Common Sense Note
Parents should know that this film tackles numerous social and political issues within a religious context, including the concepts of interfaith marriages, gender roles, socialism, religious intolerance, and more. Smaller children may be spooked by the movie's portrayal of the violence of the Russian Revolution, and may also be frightened by the film's ending, in which the inhabitants of a small Jewish village are forced out of their homes by Russian soldiers.
Families who see this movie might talk about the importance of religious traditions: are they stifling to individuality or do they provide a moral framework that imbues everyday life with meaning? They might also wish to discuss parental authority, and what happens when children flout their parents' wishes. The movie's sympathetic portrait of Jewish villagers caught up in the dangerous politics of the Russian Revolution could provide fodder for a discussion of political systems (capitalism vs. communism, for instance), and the havoc and agony that results when such systems are overthrown.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Joyce Slayton
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF is an epic musical with two faces: one is a boisterous, comic look at rural life in a Ukrainian village, the other is a serious portrait of the sweeping, tragic changes the Russian Revolution forced on Russian Jews. The film centers on a humble agrarian family: Tevye (Palestinian-born actor Topol ably replacing stage musical lead Zero Mostel) is the milkman of Anatevka and a devout Jew who's desperately attempting to hold onto his faith's traditions in the face of both the rebellious actions of his three marrying-age daughters and the increasingly ominous intimidation of Czarist officials.
FIDDLER starts off as a joyous trifle, with Tevye questioning his station in life in "If I Were a Rich Man," and his daughters wishing for ideal husbands in "Matchmaker." But the upbeat tone of the musical's first half makes the second half, which delves into the politics of the Russian Revolution and introduces the terrible specter of exile and the Jewish diaspora, all the more disturbing. At the heart of Fiddler is, of course, tradition; the title itself refers to the instability of life, against which tradition provides support. But FIDDLER marks the ways in which such traditions are eroded, both for good (the viewer is presented with sympathetic portraits of Tevye's daughters and their unconventional choices of husbands), and decidedly bad (the pogrom that sweeps Anatevka's villagers from their homes is hauntingly realistic). It's this dichotomy that makes FIDDLER a daring, thought-provoking departure from traditional stage musical.
Families who enjoy this movie may enjoy other portraits of Jewish life, such as Yentl and The Jazz Singer, or other musicals with religious underpinnings such as Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Jesus Christ Superstar.
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ViolenceHistorical battles of the Russian Revolution are shown but there is no gore and deaths are muted. |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoTevye is shown drinking to celebrate his daughter's upcoming wedding and suffers a hangover the next day; wedding celebrants drink wine. |
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