Wow.
Dr. Zhivago is a poet, in Russia, in early 1900's when Bolsheviks are trying to take over.
(Trying -- and succeeding.)
Scenery; trains going, cross-country, taking people away from the war;
snow;
betrayal;
people using other people.
(Sounds like Saturday night.)
No, seriously, really good.
Have to see again, to absorb.
The phrase that stood out when I heard it -- I wrote it down --
"our cursed capacity for suffering."
(The guy pronounces "cursed" with two syllables.
Not rhyming with "worst"
But rather -- "curs - ed.")
"...our cursed capacity for suffering."
It was a narrator's voice-over: you see train, snow-covered land as far as you can see, soldiers -- sort of a blend of war-time scenarios,
and the narrator is talking about Russia's history of repression and injustice and war.
And with hindsight, the viewer knows that the Bolsheviks taking over saying they're going to make everything better, are communists, and they're going to make everything worse.
That phrase grabbed me -- because it sounded like the author was saying maybe all of these terrible ills befall Russia because the people have the strength and endurance to suffer through it.
Like -- he's thinking if the Russian people weren't so good at endurance (suffering) and living through it, they would have got fed up earlier and demanded positive change from their government...
I'm not sure.
Based on novel by
Boris Pasternak.
(That name has always been familiar to me, but haven't read him -- since that movie, think his name is part of the "wallpaper" of popular culture of late 20th century.)
Plus, when you watch this movie, you want to keep in mind, the setting of the movie is early 1900s (or teens) but the film was made in the Sixties, and Communist Russia (Soviet Union) was biggest threat we worried about. I think people believed communism would go on forever -- I don't think anybody predicted 1989 ...
What year did Pasternak write the novel?
now, want to know that.
"Our cursed capacity for suffering."
-30-
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