FILM STUDY WORKSHEET -- FOR A WORK OF HISTORICAL FICTION Dr. Zhivago Read the questions before you watch the movie so that you will know what to look for. At breaks during the showing or when the film is over, you will have an opportunity to make short notes in the spaces provided. If you make notes while the movie is playing, make sure that your note taking doesn't interfere with carefully watching the film. You do not need to make any notes on the worksheet, but when the movie is completed, you will be required to fully respond to the questions.  Complete the assignment by answering each question in paragraph form on a separate sheet of paper. Answers need to be complete and comprehensive, demonstrating that you paid attention and thought about what was shown on the screen. You may use more than one paragraph if necessary. Be sure that the topic sentence of your first paragraph uses key words from the question. All responses should be in complete sentences using proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation 1. Write a brief summary of the main plot, describing the event or events that are the focus of the film, stating where and when they take place. ​​​_____________________________________________________________________________________ ​​​_____________________________________________________________________________________ ​​​_____________________________________________________________________________________ ​​​_____________________________________________________________________________________ ​​​_____________________________________________________________________________________ ​​​_____________________________________________________________________________________ ​​​_____________________________________________________________________________________ ​​​_____________________________________________________________________________________ 2. Name and describe the protagonist and the antagonist in this story. ​​​_____________________________________________________________________________________ ​​​_____________________________________________________________________________________ ​​​_____________________________________________________________________________________ ​​​_____________________________________________________________________________________ ​​​_____________________________________________________________________________________ ​​​_____________________________________________________________________________________ 3. In the story told by the film, what is the main conflict and how is it resolved? ​​​_____________________________________________________________________________________ ​​​_____________________________________________________________________________________ ​​​_____________________________________________________________________________________ ​​​_____________________________________________________________________________________ ​​​_________________________________________ ...

1. FILM STUDY WORKSHEET -- FOR A WORK OF
HISTORICAL FICTION
Dr. Zhivago
Read the questions before you watch the movie so that you will
know what to look for. At breaks during the showing or when
the film is over, you will have an opportunity to make short
notes in the spaces provided. If you make notes while the movie
is playing, make sure that your note taking doesn't interfere
with carefully watching the film. You do not need to make any
notes on the worksheet, but when the movie is completed, you
will be required to fully respond to the questions.
Complete the assignment by answering each question in
paragraph form on a separate sheet of paper. Answers need to be
complete and comprehensive, demonstrating that you paid
attention and thought about what was shown on the screen. You
may use more than one paragraph if necessary. Be sure that the
topic sentence of your first paragraph uses key words from the
question. All responses should be in complete sentences using
proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation
1. Write a brief summary of the main plot, describing the event
or events that are the focus of the film, stating where and when
they take place.
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_____________________________________________________
________________________________

2. _____________________________________________________
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2. Name and describe the protagonist and the antagonist in this
story.
_____________________________________________________
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_____________________________________________________
________________________________

3. _____________________________________________________
________________________________
_____________________________________________________
________________________________
_____________________________________________________
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_____________________________________________________
________________________________
3. In the story told by the film, what is the main conflict and
how is it resolved?
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4. ________________________________
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4. Describe one image or scene from the film that stand out in
your mind. Discuss why it impressed you and how it relates to
themes explored in the story.
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5. _____________________________________________________
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5. Pick one of the following factors that play an important role
in the film. Chose among political, economic, religious, social,
and ideological. How does the film reflect the factor you
identified? Be specific.
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6. Describe a lesson from this film that viewers can apply to
their own lives: (1) in deciding what position to take on an issue

