Genre Grandeur – Fiddler on the Roof (1971) – Encore Review 6 – MovieRob

For this month’s next review for Genre Grandeur – Non-Winning Oscar Best Picture Nominees, here’s a review of ???? by ????

Next month’s genre has been chosen by me and since I’ll be debuting season 3 of my Podcast – MovieRob Minute on July 4th where we will look at Die Hard (1988) one minute at a time, I decided to link it to this months GG, so we will be reviewing our favorite Die Hard Doppelganger Movie.

Thanks again to Matthew Simpson of Awesome Friday for choosing this month’s genre.

Please get me your submissions by the 25th of Jun by sending them to DieHardDoppelganger@movierob.net

Try to think out of the box!

Let’s see what I thought of this movie:

__________________________________________

“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!” – Tevye

Number of Times Seen – Too many to count (TV, video, DVD, 15 Jul 2013, 21 Sep 2015, 26 Jun 2017, 29 Jul 2019, 5 Jan 2020, 4 Apr 2021 and 30 May 2022)

Link to original review – Here

Brief Synopsis – A poor milkman in Czarist Russia tries to live his simple live

My Take on it – For my choices this month, I decided to go with 3 movies that were nominated for Best Picture and IMHO, they all should have won the award since they are much better than the films that ended taking home gold that year.

For my second choice, I went with one of my all time favorite musical which is definitely also in my top ten films of all time; Fiddler on the Roof (1971).

This film brings the story created by Shalom Aleichem, which was turned into an award winning stage musical to the screen.

The story manages to stay both poignant and humorous the whole time as the characters try their hardest to live their lives peacefully, but the changing world never allows for that to happen.

Even watching this movie 50 years after is was made and more than 120+ years after it is suppose to take place, many of the themes still feel relevant especially when related to people trying to cling to their traditions in an ever changing world.

Haim Topol is amazing in the lead role and easily made everyone forget the wonderful job Zero Mostel did with the characters beforehand.

Topol has become the quintessential Tevye even since he was given this lead 5 decades ago.

The story is told is such a powerful way and resonates so well.

The supporting cats is also great with Norma Crane, Paul Michael Glaser, Leonard Frey and Paul Mann all adding so much life to the diverse characters in this story.

The songs are amazing and it still astounds me that John Williams won his first Oscar for scoring and adapting the music from the stage to the screen.

The French Connection (1971) is a great movie, but this one IMHO is so much better because it is able to bring together so many diverse elements in order to transport the viewer back to another time and place so easily.

High;y Highly Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – During the song “Sabbath Prayer” there is a scene where Hodel and Chavala are seen on each end of the screen separated by the back of the head of Perchik. This occurs just after Tevye sings “make you be like Ruth and like Esther”. This is an analogy to Hodel being like Ruth and follows her husband, and Chavala being like Esther and is split between two faiths. This is an inspired moment of directing the scene. (From IMDB)

Rating – Oscar Worthy (10/10) (no change from original review)