Aside from the wonderful music, it is a classic because Dr. Zhivago is a timeless story of endurance. Strelnikov assures Yuri “The personal life is dead.” But like the spring flowering after the bitter winter, people come alive again even under the most hostile, suffocating oppression. Yuri’s daughter striding away alongside her mate at the end — life finds a way through. The film began with little Yuri witnessing the burial of his mother.
Yuri’s daughter recalls almost nothing of her parents, yet she plays beautifully on the balalaika that belonged to her father. She is told her ability is a gift; it represents the life force or spirit that persists against all odds.
It all seems random and impersonal. Children are cut down, by mistake. An entire population is decimated by philosophical error. The hero is a physician who can patch, but not cure his fellow man of their spiritual disease. The most feared warrior is a young man whose battles left him mutilated and emasculated; before that he was — a pale intellectual. The cynical opportunist, like a gangrene, temporarily advances and thrives. Evil baffles the wise. There is no sense to it, one endures — or not.
The lyrics of the popular tune “Lara’s Theme” expressed the main theme of the novel: someday we’ll meet again ...whenever the spring breaks through.
The movie was beautiful. Still is.
My sainted mother bought material with birch trees on it, as a result of seeing that movie.