Fi Movie Page

Fails to excite the imagination.

Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment 3 Comments
05/01/04
Dennis Schwartz
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

No review available.

comment Comment
09/05/03
Carol Cling
Carol Cling
Las Vegas Review-Journal

Mr. Bolt has reduced the vast upheaval of the Russian Revolution to the banalities of a doomed romance.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
05/20/03
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

No review available.

comment Comment
10/11/02
Christopher Smith
Christopher Smith
Bangor Daily News (Maine)
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 >> >|
See All

More DVDs

Top Rentals
Tomatometer Percentage Movie
15% 15% The Ugly Truth
98% 98% Up
36% 36% G.I. Joe: The Rise of …
52% 52% The Taking of Pelham 1…
45% 45% Ice Age: Dawn of the D…

More Rentals…

New On DVD This Week
Tomatometer Percentage Movie
95% 95% Star Trek
67% 67% Bruno
47% 47% My Sister's Keeper
66% 66% Is Anybody There?
82% 82% Thirst

More New Releases…

What’s Hot On RT

Prince of Persia

Prince of Persia

Your first look at the swashbuckler.

Vampires

Vampires

We rank cinema's bloodsuckers.

Avatar

Avatar

The full trailer for Cameron's epic.

2012

2012

12 facts about Emmerich's disaster flick.

Other News

  • Top Stories
  • Popular
  • Interviews
 
 

Comments

 
 
Top Stories
Headlines Comments
  
  • Weekly Ketchup: Idris Elba cast in Thor, more Spider-Man 4 rumors
70
  • Idris Elba Joins Thor Source: Hollywood Reporter
112
  • Jackass 3D Coming in 2010? Source: Collider.com
32
  • 6 Reasons 'Twilight' Is Doomed Source: The Wrap
63
  • Forbes Names Hollywood's Most Overpaid Actors Source: Forbes
20
  • Chris Weitz Says He's (Almost) Done with Directing Source: Film School Rejects
26
  • Spider-Man 4 Casting Rumors Multiply Like Rabbits Source: Deadline Hollywood Daily
51
  • McTeigue Says Superman Is "In a Weird Place" Source: MTV
204
  • Rachel McAdams Debunks Spider-Man 4 Rumor Source: Entertainment Weekly
117
  • Avatar: Gambling on Film's Future Source: Los Angeles Times
128
Popular
Headlines Comments
  
  • Critics Consensus: New Moon Wanes
127
  • Tomatometer Watch: Will Twilight's New Moon Dazzle?
96
  • Total Recall: Star-Crossed Lovers
67
  • Box Office Guru Wrapup: New Moon Shatters Records
54
  • Five Favorite Films with Werner Herzog
50
  • Weekly Ketchup: Idris Elba cast in Thor, more Spider-Man 4 rumors
35
  • Friday Harvest: New Moon, Avatar, and more!
28
  • Eric Bana talks Love the Beast - RT Interview
8
  • Ho, ho, ho! It's RT's Great Big Gift Guide!
0
Interviews
Headlines Comments
  
  • Eric Bana talks Love the Beast - RT Interview
8
  • Fight Club Sound Designer Reflects on Film's 10th Anniversary
19
  • James Schamus talks Taking Woodstock - RT Interview
6
  • John Hurt Talks Harry Potter, Quentin Crisp and Alien - The RT Interview
15
  • Terry Gilliam Talks Doctor Parnassus
16
  • Wes Anderson Talks Fantastic Mr. Fox - RT Interview
8
  • Wolverine Creator Len Wein Talks About the Film
28
  • Gavin Hood Talks Wolverine; Possible Sequel
28
  • Duncan Jones talks Moon, Sam Rockwell, and Mute
14
  • Emma Stone talks Zombieland - RT Interview
41
 
 

Sponsored Links

Around The Network

  • Doctor Zhivago at Rotten Tomatoes

Fresh Links

Featured
RT on YouTube
RT on YouTube External Link

Subscribe to RT's YouTube channel and don't miss a second of our cracking video content.

RT on Twitter
RT on Twitter External Link

Follow Rotten Tomatoes and join us as we tweet about the week's releases.

 
 
About| Site Map| Help| RT To Go| Contact Us| Critics Submission| Linking to RT| Licensing| Movie List| Celebs List| Newsletter
IGN Logo

IGN.com | GameSpy | Comrade | Arena | FilePlanet | GameSpy Technology
TeamXbox | Planets | Vaults | VE3D | CheatsCodesGuides | GameStats | GamerMetrics
AskMen.com | Rotten Tomatoes | Direct2Drive | Green Pixels


By continuing past this page, and by the continued use of this site, you agree to be bound by and abide by the User Agreement.
Copyright 1998-2009, IGN Entertainment, Inc. About IGN | Support | Advertise | Privacy Policy | User Agreement | Subscribe to RT's XML feed! IGN RSS Feeds
IGN's enterprise databases running Oracle, SQL and MySQL are professionally monitored and managed by Pythian Remote DBA
Certain product data ©1995-present Muze, Inc. For personal use only. All rights reserved.