Fiddler on the Roof

Plot synopsis:
=== Act I ===
Tevye, a poor Jewish milkman with five daughters, explains the customs of the Jews in the Russian shtetl of Anatevka in 1905, where their lives are as precarious as the perch of a fiddler on a roof ("Tradition"). At Tevye's home, everyone is busy preparing for the Sabbath meal. His sharp-tongued wife, Golde, orders their daughters, Tzeitel, Hodel, Chava, Shprintze and Bielke, about their tasks. Yente, the village matchmaker, arrives to tell Golde that Lazar Wolf, the wealthy butcher, a widower older than Tevye, wants to wed Tzeitel, the eldest daughter. The next two daughters, Hodel and Chava, are excited about Yente's visit, but Tzeitel is unenthusiastic ("Matchmaker, Matchmaker"). A girl from a poor family must take whatever husband Yente brings, but Tzeitel wants to marry her childhood friend, Motel the tailor.
Tevye is delivering milk, pulling the cart himself, as his horse is lame. He asks God: Whom would it hurt "If I Were a Rich Man"? Avram, the bookseller, has news from the outside world about pogroms and expulsions. A stranger, Perchik, hears their conversation and scolds them for doing nothing more than talk. The men dismiss Perchik as a radical, but Tevye invites him home for the Sabbath meal and offers him food and a room in exchange for tutoring his two youngest daughters. Golde tells Tevye to meet Lazar after the Sabbath but does not tell him why, knowing that Tevye does not like Lazar. Tzeitel is afraid that Yente will find her a husband before Motel asks Tevye for her hand. But Motel resists: he is afraid of Tevye's temper, and tradition says that a matchmaker arranges marriages. Motel is also very poor and is saving up to buy a sewing machine before he approaches Tevye, to show that he can support a wife. The family gathers for the "Sabbath Prayer."
After the Sabbath, Tevye meets Lazar at Mordcha's inn, assuming mistakenly that Lazar wants to buy his cow. Once the misunderstanding is cleared up, Tevye agrees to let Lazar marry Tzeitel – with a rich butcher, his daughter will never want for anything. All join in the celebration of Lazar's good fortune; even the Russian youths at the inn join in the celebration and show off their dancing skills ("To Life"). Outside the inn, Tevye happens upon the Russian Constable, who has jurisdiction over the Jews in the town. The Constable warns him that there is going to be a "little unofficial demonstration" in the coming weeks (a euphemism for a minor pogrom). The Constable has sympathy for the Jewish community but is powerless to prevent the violence.
The next morning, after Perchik's lessons with her young sisters, Tevye's second daughter Hodel mocks Perchik's Marxist interpretation of a Bible story. He, in turn, criticizes her for hanging on to the old traditions of Judaism, noting that the world is changing. To illustrate this, he dances with her, defying the prohibition against opposite sexes dancing together. The two begin to fall in love. Later, a hungover Tevye announces that he has agreed that Tzeitel will marry Lazar Wolf. Golde is overjoyed, but Tzeitel is devastated and begs Tevye not to force her. Motel arrives and tells Tevye that he is the perfect match for Tzeitel and that he and Tzeitel gave each other a pledge to marry. He promises that Tzeitel will not starve as his wife. Tevye is stunned and outraged at this breach of tradition, but impressed at the timid tailor's display of backbone. After some soul-searching ("Tevye's Monologue"), Tevye agrees to let them marry, but he worries about how to break the news to Golde. An overjoyed Motel celebrates with Tzeitel ("Miracle of Miracles").
In bed with Golde, Tevye pretends to be waking from a nightmare. Golde offers to interpret his dream, and Tevye "describes" it ("Tevye's Dream"). Golde's grandmother Tzeitel returns from the grave to bless the marriage of her namesake, but to Motel, not to Lazar Wolf. Lazar's formidable late wife, Fruma-Sarah, rises from her grave to warn, in graphic terms, of severe retribution if Tzeitel marries Lazar. The superstitious Golde is terrified, and she quickly counsels that Tzeitel must marry Motel. While returning from town, Tevye's third daughter, the bookish Chava, is teased and intimidated by some gentile youths. One, Fyedka, protects her, dismissing the others. He offers Chava the loan of a book, and a secret relationship begins.
