clock … watching time, the only true currency

Doctor Zhivago stretched over two nights’ viewing. At three hours and twenty minutes, even the DVD had to be flipped over to watch the part after the intermission. Loved the scenery and the sweep, though a bit too sappy overall. Also, I’ve never seen such fresh, unlined faces among those supposedly enduring the ravages of a Russian winter.

This was my third David Lean movie. I hardly remember A Passage to India, but I’ll never forget watching Lawrence of Arabia during a Boston snowstorm in my college dorm room. This was before reading Seven Pillars of Wisdom, and writing a not-so-enlightening paper on said book. I won’t be following up by reading Doctor Zhivago: the film can stand on its own merits, for me.