thejcowboy22 I often wondered what it was like in the old country Russia/Poland one hundred plus years ago? What was the daily riggers of life for my Grandfather and his Father's before him? How did they survive? Their livelihoods, customs, down time?? How they lived or survived the rugged lifestyle with out the modern conveniences? Not to mention the racial tensions created by the local regimes of that time, mainly "antisemitism"? My Grandmother remembers the harsh winters in Lodz. My other Grandmother would describe the horrible senseless acts of a fearful group of individuals called the Pogroms. These tormentors would ride into the Jewish section on horseback with saber in hand and would slice the heads off the locals including woman and children. Just a small sample of the horrific acts by the government based group to annihilate the Jews of Europe. Despite the harshness of the living conditions, writer Sholom Aleichem presents the story of Tevya the Milkman and his family somewhere in the Ukraine at the turn of the twentieth century. Personally I saw this play performed for the first time at sleep away camp. Then I saw a professional production starring Hershel Bernardi as Tevya. My ex-Brother-In-Law played Tevya in his college production and the story is always captivating with song and dialogue. The film doesn't disappoint either as Topol plays a struggling milkman who tells his audience in a philosophical way his ideas on life as he looks toward the sky to ask G-d why things are? Tradition is most important to Tevya with out an explanation as to why? But because it's a tradition. Tevya has a wife of 25 years Golde (Norma Crane) does a capable job as the matriarch who cooks, cleans and has the Sabbath meal prepared unconditionally. They have five daughters but this story focuses on the three oldest and their love interests. First there's Tzeitel (Rosalind Harris).This was at a time when it was customary in Jewish law to have an arranged marriage done my a Matchmaker (Molly Picon)Yente. Grey,middle aged Lazar Wolf (Paul Mann)is looking for a second wife and Tzeitel fills the requirements under strong suggestion to the austere Tevya. Meanwhile Tzeitel is secretly meeting love interest Motel the tailor(Leonard Frey) and they want to be married but timid Motel has to tell Tevya that despite his hopes of a rich in-law, Motel and Tzeitel have a mutual love for each other and pay no heed to traditions. One of my personal favorite songs is Wonder of Wonders performed by Leonard Frey as his marriage will be a reality with a concocted dream by Tevya to pacify Wolf and Golde. The dream sketch was cleverly done in black and white. The second daughter Hodel (Michele Marsh) falls for a wondering radical Perchick (Paul Michael Glazer) who wants to go to Moscow and start a Marxist revolution against the Czar. Our third front or daughter is the Ginger haired Chava (Neva Small), who is an avid reader and meets a gentile boy who she eventually falls in love and marries against the wished of her parents as Tevya professed that his daughter is dead to him. Powerful scene in any production of the play. The songs are so familiar and the story on paper, serious in nature is still pleasant to watch. Our character do sprinkle a bit of humor despite the tense political climate brewing in Czarist Russia. Note Norma Crane who played Golde was in bad health during the film yet her performance was a adequate.The kind of play you can get lost in as you see your Jewish ancestry played out literally. Other cultures would ask what Judaism entails? I say watch this play and you'll get quite an education about Diaspora. How millions of Jews Emigrated to the United States because of racial problems and changing governments which prohibited certain religions. You'll enjoy the story and learn a few things about the Chosen People.

