MovieChat Forums > Fiddler on the Roof (1971) Discussion > I've always found it difficult to contin...

I've always found it difficult to continue watching after the wedding

posted 8 years ago by jgroub
13 replies | jump to latest

. . . or even the wedding itself, knowing what's coming at the end.

The second half of the movie is just such a downer. Okay, there's a reprise of Tradition, and Do You Love Me? is very nice and sweet.

But the pogrom, and knowing that that pogrom is coming, really puts the damper on the whole wedding for me. Perchik and everyone else getting attacked at the rally, Hodel leaving for god-knows-where in Siberia and singing Far From the Home I Love, Chava getting disowned, and of course, everyone being forced to leave the only homes they've ever known.

It's just one depressing thing after another.

I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.

[–] mockingbirdfreak 8 years ago

I so totally agree. It's a struggle to finish so I usually don't. Lol.

[–] Clusium 8 years ago

That is why Norman Jewison chose Chaim Topol over Zero Mostel. Because he wanted Fiddler on the Roof to be a sombre movie, as opposed to a comedic one. He wanted to show how tough life was for Jewish people living in Christian Europe, which culminated in the Holocaust, back in the early part of the 20'Th Century.

Totus Tuus O Maria!!! Totus Tuus O Jesu!!!!

[–] RGzer0 8 years ago

I couldn't relate to this movie, so I hated it from beginning to end.

What diversity used to mean: Diversity
What diversity now means: Fewer white people

[–] benjaphar 8 years ago

Being unable (or unwilling) to enjoy other cultures is the core of xenophobia. Grow up.

[–] StrongRex (1284) 6 months ago

Throwing SJW labels around is a core sign of leftist emotional blackmail. YOU grow up.

[–] ida96 8 years ago

Any good, rounded tale has both highs and lows. The lows in Fiddler are pretty low, after all the gaiety and singing that introduces characters you like and want the best for. But real life intrudes. Otherwise, FOTR would just be kitsch.

[–] jgroub 8 years ago

Yeah, but this one's just got TOO MANY lows! See that list I put up there? They should have just chosen two of those and not had the rest. Want them to leave Anatevka at the end? Well, you gotta give up the pogrom. Perchik gets beat up? Well then, no disowning Chava.

I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.

[–] disneyed 8 years ago

It's a bummer when real life gets put in a movie? Yes, they suffered much...and isn't that worth addressing?

"You find a glimmer of happiness in this world, there's always someone who wants to destroy it." JD

[–] EJF 8 years ago

Sorry, but that was the reality of life in Russia's Jewish Pale of Settlement during that time. It wasn't singing, dancing and jokes.

[–] jgroub 8 years ago

But that's the problem. This movie starts off wanting to change that narrative - with singing, dancing, and jokes. And then it gets dark.

I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.

[–] snelling 7 years ago

Yes, the second half is a downer but I can never not finish it. I know all the dialogue and songs by heart after so many viewings.

"'Extremely High Voltage.' Well, I don't need safety gloves, because I'm Homer SimpsonzzzzZZZxxx--" - Frank Grimes

[–] marktayloruk (2378) a year ago

To me the end showed the true meaning of antisemitism.

[–] [email protected] (5497) a year ago

The second half of the movie does contain many sad moments. But the film was striving for reality, at least in part. Otherwise it would've been a cheat and a disservice to the people who lived there. Poor people everywhere don't spend their days singing and dancing.

Life in Czarist Russia was no picnic for the Jews peasants (and probably not a funfest for Christian peasants either).

As they all trudge away at the end, banished from their homes, I get teary-eyed. But at least Tevye and his family are going to "New York America" and Lazar Wolf is headed for his brother-in-law's home in "Chicago America". I keep thinking that at least now they'll have indoor plumbing.

They'll surely encounter prejudice in America but they won't have to face another pogrom. And the best thing is they will avoid living in a war zone in a few years. Now if only we could be sure Tzeitel and Chava leave Poland and join them in the USA.