On Watching "Doctor Zhivago" With The Sound Off

There is a certain shock, not from the silence itself
But of its revelations, the laying bare
Of the utter superfluence of language
In all which unfolds before us, the testament mute
But imbued with all the power of an orchestra
In full-throated fortissimo
Delivered through the panorama of the vast steppes,
The bounty of their Junes,
The desolation of their Januarys
The visage of the doomed Strelnikov,
The darting glances of the chameleonesque Komarovsky,
His eyes scuttling to and fro like dark cockroaches,
And most of all by the unquiet, not-of-this world gaze
Of Yuri Andreyevich, a stare which tells tales
Of how fleeting this world's happiness will be,
How final and inescapable its sadness,
And as he stumbles and falls in his mad, final pursuit
Of a grail which is unheeding, unseeing,
Always just a step out of reach,
The dialogue is not a necessity,
For we have a trove of our own words and experience
To attest to the veracity of the scene in question.

Reviews

[Ken Simm.]

Since I became deaf I sometimes do this .Turn my hearing aids off and make my own stories. What a great idea. Gives an added dimension instead of as you would think losing one. How much do we pick up visually?
As always great, expansive writing with a definite edge that is not quite, more than your usual whimsy and more than use of special language. Of course you can't hear the Maurice Jarre however.

[W.k.kortas]

As gentlemen of a certain age, the Lean epics are a bit of a cultural touchstone for both of us, I reckon...and losing the Jarre score, which is every bit as wide-ranging as Lean's camera angles, is a trade-off, but still...

[LJW]

There's something to be said for bringing silent movies back as a "new" genre. Imagine all that could be said by not saying it. The final analysis by each viewer would be much like those make your own ending books that had a go at being popular.

[Delmar Cooper]

Back in the days of ambition I would have considered your poem heresy. Now, not so much. Thanks for the insight.

[W.k.kortas]

There might be the odd bit of heresy there, Delmar.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

I get you here. I have not watched the film with the sound off, but visually, it speaks so well that I can see it being unnecessary to have the dialogue.
j.

[W.k.kortas]

I recommend it, though with three or four fewer beers less in you than I had at the time.