The wedding day of Tzeitel and Motel arrives, and all the Jews join the ceremony ("Sunrise, Sunset") and the celebration ("The Wedding Dance"). Lazar gives a fine gift, but an argument arises with Tevye over the broken agreement. Perchik ends the tiff by breaking another tradition: he crosses the barrier between the men and women to dance with Tevye's daughter Hodel. The celebration ends abruptly when a group of Russians rides into the village to perform the "demonstration". They disrupt the party, damaging the wedding gifts and wounding Perchik, who attempts to fight back, and wreak more destruction in the village. Tevye instructs his family to clean up the mess.
=== Act II ===
Months later, Perchik tells Hodel he must return to Kiev to work for the revolution. He proposes marriage, admitting that he loves her, and says that he will send for her. She agrees ("Now I Have Everything"). They tell Tevye that they are engaged, and he is appalled that they are flouting tradition by making their own match, especially as Perchik is leaving. When he forbids the marriage, Perchik and Hodel inform him that they do not seek his permission, only his blessing. After more soul searching, Tevye relents – the world is changing, and he must change with it ("Tevye's Rebuttal"). He informs the young couple that he gives them his blessing and his permission.
Tevye explains these events to an astonished Golde. "Love," he says, "it's the new style." Tevye asks Golde, despite their own arranged marriage, "Do You Love Me?" After dismissing Tevye's question as foolish, she eventually admits that, after 25 years of living and struggling together and raising five daughters, she does. Meanwhile, Yente tells Tzeitel that she saw Chava with Fyedka. News spreads quickly in Anatevka that Perchik has been arrested and exiled to Siberia ("The Rumor/I Just Heard"), and Hodel is determined to join him there. At the railway station, she explains to her father that her home is with her beloved, wherever he may be, although she will always love her family ("Far From the Home I Love").
Time passes. Motel has purchased a used sewing machine, and he and Tzeitel have had a baby. Chava finally gathers the courage to ask Tevye to allow her marriage to Fyedka. Again Tevye reaches deep into his soul, but marriage outside the Jewish faith is a line he will not cross. He forbids Chava to speak to Fyedka again. When Golde brings news that Chava has eloped with Fyedka, Tevye wonders where he went wrong ("Chavaleh Sequence"). Chava returns and tries to reason with him, but he refuses to speak to her and tells the rest of the family to consider her dead. Meanwhile, rumors are spreading of the Russians expelling Jews from their villages. While the villagers are gathered, the Constable arrives to tell everyone that they have three days to pack up and leave the town. In shock, they reminisce about "Anatevka" and how hard it will be to leave what has been their home for so long.
As the Jews leave Anatevka, Chava and Fyedka stop to tell her family that they are also leaving for Kraków, unwilling to remain among the people who could do such things to others. Tevye still will not talk to her, but when Tzeitel says goodbye to Chava, Tevye prompts her to add "God be with you." Motel and Tzeitel go to Poland as well but will join the rest of the family when they have saved up enough money. As Tevye, Golde and their two youngest daughters leave the village for America, the fiddler begins to play. Tevye beckons with a nod, and the fiddler follows them out of the village.

Tags: avant garde, flashback

Review:
It must have influenced him so that I can't believe it was a coincidence that when he created the story of Tevye the Milkman he had five daughters and he was just looking to get them off his hands just like Mr. Bennett was with his five.Of course the difference between Czarist Russia for Jews and being part of the landed gentry in early Victorian England is cultural light years.
Still fathers, mothers, daughters and prospective sons-in-law are the same wherever you go.Filling some very big shoes in the lead was Topol who to this day is still appearing in stage productions of Fiddler On The Roof.
In fact I liked him best in the film, a Yiddish version of Willie Mossop, the worm that turned from another English source, Hobson's Choice.The cultural divide is the thing about Fiddler On The Roof that does separate it from a Victorian novel to a story of a perennially persecuted people.
Bock in writing the music had as keen an ear for the folk music of the culture as Richard Rodgers did in writing an Oriental score for The King And I.If the role of Yente the matchmaker, a name as well as an occupation in Jewish tradition, wasn't in the original play, they'd have to have invented something to get Molly Picon in the film.
It wouldn't have been right to do Sholem Aleichem on the big screen without her in the film in some way.Fiddler On The Roof is one of the best adapted Broadway musicals to the big screen ever done.