6. of public concern.
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7. It could be said that “History is what the present chooses to
remember about the past.” Given the fact that the audience will
take away from the movie an impression of the historical events
or figures portrayed in the story, does the film improve the
viewer’s understanding of historical events? Justify your
conclusion.
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7. _____________________________________________________
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PAGE
2
Zhivago: The Book
Before it became a film, of course, Doctor Zhivago had been a
novel—one with quite an interesting and controversial history.
Boris Pasternak during the First Congress of Soviet Writers in
1934. (Photo: Author unknown, [Public Domain], via
Wikimedia Commons).
Its author, Boris Pasternak, was born into a literary environment
in Moscow in 1890. His father was an illustrator who created
illustrations for the work of family friend Leo Tolstoy.
Pasternak became a poet, and for a time, after his first book of
poems was published in 1917, he was one of the most famous
poets in the Soviet Union. His writing rarely kowtowed to the
state’s view of things, however, and by the 1930s, Pasternak’s
poetry was not only publicly disparaged by the Soviets but often
banned outright.
The reaction of the authorities to Pasternak’s prose was equally
dour. Undeterred by censorship, Pasternak continued to write,
longing to create a work on a grand scale in the vein of his idol
Tolstoy. He began Zhivago after World War II but did not
complete it until 1956. A real-life conflict between Pasternak,
his wife, and his mistress inspired the love triangle that formed

8. the heart of the book. Pasternak viewed the completed work as
primarily a romance novel, but when he tried to convince his
Soviet publishers to publish it, they refused, branding it anti-
Soviet because of its implicit criticism of the fallout of the
Russian Revolution.
Fiercely proud of his work, Pasternak took the extremely risky
step of having it smuggled out of the Soviet Union to be
published in Italy. “You are hereby invited to watch me face the
firing squad,” he is said to have remarked as he handed over his
manuscript. Despite many attempts from the Soviet authorities
to prevent it, the book was published in Europe in 1957 and was
an immediate hit. It was translated into English and dozens of
other languages in 1958, and Pasternak was nominated for the
Nobel Prize in Literature.
It was at this point that the CIA got involved. As detailed in last
year’s book by Peter Finn and Petra Couvée, The Zhivago
Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle Over a Forbidden
Book, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency was doing all in its
power to undermine and discredit the Soviet regime. In their
view, awarding a major prize to a writer regarded as disloyal
could only serve to embarrass the Soviets in the eyes of the
world. The CIA secretly pressed for Pasternak to win the award
(which, in fairness, he had been routinely considered for since
the late 40s), and he did. In the meantime, the CIA covertly
printed Doctor Zhivago in Russian and had it smuggled into the
Soviet Union, where it became an underground sensation.
Despite the fact that Pasternak declined the Nobel Prize (in
private, very reluctantly), the Soviet authorities continued to
vilify him and at one point considered expelling him from the
country. The stress took a toll on the aging author’s health, and
by 1960, he was dead.
Commander Lean
David Lean in Northern Finland early in 1965, during the
shooting of 'Doctor Zhivago.' (Photo: By Kalervo Manninen
(Suomen Kuvalehti 1965) [Public domain], via Wikimedia
Commons)

9. What didn’t die was Doctor Zhivago. As one of the most
popular novels of the late 50s, it was only natural that
Hollywood should seek to transfer its oversized drama and
passionate characters to celluloid. There was one man in
particular who seemed ideally suited to the task of adapting
such an expansive work: British director David Lean.
Lean was well known for creating the types of movies
commonly referred to as “epics” – wide-ranging stories, often
placed in exotic settings, designed to convey the magnitude of a
historical moment or particular person. His signature epics were
Lawrence of Arabia (1962), about Arab partisan T.E. Lawrence,
and The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), about prisoners of
war forced to build a bridge by the Japanese during World War
II. Both of these popular and critical successes won Oscars for
Best Picture of the Year.
Lean had read Doctor Zhivago in 1959 after finishing Lawrence
of Arabia, and when producer Carlo Ponti suggested it as his
next project, he was enthusiastic. Ponti originally conceived of
the film as a vehicle for his wife Sophia Loren, but Lean
couldn’t picture Loren in the key role of Lara, Zhivago’s love
interest. Instead, once the project began to get off the ground in
1963, he went in a completely different direction. (Although
Lean had sidelined Ponti’s wife, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was
now involved in the financing of the film and gave Lean full
control of casting. Ponti held no grudge.)
Many actors and actresses had been considered for the main
roles of Zhivago and Lara, among them Peter O’Toole and Paul
Newman (for Zhivago) and Jane Fonda and Yvette Mimieux (for
Lara). Lean, however, was impressed with young British actress
Julie Christie, who had made a splash in her first major role in
the kitchen sink drama Billy Liar (with Tom Courtenay, who
would also land a part in Zhivago). Christie’s commanding
beauty, combined with her obvious intelligence, made her
Lean’s ideal choice for the role. For Zhivago, Lean made the
somewhat more surprising choice of casting Omar Sharif, who
had made such a strong impression in a supporting role in

