Fiddler On The Roof (film)

Fiddler On The Roof (film)

Fiddler on the Roof is the 1971 film adaptation of the 1964 Broadway musical of the same name, with music composed by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and screenplay by Joseph Stein, set in Tsarist Russia in 1905, about Tevye and his Daughters. It was produced and directed by Norman Jewison. The film won three Academy Awards, including one for arranger-conductor John Williams. It was nominated for several more, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Topol as Tevye, and Best Supporting Actor for Leonard Frey, who played Motel Kamzoil the Tailor (both had originally acted in the musical; Topol as Tevye in the London production and Frey in a minor part as Mendel, the rabbi's son). The decision to cast Topol, instead of Zero Mostel, as Tevye was a somewhat controversial one, as the role had originated with Mostel and he had made it famous. Years later, Jewison explained that he felt Mostel's larger-than-life personality, while fine on stage, would cause movie audiences to see him (i.e., Zero Mostel the actor) rather than the character of Tevye.

Principal photography was done at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, England. Most of the exterior shots were done in SFR Yugoslavia - specifically in Mala Gorica, Lekenik, and Zagreb within the Yugoslav constituent republic of Croatia. Isaac Stern provided the violin solos.

The film follows the plot of the stage play very closely, retaining nearly all of the play's dialogue while adding a new scene showing Perchik being arrested, although it omits the songs Now I Have Everything and The Rumor (I Just Heard). It takes place in the Jewish village of Anatevka, within the Pale of Settlement in westernmost Tsarist Russia in 1905 and centers on the character of Tevye, a poor milkman, and his daughters' marriages. As Tevye says in the introductory narration, the Jews have relied upon their traditions to maintain the stability of their way of life for centuries; but as times change, that stability is threatened on the small scale by Tevye's daughters' wishes to marry men not chosen in the traditional way by the matchmaker, and on the large scale by pogroms and revolution in Russia. Lyrical Portions of Tevye's Dream (Tailor Motel Kemzoil), were omitted to avoid repetition or anything that was considered obvious. Also, in the song Tradition Reb Nachum the beggar is mute, making wordless noises, omitting the dialogue between the beggar and Lazar Wolf, and the dialogue of Yente attempting to match Avram's son, with a blind daughter, was omitted. In the song Tradition, the dialogue between the two men, arguing about the "Horse and Mule" business was changed instead to a "Horse that was 6 years old, when it was really 12 years old", with Tevye whispering to one of the men that it was really "12 years old", thus starting the heated argument again.

A new song intended to be sung by Perchik was recorded (Any Day Now), however, it was omitted from the final print. When the film was re-released in 1979, several minutes were omitted from the film, including the songs Far from the Home I Love and Anatevka.