Epic in plot, setting and length, Fiddler on the Roof tells a surprisingly tight and focused story that has "universal" poignancy--in a nutshell, it's about trying to maintain strong cultural traditions and identity in the face of a continually changing world, partially fueled by the youth, that doesn't necessarily share the culture's values or self-assessment of worth.The plot is based on short stories written around the turn of the 20th Century by Sholom Aleichem, who was often called the "Russian Mark Twain".
One of the prominent conflicts with tradition is a struggle with arranged marriages versus marriages for love, but of course, being set in pre-revolutionary Russia, there are also political changes brewing, some of which have a profound affect on Tevye's family and village.Aleichem's Tevye stories were first turned into a Broadway musical, which began its initial run in 1964 with Zero Mostel as Tevye.
Producer and director Norman Jewison, who had had success with films like In the Heat of the Night (1967) and The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), and who was experienced as a producer and director for musical-oriented televisions shows, including "Your Hit Parade" (1950) and "The Judy Garland Show" (1960), was asked around early 1970 by United Artists to helm the Fiddler on the Roof film.
He ended up getting a lot of pressure because the shoot went over time and over budget--this was one of the most expensive films of its time, which was an era of economic woes for Hollywood--but of course we know it paid off in the end.Zero Mostel was out as Tevye, and Israeli actor Chaim Topol, or just "Topol", was in, based largely on Jewison seeing him in the role of Tevye in the London stage production of Fiddler.
Of course, there are also a couple more surrealistic touches in the plot, my favorite being the Tevye's Dream sequence, which features traditionalist Jewish zombies in an operatic attitude.A musical couldn't be a 10 without great music, and Fiddler on the Roof has it.
Like no other movie I can think of, 'Fiddler' reaches deep into the heart and begs one to look at what things in life are worth living for and dying for..
This role is played by Topol, who played the character onstage in the London production of "Fiddler."  We see him as a man mired in traditions, but struggling between his devout faith and the changing times when three of his daughters feel the urge to marry.
The movie is beautifully shot, and tempers the story, which deals with the harsh realities of Jewish life in pre-Revolutionary Russia, with classic musical numbers sure to put a smile on your face.
the film Fiddler on the Roof was immediately embraced b the public and received critical acclaim and received eight Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Best Director and won three Oscars for Best Cinematography, Musical Score and Sound.
At three hours this runs a little long and it's hard to capture a successful musical stage play on film but this comes as close as you can get.
..."Fiddler on the Roof" stars Topol as Tevye, a Jewish milk man (and father of five) living in a small town in the time before WWII.
A man of faith with intelligence enough to accept change, compassion enough to love through difficult revelations/revolutions.Was a very significant film from my childhood, for some reason, for a nice Irish-catholic boy, but I remember it well, finding again in my fifties, with a better sense of history, aesthetics, morality, sentiment, religion, tradition, it touches me in a deeply emotional way.
In pre-revolutionary Russia, a poor Jewish peasant (Topol) must contend with marrying off his three daughters while antisemitic sentiment threatens his home.Let me say this right of the bat: while this film may focus on a Jewish family and their struggle to enter the modern world (which may be good or bad), you certainly do not need to be Jewish to enjoy it.
There is not a single weak song in the score, and the whole thing is perfectly structured, moving from the mighty "Tradition" to the delicate "Matchmaker", to the bombastic "If I Were a Rich Man" to the haunting "Sabbath Prayer" and so on.The director of this screen version is Norman Jewison, always a filmmaker of musical sensibilities.
But aside from this context, Fiddler on the Roof's warm humanity, larger-than-life characters and beautiful music make it one of the genre's greats, a movie that can be enjoyed today and by generations to come..
Much was made of director Norman Jewison's decision to cast Topol (instead of Broadway's Zero Mostel)as Tevye, but his performance is the single most important factor that makes this a great film.
What is the most important thing in our pursuit of happiness is love.The best musical movie I have ever seen..
In this setting a peasant farmer wants to marry off his three daughters - but he only gets trouble, trouble, trouble...The film musical is a strange fish in that it can be an absolutely brilliant way to tell a story or the worst.
It does move the plot along with enough songs to still be a good, if bulky, musical.A good number is after Tevye discovers that his eldest daughter and the tailor pledged their love a year prior, and he's struck a deal for her with the butcher.
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.
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..
The story of a man steeped in tradition living in a world where traditions are being thrown out the window ("Unheard of -- absurd!")  As many times as I have seen this movie, I never fail to laugh and cry and sing along.
