Fiddler on the Roof

I wanted to love this musical. I felt like if I could genuinely love it, it would reflect positively upon me in various ways. I'd be cultured, or something. Perhaps more dignified in some way. Alas, I did not enjoy this movie as much as I hoped I would. Perhaps my expectations were set too high, or perhaps I just had a misconception or two going into it. Okay, I'll admit it: I had no idea this was a musical. So please excuse my tepid reactions to it. Still, things started out well. When the first three songs of the film were "Tradition," "Matchmaker, Matchmaker," and "If I Were a Rich Man," all of which I had known about, but none of which I knew came from this musical, my hopes got very high. But the remaining two and a half hours of the movie featured no remotely familiar numbers. That isn't to say they weren't any good - I very much enjoyed "Miracle of Miracles" and "Do You Love Me." Still, they weren't enough to carry a three hour film. As is the case with any musical, between the songs there is a plot. I liked this plot. It reminded me in many ways of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. The main character, a big and burly head of household by the name of Tevye, was very likable and it wasn't hard at all to identify with his struggles and plights. Most chief of these hardships was his very way of life crumbling around him as the Jewish traditions of his little Russian village give way to the modern 20th Century world. I liked the movie's conclusion, sad as it was, as Tevye and his family have been stripped of essentially all of their rights and happiness but still refuse to break. It's strange, sort of; whether its The Ten Commandments or Schindler's List, Jews are always getting the short end of the stick in movies like this one, and the one time Jews are in any position of power on film, they beat up, torture, and kill the most popular dude in Western history - Jesus Christ himself. It just doesn't seem fair, but then, I guess the movies are just sticking to history. It all begs the question: have Jews ever really not been persecuted, at any point in the past two or three millennia? And please, spare me the "Jews control the media/banks/world" jokes. Oh well. This blog is neither religious nor historical in context. The point is, I watched Fiddler on the Roof, wanted to give it a 9 or a 10, and ended up only finding it worthy of a 6 or 7. Not bad, of course, but from a three hour classic, I was hoping for just a little bit more. Still, what more could I hope for than the completion of yet another DVD? The backlog is down to 35 DVDs. Onward!