Fiddler on the roof is set in 1905, Russia, in a little Jewish town, mainly focusing on Tevye, a strong willed farther of five daughters, but also how he has to maintain his family, following their Jewish traditions, whilst outsiders try to influence them, to break their tradition and follow the outside world. His three oldest daughters, however, convinced him and they break the tradition, by marrying the ones they love. The consequence of this though, is that in the end, the whole village is forced to leave their homes by the Russian Government.
In my opinion of Fiddler on the roof, I did enjoy the whole story line, however, there were times in which I did not really know what was going on, such as the beginning, I had no idea on when it was set, or what was happening at the time in Russia, as a scene takes place within Russia itself, with protesters which are attacked by an army. I also found it quite hard to understand a few of the characters names as well, but then again it may of just been myself who could not hear them properly. However despite these few points, I still got a concept of the story line, which I cut a lot out from the opening paragraph, in that it told the story of how a Jewish village lived away from the world, not caring what the outside world did, but only following their Jewish tradition, reference to the song 'tradition', but how the film focused on one particular family, with a strong willed dad and his five daughters. We are introduced to Tevye, a milkman, who seems to enjoy his life, though poor. Tevye leads the audience on a journey, at first singing a song called 'tradition' telling the audience about their religion in the town, but also how new things are swept aside because they do not like change. However, the story then starts to take a turn since he invites a stranger to join them with their 'Sabbath' meal, in which his eldest daughter falls in love with him. The story then continues to turn on his family, as his other two eldest daughters follow, going against their tradition of life, in which Tevye goes back and forward to the audience about it all, but also blaming God, asking him questions. Though what I truly love about this film, is that it has a few serious scene, but overall a happy, singing, dancing film, but when the ending arrives, it hits you like a ton of bricks, literally. I remember my smile just being smacked off my face because of the ending. The ending is where one of Tevye's friends had joined the Russian army and told them to abandon their village and move away, meaning that each and every village member went their own separate ways, including Tevye's three eldest daughters. This hit me because, throughout the film, you could see the community had a strong relationship with everyone, always laughing and smiling and to see it taken away from them just like that, was just devastating. No music, just a gentle wind and fog and you watch the happiness disappear with the community slipping into the fog.
Overall I personally think this film does have a lot of history to tell the audience, however, for me to personally understand the story itself, I need to watch it over a few more times, as I had to look up the synopsis for the time it was set, but I just love the whole concept of the story from beginning to end, despite if I don't understand what is going on all the time.
