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Beautiful artwork, liner notes, and a few fun bonus tracks only add to the experience. The Overture alone showcases the film's juxtaposition between the romantic and personal, and the inevitable, tragic tide of history. Much of the incidental music is surprisingly good too - the heart-rending "Kontakion", "Evening Bells-Moscow Bells", and the ominous "Yevgraf Snaps His Fingers" are highlights. Rarely, if ever, has a score captured the feel and emotions of a film so well. The CD features a plethora of highly memorable pieces. The early segments of the soundtrack contain mostly indifferent incidental music, but around track 10 the show starts to kick into high gear.
The heart-breaking Main Title, Lara Says Goodbye To Yuri, the build-up to crescendo in "Yuri and the Daffodils", and "On a Yuriatin Street" are the most notable renditions of Lara's Theme, and each is moving in its own way; there's enough variation to prevent these tracks from becoming monotonous. "Doctor Zhivago" is, simply, one of the most memorable, emotional and versatile film scores ever written - a sweeping experience that transcends the film. While the more critical might grow weary of the umpteenth rendition of "Lara's Theme", this reviewer wouldn't, and in any case might point the cynic to the many other cues on the soundtrack. It is truly a remarkable achievement, and the score is plenty effective on its own. The score is unbelievably complex, ranging from tragic to upbeat to haunting to stirring.
And in any case, the piece is so beautiful in its own right that it's difficult to complain about it, in my view. But with "Doctor Zhivago", Jarre would arguably make his finest creation, and certainly his most famous - the ubiquitous, sweepingly romantic "Lara's Theme". Anyone who wants something other than romance would hardly find a more stirring and violent contrast than here. Lean and Jarre had already proven a magical combination on their previous collaboration - "Lawrence of Arabia".
If not number one, Maurice Jarre's sweeping, beautiful score for David Lean's "Doctor Zhivago" is certainly in the top three of the greatest film scores ever composed. The haunting "They Began to Go Home", "After Deserters Kill the Colonel", and "Yuri is Taken Prisoner By the Red Partisans" convey the tragic, unavoidable violence of Russia's civil war.
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