Restored 'Doctor Zhivago' recaptures original splendor

By Johannes Simbolon

JAKARTA (JP): For most moviegoers, Doctor Zhivago will forever remain one of Hollywood's masterpieces.

The three-hour and 17 minute-tragic romance between the poet- doctor Yuri Zhivago (Omar Sharif) and Lara (Julie Christie) amid the Russian Revolution and World War I has captured the hearts of millions of film lovers worldwide.

One may be able to rent this film on videocassette or laser disc from video stores, but they are likely to find the film has lost clarity and has scratches here and there.

Local film lovers are now able to rediscover the magic of the movie on TNT cable channel through Indovision pay-TV service on Oct. 27 and Oct. 28 at 9 p.m. The coming screening of the film by TNT is quite special. The station will run the restored version of the film, which was released last year in the United States to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the film's premier in 1965.

"The use of the latest film and sound technology has recaptured the film's original sharpness and produced a cleaner soundtrack, bringing this epic classic of the past back to its original luster," said TNT spokesperson Lisa Prestwich.

The film was based on the 512-page Nobel Prize-winning novel of the same title by Boris Pasternak. Labeling the novel a vehicle of "hatred of socialism," the former Soviet Union government banned it, but a manuscript was smuggled to Italy, where it was published in 1957. It immediately became an international sensation earning Pasternak the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958. The Soviet Union government forced him to refuse the prize. Pasternak died in dishonor in 1960.

Several producers and film studios bid for the rights, which finally went to Carlo Ponti in 1963. Ponti thought the film should be as grand as Lawrence of Arabia which had just won seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director.

He thus recruited the film's former crew, including David Lean as director, Robert Bolt as screenwriter. Peter O'Toole, the star of Lawrence of Arabia, was almost included in the cast. Lean first offered him the role of Doctor Zhivago, but O'Toole was reluctant to work in another arduous location and turned it down, causing a rift with Lean that would last until 1988. Lean then offered the role to Omar Sharif, an Egyptian actor who played a supporting role in Lawrence of Arabia, a decision which not only surprised the Western film industry but also Sharif himself.

For the role of Lara, Doctor Zhivago's lover, Lean chose Julie Christie, a then new British actress. Christie caught Lean's attention in Billy Liar. Lean gave the role of student radical Pasha to another actor in Billy Liar, Tom Courtenay.

Ponti thought at least part of the film should be shot in the Soviet Union, but the government closed the door to him. Lean visited Yugoslavia and the Scandinavian countries in search of the perfect location. Both areas were too cold and the bureaucracy of Yugoslavia made it impossible to make the film there.

They wound up in Spain, which was at that time a major location for film production. Many people of several Spanish villages made a living by playing film extras. Moscow street sets were constructed just outside Madrid's limits, while the mountains near Soria, a region 300 miles north of Madrid, was chosen as the location for Zhivago's country estate and the train scenes.

The Moscow street set was touted as one of the largest ever built for a motion picture. It took six months to build the set on a 10-acre plot, involved 800 workmen and used six tons of nails in total.

Some scenes were shot in Finland and Canada. The scenes in which Zhivago makes his way home across Siberia after deserting the Red Army were shot in Finland; and the scene in which the train carrying Zhivago and his family exits a tunnel for the first view of the Ural Mountains was shot in Canada.

The film involved 10,000 extras in total, including 3,500 extras in Moscow street scenes.

The shooting was set to last 10 months but the schedule grew longer because of Lean's desire to capture the different seasons during which the story took place. Unfortunately, the making of the film took place during one of the wildest winters in Spain. The filming of winter scenes was often so delayed that many ended up being shot in summer. The cast were then forced to wear many layers of clothing and the makeup crew had to dab the actors' faces every two minutes because they were sweating so much.

Because of the delay, another US$2.5 million was added to the film's initial budget of $10 million.

All the effort paid off. Doctor Zhivago was released by MGM in 1965, producing money and awards. By the end of 1965 it had become another of MGM's top moneymakers, grossing more than $15 million, placing it just behind Gone With the Wind and Ben Hur in terms of moneymaking. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards and eventually garnered five Oscars including Best Screenplay (Robert Bolt), Best Cinematography (Frederick A. Young), Best Original Music Score (Maurice Jarre), Best Set Production (John Box) and Best Costume Design (Phyllis Dalton).

Lara's Theme (Somewhere, My Love) by Maurice Jarre is one of the film's legacies that still captures many hearts today. The soundtrack recording sold over 600,000 copies during the film's initial run and remains a solid hit today.

And the name of Lara has since become popular.

"I know many girls whose name is Lara who are between 24 and 28. There was no such name before. I'd never heard of girls called Lara outside Russia," Sharif once said.

As for the Soviet Union, the novel remained banned there for decades until it was published in 1988 during Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost era. Lean tried in vain to screen the film at the Moscow Film Festival in 1987. The film was still banned after the novel was permitted publication, partly because the government was planning to make its own version. Finally, Doctor Zhivago premiered in Moscow in 1994.