MovieChat Forums > Doctor Zhivago (2002) Discussion > Why the heck didn't Yuri and Lara just g...

Why the heck didn't Yuri and Lara just get out of Russia?


If they wanted to make it, it seems like the most sense! Why stay in a place where you might be arrested?!

How is this love story so great?

You have eternity. I have only now.

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Apparently when people cheat on their spouses and neglect their own children its considered a great love story. Why is his wife Tonya always so overlooked in this story?

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just because it was impossible without permission

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Yurii could have left but did not first and foremost because he lived and breathed Russia, his lifeblood, without which he would die emotionally and artistically and spiritually.

In the film, he was given permission to leave - in fact, he was being forced to leave - but we were not told what country he and his family were being sent to.

The director intentionally made it appear that Yurii and his family were perhaps going to be imprisoned and killed, because the director wanted viewers to see that Yurii loved Laura so much, he was willing to sacrifice his family to be with her.

In the novel, Yurii was granted permission to leave Russia for Paris with his family, but he chose to remain behind with Laura, and would have remained if there was no Laura, because Russia was his lifeblood. Tonia, the children, and her father lived out the rest of their lives in Paris.

Laura could not leave at all. Her husband was Strelnikov. People (the government, the Partisans, etc) also knew she was linked to Komarovsky. Various groups of people wanted her dead because of her husband. That is the main reason her and Yurii hid a second time deep within the Urals - officials were looking for her to kill her.

Yurii chose to stay with Laura, and even without Laura, he would have remained in deep within the womb Russia, his motherland, a land that resonated within his entire being, the lifeblood of his thoughts and artistry and spirituality and faith, his heartbeat.

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You would have to read the book. Yuri is essentially Russia, he represents Russia. Thus he can never and will NEVER leave his country.

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Incidentally, it is "Lara," not "Laura."

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