Rating: G
Genre:
Musical
Release Date: 09/04/2007
SubTitles: English/Espanol
Dubbed: English/French/Espanol
Sound: DD5.1/DD1
Run Time: 181 Minutes
Flags: Excellent For Children
Distributor/Studio: MGM
Norman Jewison's adaptation of the long-running Broadway
musical is set in the Ukranian ghetto village of Anatevka (the film was actually lensed in Yugoslavia). Israeli actor
Topol repeats his London stage role as
Tevye the milkman, whose equilibrium is constantly being challenged by his poverty, the prejudicial attitudes of non-Jews, and the romantic entanglements of his five daughters. Whenever the weight of the world becomes too much for him,
Tevye carries on lengthy conversations with God, who does not answer but is at least more willing to listen than the milkman's remonstrative wife
Golde. After arranging a marriage between his oldest daughter
Tzeitel and wealthy butcher
Lazar Wolf,
Tevye is forced to do some quick rearranging when the girl falls in love with poor tailor
Motel Kamzoil. Fancying himself more broad-minded than his gentile oppressors,
Tevye cannot accept the notion that his other daughter
Chava would want to marry
Fyedka, a non-Jew. And after shouting the praises of "tradition,"
Tevye must change his tune-and his entire life-when he and his neighbors are forced out of Anatevka by the Czar's minions.
Topol's co-stars include
Norma Crane as
Golde, Yiddish theater legend
Molly Picon as
Yente the matchmaker, and
Leonard Frey as
Motel.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide