Watching Doctor Zhivago now.

[elleng]

2:00 am Doctor Zhivago (1965)
3h 17m | Epic | TV-PG
Illicit lovers fight to stay together during the turbulent years of the Russian Revolution.
Director: David Lean. Cast: Geraldine Chaplin, Julie Christie, Tom Courtenay

((It's a bit much, considering 'today's' happenings.))

[BigmanPigman]

1. I just turned it on.

Brrrrrrrrr! Now I need to put on some socks. I do love the onion shaped domes on the buildings.

[elleng]

2. BRRRRR indeed!

I've not removed socks in AGES!


'Rumor' has it that hi here Thursday will be 63 (with rain,) and maintaining mid 50s to 60s from then on, for 10 days at least.

[Kingofalldems]

24. DC is done with winter--guaranteed.

[elleng]

3. OYYYYY!

The view I always remember!

[hlthe2b]

14. Yeah. One of those movies to watch during a heat wave.

[PatSeg]

32. Yes, it really is a hard movie to watch in the winter

We saw "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" on a very cold January night and I was chilled for hours.

[BigmanPigman]

34. Maybe you could help me...

In 1974 my entire 7th grade class watched a movie in the auditorium. It was of a prison camp and there was an eyeball in his soup. Is this the movie you mentioned? It has been bugging me for years. It is the only scene I remember.

[PatSeg]

37. Oh yes, that's the movie!

And the eyeball in the soup was probably the most memorable scene. Everything about the movie was gray, cold, and heavy. We ended up in a really bad mood for hours afterwards. Tom Courtenay who played Pasha in Doctor Zhivago played Ivan Denisovich. It was based on Solzhenitsyn's life. What an incredible life it was.

[BigmanPigman]

38. Thanks!

I don't remember what the purpose of showing 250 7th graders this film. It never happened before or after at my school. For years I have tried to find out which film this was. Sometimes I thought I imagined it, especially when an old friend didn't remember seeing it at all.

[PatSeg]

40. Yeah, I was wondering why they would

show such a film to 7th graders. A rather bizarre choice.

[DFW]

4. About the cast

Don’t Rod Steiger and Omar Sharif even get honorable mention?

[elleng]

5. Yes in Wiki:

Doctor Zhivago is a 1965 epic historical and romantic drama film directed by David Lean with a screenplay by Robert Bolt, set in Russia during World War I and the Russian Civil War. It stars Omar Sharif in the title role as Yuri Zhivago, a married physician and poet whose life is altered by the Russian Revolution and subsequent civil War, and Julie Christie as his love interest Lara Antipova. Geraldine Chaplin, Tom Courtenay, Rod Steiger, Alec Guinness, Ralph Richardson, Siobhán McKenna, and Rita Tushingham play supporting roles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Zhivago_(film)

[Straw Man]

6. Filmed mostly in Spain.

There's a lot of fake snow in that movie. A whole lot.

[NanceGreggs]

7. As an avid student of Russian history ...

... this movie always gets to me.

I only learned a few years ago that Tsar Nicholas' youngest sister, Olga, who had escaped to Denmark during the revolution, eventually emigrated to Canada with her 'commoner' husband.

After her husband's death, the penniless Olga was taken in by a Russian ex-pat who cared for her until her death. Olga died in a run-down apartment above a store just a few blocks south of where I live.

I have walked past that two-story building a hundred times, and have always wondered about the woman who so stoically accepted her fate without complaint - born a Grand Duchess into unimaginable wealth, destined to die in a Toronto apartment alone and penniless.

[elleng]

8. WOW!

[NanceGreggs]

10. Yes, it was a WOW moment ...

... when I learned the facts about Olga.

My interest in Russian history started with the movie Anastasia (Ingrid Bergman - 1956), which I watched with my mother, who told me the story was based on 'true events'.

I was fascinated by the idea of an alleged "Russian princess" talking about sewing jewels into her corset - and that led me into a life-long interest in the history of the Romanovs and their fates.

Learning that Olga had once lived - and died - in my Toronto neighbourhood was quite a shock.

[PatSeg]

29. Oh yes, I saw an article about her recently

I find Russian history fascinating as well. Did you read "Nicholas and Alexandra" by Robert Massie? Such a compelling book.

[betsuni]

9. I like the part where Lara rescues Pasha from the police while he's handing out flyers

on the street for a protest and she asks him if he's a Bolshevik and he says no, they don't know right from wrong. She calls him a prig and says the people don't want a revolution, he says yes they do they just don't know it yet. Then years later he's the Bolshevik leader. Reminds me of how Justice Democrats think Americans want a revolution, they just don't know it yet.

[Samrob]

11. When you all finished with Doctor Zhivago go to Netflix and watch the series "Occupied"

If Zhivago was a bit much, stock up on beer and snacks and watch this 3-Season series. After the second episode I couldn't stop until the binged the entire Season 1. I tell you...art imitates life. Alert: Norwegian with English sub-titles but most won't care after the first few minutes.

