Favorite Line in a Movie...
My favorite movie, a movie I believe to be a perfect gem, is The Third Man. There are many wonderful lines in that movie, both by the author, Graham Greene, and by that genius Orson Welles. But the line I choose to be my favorite is from Dr. Zhivago, a line that I must have heard many times yet when I hear it again I will weep again.
General Yevgraf—Yuri’s half brother—is attempting to convince young Tanya Komarova (listed as “The Girl” in IMDB casting, played by Rita Tushingham) that she is the long sought after daughter of Yuri and Lara. There’s no proof, but the general tells her to consider the tale he has told her and that she should think it all over. She leaves along with her boyfriend. Tanya walks away, beneath the floor above where Yevgraf watches her. As she slings a balalaika over her shoulder he notes it and asks if she plays. “Does she play? She’s an artist!” the boyfriend exclaims.
The general hears this and smiles, knowing exactly what it portends:
“Ah. Then it’s a gift.”
The movie showcases the struggle of individualism against a tide of social pressure in the form of Soviet communism. It pits the poet/artist against the will of communism, a kind of man versus nature story where nature here is the social force of political affliction. The Soviets have won the day, society has become structured and constricted--the individual has lost this war...or was it but a battle? Yuri is dead of a heart attack in a vain attempt to reach a woman on the street he supposes is Lara, long lost to him. Lara later drifts down one of those streams that carries us all away into the unknown. All seems lost in the face of Soviet conformity.
Then a small sprig of green, in the form of this girl who just might be the child of Yuri the poet and Lara his forever love, peeps out of the frozen tundra which is Soviet Russia. Against all odds it is there, growing green and strong and not to be denied. How can it be? Perhaps the war was not lost after all? Perhaps the spark of the individual artist is still alive in another generation? How can mere individuals attempt to break the bonds of the social conformity they found themselves chained to?
“Ah. Then it’s a gift.”
Ending to Dr. Zhivago
General Yevgraf—Yuri’s half brother—is attempting to convince young Tanya Komarova (listed as “The Girl” in IMDB casting, played by Rita Tushingham) that she is the long sought after daughter of Yuri and Lara. There’s no proof, but the general tells her to consider the tale he has told her and that she should think it all over. She leaves along with her boyfriend. Tanya walks away, beneath the floor above where Yevgraf watches her. As she slings a balalaika over her shoulder he notes it and asks if she plays. “Does she play? She’s an artist!” the boyfriend exclaims.
The general hears this and smiles, knowing exactly what it portends:
“Ah. Then it’s a gift.”
The movie showcases the struggle of individualism against a tide of social pressure in the form of Soviet communism. It pits the poet/artist against the will of communism, a kind of man versus nature story where nature here is the social force of political affliction. The Soviets have won the day, society has become structured and constricted--the individual has lost this war...or was it but a battle? Yuri is dead of a heart attack in a vain attempt to reach a woman on the street he supposes is Lara, long lost to him. Lara later drifts down one of those streams that carries us all away into the unknown. All seems lost in the face of Soviet conformity.
Then a small sprig of green, in the form of this girl who just might be the child of Yuri the poet and Lara his forever love, peeps out of the frozen tundra which is Soviet Russia. Against all odds it is there, growing green and strong and not to be denied. How can it be? Perhaps the war was not lost after all? Perhaps the spark of the individual artist is still alive in another generation? How can mere individuals attempt to break the bonds of the social conformity they found themselves chained to?
“Ah. Then it’s a gift.”
Ending to Dr. Zhivago
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