Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
Directed by Norman Jewison
In a pre-revolutionary Russia, a poor Jewish milkman struggles with the challenges of a changing world as his daughters fall in love and antisemitism grows.
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What critics compared Fiddler on the Roof to
It would be interesting to know what percentage of Beautiful Boy is swathed in popular music accompaniment; whatever it is, it’s a lot, with some of it seeming like time wasting for the sake of mood and a few achieving unusual poignant effects, notably an unexpectedly gorgeous Perry Como version of “Sunrise, Sunset” from Fiddler on the Roof.
A couple of musical cues — particularly the use of Fiddler on the Roof ’s “Sunrise, Sunset” in one emotionally wrought montage — feel heavy-handed, as if we have to be told how to feel even after we’ve spent so long with these characters.
Other than Nic's occasional bouts of vivaciousness, the closest the film comes to wry, is with the director's a bit on-the-nose music cues (the most blatant of which involves a certain famous ditty from Fiddler on the Roof ).
The movie for more than two hours tracks Nic's steps towards apparent recovery and the relapses made along the way, accompaned all the while by an eclectic soundscape (Henryk Górecki gets a real workout) that includes surely the oddest use ever of the wedding song "Sunrise, Sunset" from Fiddler on the Roof .
He mostly keeps the story on the right side of melodrama (although a snippet of "Sunrise, Sunset" from Fiddler on the Roof is risibly schmaltzy), but the psychodrama leans too hard on Nic's upbringing to pin down why Nic becomes a junkie.
When “Sunrise, Sunset” from Fiddler on the Roof kicks in, I could picture Steve Carell and Maura Tierney sharing a duet while staring at their children’s photographs.
An early scene of new settlers trudging along a dusty road is meant to inspire awe, but instead it looks as if a traveling company of "Fiddler on the Roof" is ambling into town.
After a “Fiddler on the Roof” jaunt in the opening act — Mulan is disinterested in marrying up for her family’s sake — her father (Tzi Ma) is conscripted to fight against a marauding army led by the vengeful Bori Khan (Jason Scott Lee) and a powerful, if subjugated, witch (Gong Li).
Kail, who is slated to direct a new version of Fiddler on the Roof , harnesses the energy and life that pours out of the performers, moving his cameras through the onstage characters and angling things to best capture the beat and flow of the music and drama.
Theater fans who mourn that so many Broadway shows are retreads of the oldies; “South Pacific,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “West Side Story,” “My Fair Lady,” “The Music Man,” will cheer that “Hamilton” is thoroughly original.
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It begins with a truly peculiar prologue that plays like Fiddler on the Roof by way of Franz Kafka.
Larry is the secular embodiment of Tevye's good-natured complaint from Fiddler on the Roof (a movie that would make a swell double-feature with the Coen film): "I know, I know.
This puts him on roughly the same career arc as Yente in Fiddler on the Roof, except that he works anonymously and in a much bigger shtetl.
Not since "Funny Girl," "Fiddler on the Roof" and "The Sound of Music" of the '60s and '70s have we seen engaging movie musicals.
As they enrich the palette of the narrative, they also invite comparison with some of the past glories of the American musical theater--from the opening numbers of Fiddler on the Roof and She Loves Me (the teeming "Belle" opener), the love soliloquies from South Pacific (the touching "Something There" soliloquies of Belle and the Beast), the "Shall We Dance?" waltz from The King and I (the soaring "Beauty and the Beast" waltz), to crowd-pleasing production numbers from Jerry Herman's Hello Dolly and Mame (the boisterous "Be Our Guest").