Posts by Gino Sassani

In many ways the epic story and film Doctor Zhivago echoes the real-life story of Boris Pasternak, who penned the original novel. Pasternak was a firsthand witness to the events that led to and became the Russian Revolution. He collected 50 years of memories that began with the early days before the revolution and ended with his own confrontations with the USSR government. Like Zhivago in the story, Pasternak's work was banned in his own country. The manuscript had to be smuggled out of Russia and found its way first to Italy, where it was finally published for the first time. But it didn't stop there. The book quickly found its way to countries all over the globe. It was translated into several languages in a very short time. In 1957 Pasternak was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize for literature. Alas, that was not meant to be. He was confronted with the Party Government and warned he would not be permitted to return home should he go to Sweden to accept the prestigious award. And while that might not have appeared to have been much of a threat when you consider Pasternak's harsh observations, this was his homeland, and he did have family there who would have most assuredly paid a price for his actions. He declined the award, begging the committee to not "judge him too harshly". It would be Pasternak's last stand. He would never see the complete success of the novel or the impact it made on the world stage. He died just three years after turning down the award. He was never to see David Lean's epic interpretation of his work. He never saw the film Doctor Zhivago.

I must confess that I too had never seen the movie. I had certainly seen many clips of the film. It was impossible to follow films, in general and not be aware of the film and its impact. Of course, I had heard much of the music. The Love Theme, also called Lara's Theme, has become one of the most recognizable movie themes in the history of the industry. The movie was quite popular, but circumstances just never presented themselves for me to have the opportunity to see this movie, at least in a manner worthy of its reputation. Certainly, there were television showings, but I could never bring myself to experience such an iconic film in a cut-up fashion with likely an inferior print. Even DVD kept me at a distance. Did I really want to watch this movie with a 3-4 mbps bit rate? Certainly not. I suspect there is perhaps an entire generation of film fans out there that found themselves in the same situation. We've been asking ourselves: will there ever be any chance of seeing the movie in a format that preserves its splendor? I guess I was holding out for a nostalgic screening at a local at house theatre. And then came Blu-ray, with its limitless possibilities, and finally a copy of Doctor Zhivago would arrive on my doorstop. My dog barked ceaselessly at the UPS man who delivers these goodies on an almost daily basis. This time there was an extra snarl in that growl, I was sure of it. Could she have known that this particular delivery was going to find me and my wife locked away for nearly 4 hours (in my case more like 6) in our, closed to dogs, little theater? She knew. She knew.