Dr. Zhivago on PBS (spoilers)

[gallows fodder]

Did anyone catch the Masterpiece Theatre production of Dr. Zhivago last night (and last Sunday)?

I haven't seen the film with Julie Christie, nor have I read the book, so I don't know if this is my problem or this particular adaptation's, but I didn't grok the whole "epic love of a lifetime" theme I felt pushed at me. I didn't see why Zhivago, a good man by all accounts, would abandon his lovely wife and children so readily for Lara -- I didn't understand her appeal, I didn't understand why Zhivago was so easily disloyal to Tonya, and I didn't sympathize with his and Lara's relationship at all. The tragedy was not that they ended up apart and dead, but that Zhivago ultimately was not the good man his father had wanted him to be. So, yeah, I cried at the end, but not for the reason I felt I was supposed to be crying.

What did you think?

[gallows fodder]

All right, then....how about the 1965 movie? Were Julie Christie and Omar Shariff sympathetic?

[Guinastasia]

Hmmm, yes, I would say they were. At least, because Geraldine Chaplin's Tonya was so freaking wishy-washy.