Cinematic Landmarks: Ben Hur/ Doctor Zhivago/ Gone With DVD

Titles Comprise: Ben Hur: Having swept the board at the Academy awards, Ben Hur achieved an outstanding feat in film history, winning eleven oscars in 1959 including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Director. After a ten month production schedule and a then massive $15 million budget, this 1950´s epic movie has always represented a cinematographic feat that has rarely been bettered. Doctor Zhivago: Omar Sharif stars in the title role of Doctor Zhivago, portraying the surgeon-poet over a half-century period. Zhivago, who is married to Tonya (Geraldine Chaplin), an aristocratic girl with whom he raises a family, is also in love with Lara (Julie Christie), a nurse whose life has been destroyed by tragedy. Repeatedly brought together and separated from each woman by war and revolution, Zhivago is torn apart by conflict. He loves Tonya deeply but his poetic soul belongs to Lara. Much like his beloved country, Zhivago's spirit becomes battered by the devastation of war as he struggles to maintain his individualism in the face of overwhelming odds. Gone With The Wind: David O. Selznick's production of Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer Prize winner Gone With The Wind is "the pinnacle of Hollywood moviemaking,"( Leonard Maltin of Entertainment Tonight) . And in Maltin's view, "it looks better than it has in years." This sweeping Civil War-era romance won an impressive 10 Academy Awards (including Best Picture), and its immortal characters Scarlett (Vivian Leigh), Rhett (Clark Gable), Ashley (Leslie Howard), Melanie (Olivia de Havilland), Mammy (Hattie McDaniel) and Prissy (Butterfly McQueen) populate as epic story of enduring appeal across generations.