I just happened to catch Fiddler on the Roof (FOTR) playing on one of those movie channels. It's quite a nice movie, really. I remember watching it a long time ago when I had fallen in love with the idea of owning DVDs of movies I fell in love with.
Fiddler on the Roof was one such movie I fell in love with.
It tells a not-so-grand story about a poor Jewish man, his wife, and his daughters. They happen to be in Russia at the time the saga unfolds. And the sage happens to be set during the time of Russian revolution.
This was the very same revolution that threw the Jews out of Russia. It took that entire nation in 1905 and managed to wreak havoc on that entire community. Around 3,000 Jews were killed and many fled to neighbouring Poland. Some went all the way to America.
Now, FOTR is a musical. So, of course, none of the horror of Schindler's List nor the gore of any Holocaust movie finds itself in the movie's script. Instead, FOTR sketches the anxiety and uncertainty of the Jews into poignant scenes and some soul-ripping melodies.
I must say you need patience to watch this movie. It takes its time to build and construct the turf on which it plants its characters. So, it should come as no surprise that for the first 30 minutes, all that happens are two to three songs and all you see are shots of the landscape, the village, and some scenes of people congregating to gossip.
However, once FOTR lays that foundation, it starts to unfurl its tale just the way you want it to: with a pleasant dash of melodrama and the right dosage of subtleties that carefully and necessarily wrap themselves around the insecurities of a revolution story. The background music - when the pace picks up - is down to the minimum so much so that you wish it were there to diffuse the heartache, heartbreak, and sorrow that the scenes tell.
At a little over three hours (181 minutes to be precise), it comes close to inducing a yawn at times. After all, it runs for three hours! And it is blue-blooded art! Art can be sleep-inducing you know.
But! Stay with FOTR till the end. For it has the dimensions of an epic and the heart of those noble storytellers who weave their tales with delicate sensitive threads that they pull from their souls...
Fiddler on the Roof was one such movie I fell in love with.
It tells a not-so-grand story about a poor Jewish man, his wife, and his daughters. They happen to be in Russia at the time the saga unfolds. And the sage happens to be set during the time of Russian revolution.
This was the very same revolution that threw the Jews out of Russia. It took that entire nation in 1905 and managed to wreak havoc on that entire community. Around 3,000 Jews were killed and many fled to neighbouring Poland. Some went all the way to America.
Now, FOTR is a musical. So, of course, none of the horror of Schindler's List nor the gore of any Holocaust movie finds itself in the movie's script. Instead, FOTR sketches the anxiety and uncertainty of the Jews into poignant scenes and some soul-ripping melodies.
I must say you need patience to watch this movie. It takes its time to build and construct the turf on which it plants its characters. So, it should come as no surprise that for the first 30 minutes, all that happens are two to three songs and all you see are shots of the landscape, the village, and some scenes of people congregating to gossip.
However, once FOTR lays that foundation, it starts to unfurl its tale just the way you want it to: with a pleasant dash of melodrama and the right dosage of subtleties that carefully and necessarily wrap themselves around the insecurities of a revolution story. The background music - when the pace picks up - is down to the minimum so much so that you wish it were there to diffuse the heartache, heartbreak, and sorrow that the scenes tell.
At a little over three hours (181 minutes to be precise), it comes close to inducing a yawn at times. After all, it runs for three hours! And it is blue-blooded art! Art can be sleep-inducing you know.
But! Stay with FOTR till the end. For it has the dimensions of an epic and the heart of those noble storytellers who weave their tales with delicate sensitive threads that they pull from their souls...
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