Zhivago is weak-willed poet who goes along with the prevailing wind. Lara is a young dressmaker’s daughter who is having a fling with Victor, her mother’s lover. When her mother finds out, she tries to commit suicide. Zhivago is one of the doctors called to care for her and sees Victor and Lara together. Some time later, Zhivago is present with his fiancée Tonya at a ball when Lara shows up and tries to kill Victor. Lara is carried off by her fiancé. When World War One begins, Zhivago and Lara meet again on a battlefield where they are serving as doctor and nurse. They fall in love, but stay faithful to their spouses. When the communist revolution occurs, Lara’s husband becomes a red general, and she never sees him again. Zhivago returns to Moscow to find Tanya, her father and their son living in squalor. Zhivago’s brother, a red officer, helps them escape to the country to Tanya’s family farm.

While hiding from the revolution, Zhivago meets Lara, and they begin an ongoing affair. He is captured by troops and forced to serve as a medic. When he finally escapes and returns home, Tanya and his family have fled to Paris. Lara is still in town, and they return to the farm to hide out. Victor shows up and convinces them they are in danger. He takes Lara, expecting Zhivago to follow, but instead Zhivago returns to Moscow where his brother gets him a job at a hospital. Some time later, he sees Lara walking along a city street. He jumps off a train to catch her, but dies of a heart attack as she walked off.

The entire movie is a flashback. The front and endpieces have Zhivago’s brother talking to a young girl, an orphan, whom he suspects is Zhivago and Lara’s daughter.

It was long — about four hours long. The story didn’t annoy me as much as the book, but still, Zhivago’s weakness made me care very little about him. In fact, none of the characters did a lot for me. I found the movie interesting mostly for it’s scenery of the bleak Russian winter (although it was shot in Spain) and its historical context.