"Bitter Sweet Romance with Panorama View"

DOCTOR ZHIVAGO

Year: 1965
Country: United States/Italy
Language: English
Number: 433
Director: David Lean
Starring: Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Rod Steiger

David Lean's three hour long epic, Doctor Zhivago, is based upon the Nobel Prize winning novel by Boris Pasternak, which is set during the Russian Revolution where we follows Pasternak's alter ego, Yuri Andreyevich Zhivago (Omar Sharif), a poet and a doctor whom is thorn between two women, his wife and stepsister, Tonya (Gerandine Chaplin) and the young and beautiful, Lara Antipova (Julie Christie) who Yuri meets several times during the revolution, from the crowded Moscow to the ice cold Ural mountains, but no matter what, the revolution will always find them.

Doctor Zhivago is without a doubt a very beautiful film, with all it's sets, costumes and landscapes, and the thought of how big the russian empire is, makes it even more breathtaking. Well that was my immediate reaction after I saw it the first time. But after years of watching other russian films by Eisenstein and Tarkovsky, Doctor Zhivago seems now like romance pocket books, with to many love cliches, and Omar Sharif's over the top theatrical facial expression, who was terribly miscast in the lead. The Magic is gone. And I can't lie when I say that the first hour of the film was so boring, and to long for character buildings, which could have been shorter, and I don't care if it's all in the book. 

But what I liked about this movie, is still the things which I was impressed by the first time. The beautiful cinematography, the landscapes, costumes, the art direction and Julie Christie. So my conclusion is that this movie is simply eye candy, with the right romantic tone and conflicts. So if I had to chose some one to recommend it to, it would have been the ones who haven't seen any russian movies, and since Zhivago follows pretty much a safe recipe, it's a good start for more breathtaking adventures about the mysterious and the majestic country called Russia.

Grade: B-

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"O.K. I Get It!"

GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL

Year: 1957
Country: United States
Language: English
Number: 323
Script: Leon Uris
Director: John Sturges
Starring: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming, Jo Van Fleet
Oscar nom: Best Editing, Best Sound
IMDb: 7.2
RT score: 82%

John Sturges' Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is another film about the legendary western lawman Wyatt Earp (Burt Lancaster) and his friend, the gambler and former dentist, Doc Holliday (Kirk Douglas) who both goes to the town of Tombstone to track down the Clanton brothers. It all ends up with the legendary gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

Having seen "My Darling Clementine" with Henry Fonda, I felt that this movie was quiet historical inaccurate, for instance, the actual battle was only 30 seconds, while in this movie it's goes on for eight minutes. This is a typical Hollywood film, where the actions scenes need to be boosted up in order to get people's attentions, and make a tough guy out of every character, like they did with Lancaster and Douglas in this film. And it doesn't help with the song playing in the background, which lyrics only pushing the words "O.K. Corral" to our faces. We get it, it's a gunfight at the O.K. Corral!



Least the Henry Fonda version was deeper incense of the characters, moral standards and weaknesses. This version chooses the simplest way, by use of alcohol, even Wyatt is a heavy drinker. There wasn't any romantic scenes, in Clementine, because the characters kept their feelings for themselves, which only made it more appealing. This movie is so superficial as it could have been. It's kind of weird that I keep comparing it to another movie, but speaking in an objective perspective this movie did drag, there was to many shootout and robbery scenes that doesn't have any relevance to the story.

But what I did like about this movie, was actually the gunfight, although it's inaccurate, there's pretty much excitement in it. And Kirk Douglas certainly give us a great sneaky and charismatic performance as the reckless, but loyal companion, he's simply cool. But Lancaster on the other hand doesn't not quiet fit in to this role, it's just to theatrical and his flashing physique does not fit into the western genre.

Grade: C-

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