A popular film adaptation of the stage musical, although I think this has more to do with the fact that Jews run Hollywood than its quality as a movie.
For FIDDLER ON THE ROOF is a long, slow and extremely heavy-going movie, for which the lengthiness of its story is never offset by the quality of the music.Topol - the only actor in the film to give a notable performance - gives a solid performance as a poor Jewish man struggling to bring up five daughters in 19th century Russia.
The various sub-plots that follow involve him pairing off his daughters with varying suitors (along the lines of PRIDE & PREJUDICE) while a growing pogrom against the Jews is developing in the background.Some of the songs are very good, particularly "Tradition" and "If I Were a Rich Man", but in between these are simply lots of long, drawn out sequences of nothing much happening.
The story revolves around the highly sympathetic figure of Tevye the Dairyman, played marvelously by Topol, who with his cows and lame horse (a companion more than a helper) ekes out a grinding existence for his wife and five daughters while reflecting on God's mysterious ways and the dramatic changes underway in his world.
Set in 1905 Russia as the Bolshevik Revolution winds up, this movie offers an excellent introduction---not a detailed study, but an introduction---to Russia's fascinating history in this period, while giving a great flavor of traditional Jewish village culture in the Pale of Settlement, the age-old homelands of Jews in rural Russia.
With great music and a number of powerful, melodic and unforgettable songs, Fiddler on the Roof deserves its place in the canon of American classics..
Norman Jewison's adaptation of Jerry Bock's musical masterfully tells the story of poor Jewish milkman Tevye (Chaim Topol) having to deal with the dying out of traditions, as well as anti-Semitism in tsarist Russia.
Much like how young people across the world had little in common with the parents generation by 1971, Tevye's daughters want to find husbands on their own, rather than have a matchmaker do it.I once saw a stage production of "Fiddler on the Roof", and the movie equals it very well.
"Fiddler...", along with "The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming", "In the Heat of the Night", "Rollerball", "Other People's Money" and "The Hurricane" show him to be one of the greatest directors of all time.All in all, not only do I recommend this movie to everyone, but I would say that 1971 was possibly the best ever year for cinema: "Little Murders", "McCabe and Mrs. Miller", "Bananas", "Carnal Knowledge", "Shaft", "Willard", "The French Connection", "The Last Picture Show" and "A Clockwork Orange"..
To be fair some of the songs were good and a few of them became famous, thanks to this stage play-turned-movie, but not enough of them to suit me.Another thing that turned me off was the typical '60s-70s youth culture propaganda in which the message here was that the old traditions and the people who believed in them are shown to be of little value while the younger man with his new views is shown to be "enlightened." This is such typical Liberal baloney.
the movie starts with telling the importance of tradition in jewish community, and man who tells it has daughters that are in love and want to marry in non traditional way.
It's long, with an intermission ("Entre'acte" on the screen), but never dull or lagging.The music was conducted and adapted by a young and upcoming film musician named John Williams.Part of Tevye's story is how Tradition keeps their society intact, and how it keeps them stuck in the same roles year after year, and what happens when a younger generation breaks out of that tradition.I'd say that this is one you need to see on the big screen - but with today's giant home screens, that's not true any more.
I am not generally a fan of musicals that have been adapted to the screen, but "Fiddler on the Roof" remains as one of the notable exceptions, thanks largely to the genius of director Norman Jewison ("In the Heat of the Night", "Moonstruck", "The Thomas Crown Affair, "Jesus Christ Superstar"), the endearing charm, vitality, and humanity of (Chaim) Topol, the ability of the rest of the cast to meet the elevated standard set by the lead, the innovative cinematography of Oswald Morris ("Lolita", "Oliver!", "The Entertainer", "Guns of Navarone") and the wonderful music, originally written by Jerry Bock and so capably adapted to the screen by John Williams.As to the excellent cast, although there isn't one, single Hollywood "superstar" present, this remarkable team nevertheless succeeds in creating one of the best musicals ever adapted to film and a movie that still survives on my list of favorites after many viewings.
Topol stars as simple milkman Tevye, watching as three of his five daughters drift away into the arms of romantic suitors; he consults with God on matters of money and the heart, weighing each circumstance with even reasoning, and compares the attempt at living a common yet balanced life to that of a fiddler on a rooftop.