pyrocitor "It's hard to be Jewish, it's hard to be Jewish, it's hard to be Jewish in Russia, yo!" If this irreverent cutaway gag from TV's Community is indicative of Fiddler on the Roof's cultural presence in the 21st century (keeping in mind, this is the same generation that distilled Rent into "Everybody has Aids!" in 2004's cheerily crass Team America: World Police), it's a testament to how lovably unforgettable the story is to still incur such affectionate ribbing. But, endless revivals on and off Broadway aside, it's still primarily thanks to Norman Jewison's 1971 cinematic adaptation that the Fiddler flame continues to burn. The word 'timeless' is bandied about far too frivolously, but it's hard to find a more applicable candidate; more than 40 years after its release, the film is as infectiously watchable as ever. Furiously spirited and cunningly playful before revealing an underbelly of cavernous lamentation, Jewison's Fiddler on the Roof holds its place not only as one of the most unforgettable musicals of Classical Hollywood, but one of its most abiding, heartfelt delights. Like all the greatest musicals, Fiddler is timeless through its ability to translate an insightful glimpse into a specific sociocultural moment (the Russian-Jewish community uneasily navigating cultural persecution in pre-revolutionary Russia) into a swathe of universally relatable movie magic. From the opening number, where each reprise of "Tradition!!" brings more manic claustrophobia (thanks largely to Jewison's teasing editing, sonorously cutting between pieces of Jewish spiritual iconography to the beat), the film clearly establishes it will be doing everything in its power to poke at just that. Thankfully, the film's almost sitcom setup of each of beleaguered narrator Tevye's daughters (Rosalind Harris, Michele Marsh, & Neva Small; all slyly luminous scene-stealers) increasingly testing the boundaries of cultural transgression by marrying (gasp) for love always veers away from clichéd expectations enough to keep the film vibrantly unpredictable rather than the kind of saccharine staleness too many classical musicals dredge up. Instead, befitting the film's guiding metaphor, Jewison's directorial hand is steady as a rock. In spite of his film's voluminous run time and cascading emotional arc, balancing history, politics, and spirituality with humour, heart, and outrageously catchy musical numbers, Jewison's pacing is unflappably perfect. He finds an almost pristine level of cohesion, building each romantic crisis into the next in harmony with the brewing sociopolitical upheaval to circumvent any worries of episodic plotting. Similarly, his predilection towards the zaniness of his story not only infuses it with tremendous energy (just check out the expressionistic, ghostly insanity of Tevye's Dream to see Jewison's wackiness at full tilt), but makes the inevitable second half crash all the more agonizingly hopeless and despondent. Ahh, yes - that second half. Just as The Sound of Music is incomplete without its pesky Nazis, Fiddler's rumblings of "trouble in the city" come with eventual devastating consequence. Jewison wisely doesn't overplay the macro sociocultural turmoil, but merely sows seeds of revolt - a jab in the otherwise glib opening number ("we don't bother them, and so far they don't bother us"); a raucous engagement celebration turned heated cross-cultural dance battle, until escalating sharply with a bawdy matrimony turned hate crime arson. As silly as it gets, Jewison's Fiddler is just as unafraid to glare the horror of its historical atrocities straight in the face, until sputtering out with the crushing anticlimax of an enforced deportation, an ending too necessarily bleak to trivialize. Thankfully, Fiddler is too chock-full of unstoppably hummable tunes to ever become needlessly dour. The songs, naturally, are unforgettable enough to speak for themselves (though John Williams' rich, Oscar-winning background score does some considerable speaking of its own), so Jewison allows them to simply breathe, integrated into the narrative with such unceremonious muckiness that they feel all the more spontaneous and heartfelt when chirped by the mud-caked, visibly weary cast. In a more classical or more contemporary remake, the most iconic ballad, "If I Were a Rich Man," would be accompanied by deluges of glitzy Broadway production values and dazzling choreography. Under Jewison's grainy, no-bullsh*t 1970s sensibilities, it has Topol shimmying alone in a grungy barn, imitating the braying of the livestock surrounding him. Chicago or Broadway Melody this ain't, but it's all the more enthusiastically authentic for it.Still, if there's a single roof tile that keeps this Fiddler upright, it's the legendary performance of Topol. He doesn't so much play Tevye as allow him to ooze out of every pore. Every grunt from his entirely credible Russian accent, every exhausted sag or mischievous prance, every sheepish grin or world-weary grimace, every indignant booming of "TRADITION?!" is so effortless they seem worlds away from the affectations of an actor: this is a wholly fleshed out, loving, hurting, human being on screen in front of us, and we can't help but love him with the entirety of our hearts. The play's 'Tevye talking to the audience/God' conceit may have been a risky prospect to translate into film, but in Topol's effervescent hands, we're too delighted to be invited into his monologue to split hairs. Supporting him, Norma Crane proves both hilariously cantankerous and deeply sweet as Tevye's prickly wife Golde, and watching the two of them share an incredulously clumsy romantic duet is one of the most adorable moments ever committed to celluloid. Finally, Leonard Frey is hugely affable and goofy as the mousy suitor of Tevye and Golde's oldest daughter, while Starsky and Hutch's Paul Michael Glaser raises laughs aplenty as an endearingly self-righteous revolutionary turned romantic. Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles - dispelling all fears of datedness, Fiddler on the Roof retains its worthy place as one of the essential, canonical movie musicals, sure to capture hearts and leave generations of audiences whistling "If I Were a Rich Man," no matter how they're prompted to experience it. After all, it IS, evidently, hard to be Jewish in Russia... yo. -10/10

Michael Radny Fiddler of the Roof was one of the earliest films I remember watching. Almost tradition (no pun intended), Fiddler on the Roof was viewed on nearly every Jewish holiday, giving me the reward of all the great songs and dances that this film had to offer. But besides the great music, Fiddler on the Roof was actually a great extraordinary film. The story was Captavating and the acting was unbelievably good. A film that is so educational that you can learn everything about the fascist era by just watching this film. On of the greats. Whilst musical films aren't really my thing, Fiddler on the Roof is an exception to that rule. Truly entertaining and fantastic, Fiddler on the Roof gives you enough good story, coupled with amazing characterisation that you could watch this endless amounts of time and never get bored.

Harriet Deltubbo "A fiddler on the roof. Sounds crazy, no? But here, in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn't easy. You may ask, 'Why do we stay up there if it's so dangerous?' Well, we stay because Anatevka is our home. And how do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word: tradition!" That quote sums up the genius of this film. From an artistic standpoint, there were some plot elements and character developments I didn't think were totally needed. They do however drive the story, which seemed to be their purpose, so I can accept them. The urge to just walk away almost got me a couple of times. But, in the end, this is an excellent character study.