10. Lawrence of Arabia. Despite his many gifts as an actor, few on
the project considered him the ideal choice for a Russian doctor
and poet. Sharif had hoped to get a smaller role on the picture
and was surprised (but pleased) when Lean proposed that he
play the lead.
Aside from Sharif, Lean gathered together many other members
of the team that had worked on Lawrence of Arabia, including
scriptwriter Robert Bolt and set designer John Box. Nicholas
Roeg, who would in a short time become a celebrated director
himself (Walkabout, Don’t Look Now), began the film as
director of photography, but he did not see eye-to-eye with Lean
about how the film should look (Lean’s aesthetic approach to
the film was to make the war scenes look sunny and beautiful
and the love scenes grey and grim; Roeg’s instincts were
exactly the opposite). Another Lawrence alumnus, Freddie
Young, was invited back for the year-long shoot that would
become Zhivago. Lean was notorious for taking his time to get
things right, and his previous two movies had also been
extended shoots. 1965 would be the year of Zhivago for all
concerned.
Omar Sharif and Julie Christie from the trailer for the 1965 film
'Doctor Zhivago.' (Photo: Trailer screenshot (Freddie Young),
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)
The Spanish Dictator
For a director like David Lean, who liked to shoot on-location
as often as possible, the first and foremost obstacle presented
by Doctor Zhivago was the fact that its true setting was off-
limits. By 1964, none of the Soviet regime’s rancor towards
Pasternak and Zhivago had abated, so the possibility of filming
in the Soviet Union was highly unlikely (Lean was invited to
Moscow to discuss it, but he suspected the meeting was
intended solely to discourage him from making the movie at all
and did not go). After searching around the world for a location
that offered the expanses of land, crowds of people, and access
to horses and old steam locomotives that the production
required, John Box proposed Spain as the best choice. Filming

11. began there in December of 1964 and would continue through
1965. Although some unusual measures had to be taken to
create a snowy landscape during a hot Spanish summer (white
marble from a local quarry was powdered and spread on white
plastic across the fields), the main location in northern Spain
proved to be effective and relatively inexpensive.
Much more expensive was the set that Lean’s team built outside
of Madrid: two full-scale Moscow streets circa 1922 that took
18 months to build. Unlike most such sets, the Moscow
recreation was not a long façade propped up by wood. Lean’s
team essentially created homes with fully furnished interiors
that could be used for filming. Lean insisted on a high level of
historical accuracy in the recreation, which was typical of his
approach in general. He fussed over details that would not even
show on screen, including insisting that his costume designer
recreate the correct period underwear for all of his actors.
Lean’s perfectionism rarely endeared him to his technicians or
his performers. A true auteur, Lean fully controlled every aspect
of the movie and refused to give up on a take until he had
achieved exactly what he wanted down to the last miniscule
movement. He famously regarded his actors as objects to be
manipulated to suit his scheme, and he made special effort to be
distant with them off-set so that they would not influence his
vision on-set. Lean regretted accepting Rod Steiger in the cast
as Lara’s aristocratic lover Komarovsky since Steiger chafed at
over-direction and insisted on inserting his own ideas into his
performance in true “method actor” tradition. Most of the actors
who worked with Lean on Zhivago did not recall the experience
fondly, although many later admitted that the results were worth
the effort. At the time, however, despite his outwardly
unassuming style of communication, most regarded Lean more
as dictator than director.
The Cossacks attack a peaceful demonstration in 'Doctor
Zhivago.' (Photo: Cropped screenshot from the trailer, [Public
domain], via Wikimedia Commons)
Zhivago moved forward, however slowly, all of the actors and

