TCM 'tonight'
2:00 AM -- Doctor Zhivago (1965)
3h 17m | Epic | TV-PG
Sweeping epic about a Russian doctor pursuing the woman he loves during Russia's revolutionary years.
Director: David Lean
Cast: Geraldine Chaplin, Julie Christie, Tom Courtenay
Winner of Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Robert Bolt, Best Cinematography, Color -- Freddie Young, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- John Box, Terence Marsh and Dario Simoni, Best Costume Design, Color -- Phyllis Dalton, and Best Music, Score - Substantially Original -- Maurice Jarre
Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Tom Courtenay, Best Director -- David Lean, Best Sound -- A.W. Watkins (M-G-M British SSD) and Franklin Milton (M-G-M SSD), Best Film Editing -- Norman Savage, and Best Picture
Rather absurdly, MGM suggested to David Lean that Paul Newman be cast in the title role, for which he was clearly unsuited on a number of counts. Their reason was that Boris Pasternak, the book's author, had been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature (which the Soviet authorities forced him to decline) and Newman had recently played a Nobel Prize-winner in an MGM film, the comedy thriller The Prize (1963).