Rented "Fiddler on the Roof" from the local library last week and watched it yesterday afternoon. It being Gaudete Sunday I thought I would celebrate a little. I'd forgotten how good it was....Jewish life in Russia in 1917 with the ominous signs of what was to come being apparent. It's a very warm movie though, showing family and village life...the joys, the struggles, the adjusting to the changes that seem necessarily to come with time. The father rejoices in his Jewish traditions as a way to cope until he's confronted with challenges to those traditions even in his family. But there's something beautiful about the traditions....the wearing of a hat and prayer shawl, the keeping of the Sabbath and family prayer and the constant referrel to Biblical stories and an ongoing conversation with the Lord. There's humour, toe tapping music and even a surrealistic dream as a way of explaning to his wife their eldest daughter's betrothal to the village tailor's son....a poor man....rather than the elderly rich village butcher.(A marriage arranged by the village matchmaker).
The people are poor materially but rich in relationships and culture and the movie is full of life. At the end of the movie one feels sad with the family that it's all about to end....very sad. ***** Five stars.
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