12. technicians aware that they were employed in a major enterprise
in spite of their reservations about David Lean’s stern approach.
After filming wrapped in Spain, there was additional filming in
Finland and Canada for winter scenes that required authentic
snow. (The Finland location was only 10 miles from the Russian
border, as close as the production would come to its spiritual
home.) Filming was finally completed by October of 1965, and
Lean and his team took to the editing room. The movie premiere
was scheduled for the end of the year, so there were only eight
weeks to edit the entire film. Once edited, the final film ran
almost three and a half hours. Grand themes played on a grand
scale required a long running time.
A Worthy Gamble
Zhivago cost a fortune to film; in 1965, it was one of the most
expensive movies ever made, various estimates putting its cost
between $11 and $15 million. The many settings, large crowd
and battle scenes, and unusual requirements (including an
interior of a dacha “frozen” in beeswax) guaranteed that it
would be a pricey proposition. Confident in Lean and in the
potential of the story, however, the film’s producers banked that
it would find an eager audience. They were completely right.
Released on December 22nd, 1965, Doctor Zhivago soon
became one of the biggest hits of 1966. Omar Sharif and Julie
Christie became the screen’s newest stars, “Zhivago”-style
clothing featured in fashion magazines and department stores,
and the love theme from the movie (“Lara’s Theme”) by
Maurice Jarre became ubiquitous (it became a hit single for
several artists when lyrics were written for it and it was retitled
“Somewhere, My Love”). Eventually, the film would gross an
incredible $112 million domestically and over $200 million
worldwide.
Julie Christie in a scene from 'Doctor Zhivago.' (Photo: Trailer
screenshot. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)
Critics were less enthralled with the film than the general
public. Some opined that Sharif and Christie lacked chemistry;
others that the romance was nice enough, but that it was

13. basically a soap opera performed on a ludicrously elaborate
scale. Most critics agreed that the film was visually stunning,
but few admitted to being enchanted by its handling of character
or historical incident. Unmoved by the stellar box office
receipts, David Lean reportedly took the negative criticism to
heart and proclaimed that he would never direct another picture;
he came close to living up to his word, only directing two more
features in the following 20 years.
A Lasting Love Affair
Doctor Zhivago had been released just in time to qualify for the
1966 Academy Awards. Although Lean’s epics were usually
huge Oscar gatherers, Doctor Zhivago’s awards would mostly
be for technical achievement (Best Art Direction and Best
Costume Design, among others), although Robert Bolt did win
an award for his adapted screenplay. The more populist Golden
Globe Awards, however, nearly gave Zhivago a sweep: Best
Film, Best Actor (Sharif), Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best
Music. Only Julie Christie failed to pick up an award in the Best
Actress category. Perhaps with the exception of the embittered
David Lean, almost everyone involved with Zhivago continued
to have busy and successful careers afterward, particularly
Christie and Sharif.
Although it had always been popular with audiences, through
the 80s and 90s Doctor Zhivago’s critical reputation began to
improve. One of the reasons may be that few films like it would
follow. In a sense, Zhivago was the final flowering of the
romantic epic. Although there would be later attempts at films
in this vein, such as Warren Beatty’s Reds or Anthony
Minghella’s The English Patient, the decline in popular interest
in this kind of film might best be indicated by Michael Cimino’s
Heaven’s Gate, a notorious disaster that cost millions to make
but failed miserably at the box office in 1980. The era of the
sweeping historical romance is over for the cinema; modest
television dramas like Downton Abbey seem to suffice for
modern viewers. Pasha, the character played by Tom Courtenay,
makes a famous observation in Doctor Zhivago that “the

14. personal life is dead in Russia. History has killed it.” One might
say the same about the romantic epic in America.
Doctor Zhivago, however, continues to live on. In 1988, the
book was published in Russia for the first time, and in 1994, the
movie was finally shown there. The rise of the DVD market
created such a demand for the film that it was issued several
times, most recently in a 45th anniversary edition. This year
there was even an attempt to bring Doctor Zhivago to Broadway
as a musical; unfortunately, the show closed in May after less
than 50 performances (the critics savaged this Zhivago as well).
The film, however, still possesses some kind of cinematic magic
that brings audiences back to it. Whether it’s the spectacle of a
recreated Russia from the distant past, the youthful and
attractive cast still in their first flower of fame (Omar Sharif
sadly just passed away in July), or the tragic love story that
seems so passionate amidst such misery, audiences still find
much to love in Doctor Zhivago. As the era of the historical
romance recedes further with every passing year, this love affair
seems likely to go on and on.
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