To life! The Oscar-winning classic Fiddler on the Roof fiddles its way onto Prime Video this month, and it’s always a great time to watch or rewatch one of the best movie musicals of all time. In turn-of-the-20th-century Russia (now Ukraine), Tevye (Topol) is a simple Jewish milkman with a loving wife, Golde (Norma Crane), and five daughters. Things get complicated when several of his daughters fall in love, and Teyve, as custom dictates, must either bless their unions or forbid them from happening. But the old ways are slipping away, and soon, the entire family must reckon with changes that could separate them forever.
Based on the hit 1964 Broadway musical, this film adaptation of Fiddler on the Roof doesn’t feel stagey at all – in fact, you wonder how they even set this epic story of faith, family and Jewish identity in a theater in the first place. Credit cinematographer Oswald Morris, who won an Oscar for his efforts, and director Norman Jewison for giving this simple tale the grand, historical canvas it deserves. As Tevye, Topol is unforgettable, depicting a man too stubborn to change but too sympathetic to be stuck permanently in the past. The songs are still catchy, with gems like “If I Were a Rich Man” and “Sunrise, Sunset” still toe-tappingly good after all these years.
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