Word: zhivago
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Last winter in Bangalore, India, a pair of Englishmen stood peering through camera lenses. Two more Westerners squinting into viewfinders - nothing new to India. But these were no tourists out for holiday views of the East. One was Sir David Lean, director of Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, shooting his first film in 14 years, an adaptation of E.M. Forster's A Pas sage to India. A few yards away was Lord Snowdon, the photographer who expelled posture and plumage from celebrity portraits, arching for shots of the cast and crew...
WHETHER IT BE Casablanca, Dr. Zhivago, or Gone with the Wind, every classic war picture must feature a love story. Who can forget, for example, the unforgettable moments when Humphrey Bogart passionately sweeps Ingrid Bergman off her feet, or when, after Tara has suffered a crushing defeat. Clark Gable tells Vivien Leigh, "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn." Although each of these films purports primarily to explore the circumstances surrounding its respective war and depict a bygone era, we all secretly know that the political and social statements are secondary to the more central and compelling story...
...enjoyable largely because of its ability to evoke what P. R. men call the sweep of history. The excitement of masses of people in a huge flux-the same kind of excitement one finds in Reds or which David Lean Created in. say. Lawrence of Arabia or Doctor Zhivago is present in abundance and animates Gandhi. Long shots of a crowd standing with umbrellas in a heavy downpour chanting for Gandhi or of converging columns of people marching behind the Mahatma as he marches to the sea to defy the government drive in this impression convincingly...
These characters are all placed against the backdrop of a land of illusion and decadence. Alex and Jerry check into the Dr. Zhivago suite at the MGM Grand, complete with sunken bathtub, a mirror over the bed, and a doorbell that plays the theme from the film which gives the room its name. This is Las Vegas in all its tacky splendor, a world which no one in the films seems to take seriously...
...vamps his way through calamities all of his own devising with a bad little boy's giggle at just how cute he is. He is not cute, not charming, not nearly substantial enough for a comedy about high rollers in Vegas. Alex bravadoes himself into the Dr. Zhivago Suite at the MGM Grand Hotel with his friend Jerry (Burt Young), who plays Oscar to Alex's Felix and is also a compulsive gambler: "I go to a party, I bet on the hors d'oeuvres...