This beautiful story about a simple milkman in turn-of-the-century Russia who must come to terms with the loss of the safe and only world he has ever known, succeeds on screen largely due to the performance of Topol, who breathes body and soul into Tevye the milkman and creates one of those characters that for ever after you instantly associate with the actor who played him.
As the matchmaker suggests matches for his eldest daughters, Tevye has to deal with changing ways of life as his family attempts to break tradition.If you want to see a popular film that has a no-name cast, don't look further than this film.
The rest of the cast features unknown names such as Norma Crane as Golde, Tevye's wife and Leonard Frey as Motel, a lover of Tevye's eldest daughter.Overall, Fiddler on the Roof is an often entertaining musical filled with excellent songs and a score that puts the majestic John Williams on the map.
The masterfully composed tunes will stay in your mind to the point where you will find yourself humming selections from 'Fiddler' well after you've finished watching the movie.The serious tones of this story are well balanced with humour and music.
Without a doubt, Topol's portrayal of Tevye, the Jewish peasant desperate to find good Jewish husbands for his daughters, is one of the greatest performances captured on film.
The best include "Tradition" (with a superb montage that reflect the community's working and religious life); the title song, played by the title character, during the opening credits (with a sunset background to die for); "Matchmaker" (amusing and well choreographed); "If I Were a Rich Man" (where Tevye gets uncharacteristically lively); "To Life" (brilliant dancing); and "Sunrise, Sunset" mixed with a vigorous and lively wedding scene.In the second half, the mood changes significantly with the story.
Acting, music, and the story all are awesome and lead to this film being so good.Tevre is a great character.
This is a great opportunity to any musical, drama, performing arts lover and also a cultural experience on Jewish traditions and history.
I don't know how to begin, I've just finished watching "the fiddler" and I can't explain how magnificent this movie was, Good script, Superb acting, amazing music, wonderful editing...
Indeed, despite all the comedic asides by Topol, and the happiness of many scenes, there is also a vivid display of the plight of the Russian Jewish population of the time this movie is set, adding a darker tone, although not one that in any way damages the film, as light and dark sit well with each other.
Topol (in my opinion, better than Broadway actor Zero Mostel), excels as Tevye, a meager Jewish milk man trying to make a living and marry off his daughters while facing religious persecution in Czarist Russia.
Opening with the wonderful song "Tradition" which is the overriding theme of the entire musical, with its comedy and its pain, this film is a charming, sentimental telling of the lives and tribulations of a family.
Norman Jewison had a directorial triumph with the 1971 film version of the Broadway musical FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, a beautifully mounted screen version of the classic Sheldon Harnick-Jerry Bock musical about the Jewish milkman and father of five daughters, who has his entire belief system challenged and thrown back in his face during this turbulent period in Jewish history.
"Fiddler on the Roof" is one of the great adaptations of a stage musical.
Tevye is the prime role, he has the major songs, like "Tradition" and "If I Were A Rich Man", so having a so-so leading man here is fatal to the film.
The Russian dancing sequence, and Tevye singing If I were a rich man are done with finesse.As is depicted throughout Jewish life, the Jews have become wanderers but will never give up their heritage and musical traditions.
Based off the very famous stage play, this film takes place in a pre-revolutionary village in Russia where there is a mixture of the Jewish and Christian people whom each have their own traditions.
This is a symbol for the tolerance or the forbearance of the Jewish people in the movie.This film, which is well-directed by Norman Jewison, is a musical that takes place in pre-revolutionary Russia (just barely).
Meanwhile, revolution is spreading across the country forcing all Jewish people to leave their homes and their country.This film, just like the stage play, is a musical.
The songs are wonderful, mainly "Matchmaker, Matchmaker"; "Tradition" and "Far from the Home I Love." I can hardly recommend "Fiddler on the Roof" enough....but I will recommend it as much as I can; I think you should watch it..
Fiddler on the Roof is a moving musical about a Jewish milkman trying to cope with his daughters deciding to break the tradition of his ancestors.
"Sunrise, Sunset" and "If I Were a Rich Man") and Topol's outstanding performance as Reb Tevye, the film is a dazzling and spectacular telling of the harships of a Jewish family living in Russia during the Russian Revolution.
Topal plays the role of Tevye very well in the 1971 musical "Fiddler on the Roof".
"Fiddler on the Roof" is a great musical filmed as an endurance test.