The MoFo Musical Countdown - Group Watch

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Really good musicals are timeless!!



I've seen it, but I'll gladly watch this one again! More Zero Mostel is always a good thing.



I watched that before. Unfortunately.
And I don't mean that as an insult to the movie. Like Miss Vicky, many musicals are torturous for me to sit through no matter the quality.



Fiddler on the Roof is a classic. It has its joys and its laughs, but it's ultimately a deeply sad and affecting portrait of a Jewish patriarch trying his hardest to stay true to himself and his beliefs in a place that hates everything he stands for. Topol is genius as Tevye and the songs still hold up, especially the recurring "Tradition," "Sunrise, Sunset" and "the tear-inducing "Chava Ballet." Oh, and the bottle dance is spectacular. I'm surprised to hear it is 3 hours long because it doesn't seem that long, probably because it held my interest so well and I was already familiar with the best songs. On a personal note, one of my high school marching band shows is based on this musical and the drama department staged it one year, so it has a special place in my heart.



I started rewatching Fiddler on the Roof on dvd and the dvd froze 1 hour and 40 minutes into it! The good news is that it is also on Tubi so I switched over to streaming it on Tubi.



I finished rewatching Fiddler on the Roof. I like it a lot, but there's not enough room on my ballot for it to make it. I do think it will make the countdown though. The performances are good and I like the songs. It's a very well made film, although I do feel it is too long.



Trouble with a capital "T"
I finished rewatching Fiddler on the Roof. I like it a lot, but there's not enough room on my ballot for it to make it. I do think it will make the countdown though. The performances are good and I like the songs. It's a very well made film, although I do feel it is too long.
Glad you liked it. Was that a rewatch for you? I had looked at your Letterboxd and didn't see the movie, so that's in part why I picked it.



Glad you liked it. Was that a rewatch for you? I had looked at your Letterboxd and didn't see the movie, so that's in part why I picked it.
Yes, it was a rewatch. I had seen it once several years ago, but never logged it on Letterboxd.



Trouble with a capital "T"
Yes, it was a rewatch. I had seen it once several years ago, but never logged it on Letterboxd.
Damn I should probably ask you for a list of the musicals you haven't seen I think you've seen just about all of them.



Damn I should probably ask you for a list of the musicals you haven't seen I think you've seen just about all of them.
According to my imdb ratings, here are some musicals that I have not seen:

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Wonka
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again
8 Women
From Justin to Kelly
Tommy
Anna and the Apocalypse
Xanadu
Song of the South

There are others, but those are some of the more well known ones.



Trouble with a capital "T"
Fiddler on the Roof (1971)

Second rewatch and I was even more impressed with the sheer epicness of this heartbreakingly sad and yet joyous story of the plight of a tight knit Jewish community living in pre revolutionary Russia in a traditional shtetl setting. I liked the way Tevye (Topol) talks directly to us and so serves as the audiences guide into this unique world of tradition. I found the world building, the history and the recreation of the old Jewish shtetl community fascinating with it's many rules and customs.

The main song of the movie is 'Tradition' which amply describes this all but lost world that existed before the Holocaust. The story focuses on the marriages of Tevye's three oldest daughters. Tradition has it that the village matchmaker will arrange a marriage match with the fathers approval, the daughters have no say in who they will marry. Without going into the story too far the daughters fall in love and have a different idea about marriage, causing some real problems which are handled in a serious way. Indeed this is a serious film, not a comedy, ending on a sad but hopeful note.

Those 180 minutes flew by! The shooting location in rural Yugoslavia looks authentic and the director creates some truly beautiful shots. The songs were potent, sometimes quite melancholy especially "Sunrise, Sunset", I enjoyed them all as well as the wedding scene with it's candle light and the wondrous 'bottle dance'. I hope this will make the countdown it so deserves too.





Fiddler on the Roof: It has the look and feel of a filmed stage play, yet it lacks the deliberate artificiality of Henry V and The Ballad of Narayama (the 1958 version) which made both of those works so aesthetically unique. Fortunately, it successfully captures the darker sides of patriarchy and extreme devotion to religious customs and how both clash with marriage and intrafamilial relationships. While there's a cap as to how likable Tevye is, his growing stubbornness to give up everything he stands for, in addition to his family's reaction towards his behavior, places him somewhere being tragic and pathetic. It did feel 3 hours, but I don't mean this as a criticism since it offered plenty to keep me on board. Also, while most of the songs didn't do a whole lot for me, I did appreciate a couple of them here and there and the nightmare scene was easily the stand‐out moment in the film.
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IMDb
Letterboxd



Current candidates to host the next round: Wyldesyde, FilmBuff, cricket, Torgo, Gideon58

You guys have about 24 more hours to watch the film.



According to my imdb ratings, here are some musicals that I have not seen:

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Wonka
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again
8 Women
From Justin to Kelly
Tommy
Anna and the Apocalypse
Xanadu
Song of the South

There are others, but those are some of the more well known ones.


I'm embarrassed to admit I've seen over half of those.



It’s A Classic Rope-A-Dope
Oh damn, OK I'll send one in now
Tonight’s movie night. Give me something good Cricket. Thankful Rob Zombie has never made a musical at the moment.
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Letterboxd



Tonight’s movie night. Give me something good Cricket. Thankful Rob Zombie has never made a musical at the moment.
Well, you don't have it crossed off as seen in the list section.