{"id":491,"date":"2025-08-01T03:53:29","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T07:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=491"},"modified":"2026-09-03T16:40:43","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T20:40:43","slug":"fiddler-on-the-roof-1971","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=491","title":{"rendered":"Fiddler on the Roof-1971"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fiddler on the Roof-1971<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Norman Jewison<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Topol<\/strong><\/p>\n

Top 250 Films #29<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #123<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"499456\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed July 21, 2014<\/p>\n

Grade: A<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fiddler on the Roof is a fantastic 1971 musical based on the popular stage version.<\/p>\n

It tells the story of a Russian Jewish family living in tumultuous times, both before and during the Russian Revolution.<\/p>\n

The film has everything and is very well made, truly doing justice to the stage version. It contains dancing, drinking, festive parties, love, and sing-alongs. It also includes politics, hardships, and tragedy.<\/p>\n

Led by the family patriarch, Teyve, played fantastically by Topol, he explains (often narrating directly to the audience, which is a goldmine in style) life in his Russian village with five daughters, no sons, and an overbearing wife.<\/p>\n

They are a low-income family and struggle to make ends meet.<\/p>\n

They navigate life through song and dance, dealing with romance, focusing primarily on the three oldest girls, and the political upheaval surrounding their country.<\/p>\n

It is tough for a film version of a famous musical to be top-notch and even compare to the stage version, but the film is excellent- “Tradition”, “Matchmaker,” and “If I Were a Rich Man” immediately stick in the viewer’s head.<\/p>\n

The film has a rich, earthy feel, with a predominance of brown and grey colors. It explores Russian history, adding complexity and an educational quality rather than offering a simple, feel-good experience.<\/p>\n

Simply put, the story is layered and not one-note.<\/p>\n

Politics, progressive thinking versus conservatism, and the generation gap are explored, and the characters learn and adapt to a changing world, especially the parents.<\/p>\n

One interesting aspect is the progressive buildup to the Russian Revolution.<\/p>\n

Fiddler on the Roof is quite lengthy (179 minutes), but it doesn’t feel that long.<\/p>\n

This film (and play) is a marvel.<\/p>\n

Oscar Nominations<\/strong>: 3 wins<\/strong>-Best Picture, Best Director-Norman Jewison, Best Actor-Chaim Topol, Best Supporting Actor-Leonard Frey, Best Scoring: Adaptation and Original Song Score (won)<\/strong>, Best Sound (won)<\/strong>, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography (won)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Golden Globe Nominations: 2 wins-<\/strong>Best Comedy or Musical (won),\u00a0<\/strong>Best Director-Norman Jewison, Best Actor-Comedy or Musical (won),\u00a0<\/strong>Best Supporting Actor-Paul Mann<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fiddler on the Roof-1971 Director Norman Jewison Starring Topol Top 250 Films #29 Scott’s Review #123 Reviewed July 21, 2014 Grade: A Fiddler on the Roof is a fantastic 1971 musical based on the popular stage version. It tells the story of a Russian Jewish family living in tumultuous times, both before and during the … Continue reading Fiddler on the Roof-1971<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[132,12087,192,194,47,188,7530,7464,7465],"tags":[8091,931,3426,8982,3427,3424,748,8983,3429,3425,930],"class_list":["post-491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1971-films","category-best-picture-musical-or-comedy-golden-globe-winners","category-dramas","category-epics","category-musicals","category-musicdramas","category-top-100-films","category-top-250-films","category-top-50-films","tag-29-favorite-film","tag-leonard-frey","tag-michele-marsh","tag-molly-picon","tag-neva-small","tag-norma-crane","tag-norman-jewison","tag-paul-mann","tag-paul-michael-glaser","tag-rosalind-harris","tag-topol"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=491"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24333,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions\/24333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}