[elleng]

12. Thanks for the suggestion; however,

NO NETFLIX here, lost it when I moved, 'just' DirecTV.

Watched The West Wing on Netflix, then IT moved, so I hope to buy the series.

[scarletlib]

17. Roku

By one and plug it into your TV. As long as you have internet & a TV or laptop you can stream all of your favorite shows/ Networks. The Roku is free after you buy it. You can reactivate your Netflix account 7 watch via Roku.

[elleng]

23. Thanks, for the info; I'm UN-techie,

so don't know what the various services provide.

[scarletlib]

25. Roku provides most big streaming channels

Last edited Wed Feb 16, 2022, 03:33 PM - Edit history (1)

Hulu , Disney, Netflix etc

[PatSeg]

30. I was watching The West Wing for the umpteenth time

on Netflix and I was almost done when it was moved to HBO Max. Actually the quality on HBO was much better than Netflix and I got to finish it.

[elleng]

33. Glad you got to finish it.

I haven't been able to connect with it on HBO Max, don't want to 'stream' on my computer, so waiting for a set from somewhere.

[PatSeg]

35. Oh well

I've seen the entire series more times than I can count. After a few years, it is fresh all over again.

[elleng]

36. Ditto

[Solomon]

20. Yep. I binged on Occupied.

[Samrob]

22. It is a lot like it is the playbook Russia has been using since 2005 nt

[Samrob]

27. Amazing how close this series is to what is unfolding right now before our eyes. nt

[llmart]

13. One of my all time favorite movies.

I was a teenager when that movie came out. I had such a crush on Omar Sharif. Plus, I was just learning how my high school history classes weren't teaching a lot of the history that I would have been interested in. My high school World History teacher was sort of stuck on the US role in WWII and never got beyond most of that. I decided to get the book and read it, and though the love story part was the highlight of the movie, the book filled in a lot of details for me of Russian history.

Thanks for reminding me about this wonderful film. I will go to the library and get their copy and watch it on the next snowy day.

[elleng]

16. and he cleans up so well!!!

(Omar, that is.)

[PatSeg]

31. I read the book as well

That was when I first became interested in Russian history.

[Duncanpup]

15. I love Dr zhivago the cinematography is amazing

[PCIntern]

18. One of the great films of all time...

I saw it at the Boyd theater in Center City Philadelphia when it came out, and it was an almost unimaginable cinematic experience for a 13-year-old. The vision and scope compared with most films of the era was unparalleled, and the concept of being in love with two women simultaneously was rather novel for an adolescent.

The only thing that always bothered me was that when I matured, I read somewhere that Omar Sharif, internationally recognized bridge player, would not play with women and was incredibly prejudiced in that regard. I realized at that moment that actors are just that, actors, and his portrayal of Zhivago was acting, and his sensitivity and humanism was demanded of him in the role. It was a coming-of-age moment for me, and as much as I retained the romance of the screen into my mid-teens and believed that people were cast because that’s how they were in real life and so they fit into the role just perfectly . My mother, who had been involved in theater professionally, had told me this many times, but it took an Aha! moment to realize what all was going on. So for me, this film was a really significant experience. The Penultimate scene of him jumping off the trolley and trying to reach her on the street stayed with me for years. I’ve always felt that it’s the kind of thing that would happen to me.

[brewens]

19. One of my earliest memories is Dr. Zhivago in the movie listings as a kid for what seemed like

forever. I was just old enough to look at the movie ads in the Spokane paper and get stoked about what movies we'd go see. Dr. Zhivago was not one of them. Mom and dad weren't going to take us to that one.

I finally watched it 50 years later when I got a copy from Netflix. Great movie. I need to watch to again.

The first movie I really remember going to see was Robinson Crusoe on Mars. I was five and my brother was nine. Our next-door neighbor kids were the same age and we four got to ride the bus downtown to the movies on Saturdays. Probably not something parents would do today. I got a copy of that one too.

[sinkingfeeling]

21. Loved that movie and Omar.

[PatSeg]

26. I love that movie

So what were you doing up SO early?

[Tommy Carcetti]

28. If you want a real good insight into the current Russian-Ukrainian crisis...

The 2017 Ukrainian movie "Cyborgs: Heroes Never Die" offers an excellent glimpse into the situation.

It's about the 2014 battle for the airport in Donetsk, Ukraine between members of the Ukrainian army and Russians and Russian-backed fighters.

The title as translated sounds sort of cheesy (like some Transformers knock-off), but "cyborgs" was the nickname for members of the Ukrainian army who fought at the Donetsk airport.

And it's actually very good. Much like a Ukrainian "Band of Brothers" that delves into the various personalities and backgrounds in the unit. There's your typical war-action movie, but also a lot of down time discussions that go to the heart of why the people were fighting and what it means to be Ukrainian.

I saw it on some secondary streaming service (Tubi, maybe?) but I think it might be available on Youtube as well. The only negative is that I saw the English dubbed version and the original version alternates between Ukrainian and Russian from character to character and that actually is significant to the plot and characters.

[iemanja]

39. I loved that movie

It was banned by the Soviets.