Customer Reviews

Doctor Zhivago

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I loathe Kiera Knightly's mannerisms so completely that I almost missed the end of this Dr. Zhivago---that beautiful ending---where Lara is about to be arrested. A frightening official of the "organs of state"---and a DEAD RINGER for the killer/rapist Beria---waits in an alley for Lara. She turns to her little boy, hands him Zhivago's poems, and tells him to run home, and not to look back. So he does, as her captors drive her away through the grey streets.

All of it's swathed in this quiet throb of music. Ludovico Einaudi's score is strictly for adults, and it either bores you to death or sweeps you along. This Zhivago, too, is for adults (with the Knightly exception), following the novel more closely. So the Russia of that time is more closely represented in folk, classical and impressionistic styles of music. "Zhivago", the main theme (and echoed in a leitmotif throughout this CD) MAKES the film--an elegiac string quartet holds notes for whole measures at a time, and then builds. The effect underlines the simple tragedy, unseen and repeated millions of times in Soviet Russia. Lara and Zhivago just drop off the face of the earth, like other victims of cruelty, and their story, however fraught, is finally lost in anonymity. From the beginning, this was Pasternak's point. And it's conveyed by one tune!

A moody score, sometimes reminiscent of "The Piano". Really beautiful.

The soundtrack for the 2002 TV miniseries "Doctor Zhivago" is as good as the film itself. The pinnacle of the score is the first track (which is basically the love theme and permeates the entire story), but Einaudi still manages to compose brilliant music for the 4 hour drama which unfolds on screen. The chemistry between Mr. Matheson & Ms. Knightley is undeniable. Unlike the classic 1965 movie, you feel and sense that there's more than mutual & sexual attraction which pulls Lara & Zhivago closer together amidst the turmoil of the Russian Revolution. Sam Niell is an excellent & complex Komarovsky, a villain's villain. I also like the tracks "Farewell To The Past," "Love Is A Mystery," & "Kolechko." However, it's "Zhivago" that really is the dominant theme of the score, and "Kolechko" really pulls into perspective the tragedy, heartache & loss of the Russian Revolution. Very evocative of the horrors of war and the evil in man's heart. I highly recommend the soundtrack AND the movie. BUY them. They're worth every penny.