The Pitch: What would
Ben-Hur be like
without all the exciting stuff.
One of my favorite
lists to look at is the highest grossing movies of all time adjusted for inflation.
While it's an imperfect list, and there's no way to compare eras, it puts into
perspective how big a deal a movie was. So, Black Panther (#30) may seem
like it took over the country, but it's still below Grease (#28) and Mary
Poppins (#27). As big as
Avatar
(#15) was, 101 Dalmatians (#12) was bigger. Looking at that list tells
you what movies were game changers. Gone With the Wind (#1), Star Wars
(#2), and Jaws (#7) literally changed the movie business. The Force Awakens
reaching #11 really underlines how effectively Disney built that hype.
In the top 10,
there's always been one movie that stuck out like a sore thumb. #8 All-Time,
between Jaws and The Exorcist, is Dr. Zhivago. That's
never made sense to me. Of those top 10 movies, it's the one that I would have
the hardest time finding someone who has seen it (I'm guessing Gone with the
Wind is second, but it's also 80 years old). There aren't any iconic quotes
or performances. It's not even the highest grossing movie from the year it was
released (The Sound of Music has it beat). It didn't reinvent a studio
or mark some change in major filmmaking. As much grief as I give Avatar,
at least that has technical innovations to point to.
As far as I can
tell, the most significant thing about Dr. Zhivago is that it was the
end of an era. It was the last epic of the Golden Age. It came out in the
decade of The Ten Commandments (1956 - #6 All time), Ben-Hur
(1959 - #14), and Cleopatra (1963 - #45). Soon after Dr. Zhivago,
the top movies were different. They were New Hollywood films like The
Graduate (1967 - #22), Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid (1969 -
#38). Epics started looking more like The Godfather (1972 - #25).
Suddenly, Dr. Zhivago looks much older than 1965.
What's interesting
too are how reviews at the time talked about the film. Critics talked about it
with the same cash-grab disdain that they do about The Fast and the Furious
or Marvel today. They thought it was bloated and dull, which I agree
with. Granted, this film still got Oscar love, so it's not a perfect
comparison.
I didn't care that
much for the movie. Omar Shariff is fine in the lead role, although I liked him
better in Lawrence of Arabia.
Julie Christie is fine too. I like the bookend scenes with Alec Guiness,
probably just because I like Alec Guiness. I think my favorite part of the
movie was when it revealed Pasha on the train at the end of part one. It was
ominous in a way that wasn't paid off in the second part.
Oh well. Now the
highest grossing movie I haven't seen on the inflation chart is #20, The
Sting.
...No, that can't
be right...
Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend
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