Epic Love And War

Here are two historic romances to watch with your teenage kid.

These two-tape epics will spark interest not only in hormonal subjects but also history and geography, in this case World War I, the Bolshevik Revolution and Russia. Both movies will provoke heated conversations and provide a lot of material for further investigation.

David Lean’s painterly and sentimental “Dr. Zhivago” (1965) is one of Sisters’ favorite romance films. Although it has been criticized roundly for Robert Bolt’s awkward screenplay, I find the film interesting because of the story’s initial creation.

Boris Pasternak probably finished his novel “Dr. Zhivago” in 1954. He, like his character Zhivago, was a Russian poet who did not accept the Soviet requirement that art act as a tool of the revolution, a catalyst for political change. Pasternak believed that art should be more personal and encourage individual self-discovery.

Soviet authorities would not permit publication of “Dr. Zhivago” because, as Pasternak said, it did not present the Revolution as a “cream cake.” Even though the film subordinates World War I and the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution to the love story between Zhivago (Omar Sharif) and Lara (Julie Christie), it does provide strong justification for the revolt as well as criticize its brutality.

Pasternak himself supported the Bolshevik Revolution but not its violence, just as Zhivago does in the film. Nevertheless, the book had to be published first in Italy. Pasternak was not allowed to receive his subsequent Nobel Prize for Literature and he was removed from the Union of Soviet writers despite the popularity of his poetry with the people. The Soviet government also arrested his lover, the woman upon whom the character Lara was based, for her association with Pasternak.

Pasternak largely based Zhivago upon himself and his personal feelings and philosophy. The name Zhivago refers to the Russian word for “life” and the character is a doctor as well as poet. At the end of the film/book Zhivago forgoes happiness in order to stay in his country just as the author did. Pasternak told Nikita Khrushchev that “Leaving the motherland would equal death for me. I am tied to Russia by birth, by life and work.”

A movie that I like even better than “Dr. Zhivago” is “Reds” (1981), the story of John Reed, who grew up in Portland, became a radical journalist, wrote “Ten Days That Shook the World,” and became the only American to be buried within the Kremlin.

A tour de force by Warren Beatty who co-wrote the screenplay, directed the film, and plays Reed, “Reds” covers roughly the same period of time as Zhivago, 1915-1920, and, especially, the U.S. entrance into World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution, both in 1917.

The story begins with Reed coming back to Portland where he meets the wife of a dentist, Louise Bryant (Diane Keaton), who runs away with him to New York. A Greek chorus of early 20th Century New York intellectuals tells the story of “Jack” and Louise throughout the movie. The list of these old people is as incredible as the array of stars who play minor characters. For example, Jerzy Kosinski, author of “Being There” and “The Painted Bird,” plays a radical socialist and Jack Nicholson is playwright Eugene O’Neill (with whom Louise had an affair).

All were real people who lived super-real lives.

Reed eventually leaves Louise to return to Russia, doing what he believes is right like Zhivago. Louise, a strong-willed woman, endures great physical hardship to join him when he does not return.

Reed shares with Zhivago some disillusionment with the Revolution but believes strongly and idealistically in its basic goals. Unlike the doctor, Reed wants to actively bring about the Revolution. He wants all the workers of the world to unite, rise up, and claim equal rights to power and wealth. At the end of the movie, the old people ask “Why did he do it?” The answer is that “He was definitely a stirrer up of people, like Edison was an inventor.”

“Reds” and “Zhivago” both have stunning footage of “Russia” (my favorite is the frozen dacha at Varykino). Yet the films were really shot in Spain, Canada, and Finland. “Reds” has an imaginative sound track and avoids what I regard as the worst thing about “Dr. Zhivago,” the overplaying of a single song. I hope I never hear “Lara’s Theme” again.

More about epic romances later this month.