Talk:Doctor Zhivago (film)

Two of my favorite lines are missing.

The setup for the earlier one is there: Gromeko: "They've shot the Czar, and all his family. Oh, that's a savage deed." Tanya, i'm pretty sure, responds asking what reason there could be to do it. Zhivago, i think, but possibly Gromeko, replies to the effect that it's to show there's no turning back.

I call the 1st line the setup bcz IMO its purpose is not so much to establish the historical timeline and show them following the events, as to present Pasternak's view of the Bolshevik's awareness of morale factors, their psychological tactics, and the likelihood that the tactics worked.

The second is when Partisan Commander and Commissar argue about Zhivago, whose politics are a problem. PC says that "the doctor has a [very?] good war record". One of them, Commissar, IIRC, says (in effect, that PC is winning a battle between them, but will lose the corresponding war, and explicitly, that) when the military struggle is over, everyone will be judged on their political record.

IMO, this dialog probably sets up the desertion scene: Zhivago becomes a straggler, knowing

• on one hand that between the cost of pursuing him and PC's sympathy, they won't come back for him, so that the desertion is not suicidal, and
• on the other, that his future is so threatening that the only good bet for him personally is living for short term happiness.

--Jerzy 20:04, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Petya/Kuril

ExtraordinaryMan, yet again forgetting to log in here:

• - The line "No more Czars!" etc. was spoken by Kuril, credited as "Bolshevik", played by Bernard Kay. Petya, played by Jack MacGowran, is the stage driver who takes Zhivago and the Gromekos to Yuriatin. Zhivago and Alexander Gromeko both refer to him as Petya, while Zhivago calls the Bolshevik Kuril during the scene where the hospital is being shut down after the war. Thus explaining the change. . .