Classic Film Guide

Fiddler on the Roof (1971)

The title is a metaphor for a philosophy about the nature of life, and its requisite balance: one should celebrate – dance, sing, listen to its music – and try to enjoy it, but one must also realize that it’s hard work, can be precarious, and have its ups and downs, which can be like living “on the edge” (precipice) at times. The story is about a family, a community of Jews that live in a small, rather isolated agrarian town in Tsarist Russia in 1905. It’s about change and the loss of traditions, as experienced and seen through the eyes of Tevye, the somewhat henpecked husband Golde and father of five daughters, each of whom contribute to the erosion of ancient family values. The film is a musical adapted from the Tony Award winning Broadway play – by Joseph Stein from Sholom Aleichem’s book and play – and is directed by Norman Jewison. Topol plays the milkman Tevye, Norma Crane his wife. The movie, which received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, won an Oscar for its Cinematography, Original Score (by John Williams) and Sound. Topol (Best Actor), Jewison, Supporting Actor Leonard Frey – playing Motel, Tevye’s first son-in-law – and the film’s Art Direction-Set Decoration were nominated for Oscars as well; it’s #82 on AFI's 100 Most Inspiring Movies list.

Also in the cast are Molly Picon as the matchmaker Yente, Paul Mann as a wealthy butcher Lazar Wolf, the original match for Tevye’s oldest daughter Tzeitel (Rosalind Harris) – there is an extended “dream sequence”, imagined/narrated by Tevye, which enables him to convince Golde that Tzeitel’s choice of the poor tailor Motel is desired by her deceased Grandma – Michele Marsh as Hodel, Tevye’s second daughter, who also chooses her husband, a revolutionary radical named Perchik (Paul Michael Glaser), and Neva Small as Chava, the third daughter who dares to marry a Christian (!), Fyedka (Ray Lovelock), and is thus banished from the family, “dead” to Tevye. Inevitably, a pogrom drives the Jews from their homes and the families must move on.

The movie features several memorable show tunes including "Tradition", "If I Were a Rich Man", and "Sunrise, Sunset".

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