--- title: "Fiddler on the Roof" year: 1971 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/fiddler-on-the-roof" fi1m_score: 77 critics_score: 69 critics_reviews: 12 published: "2026-09-20T05:33:50.548032+00:00" updated: "2026-09-20T05:34:12.759998+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Fiddler on the Roof (1971) Directed by Norman Jewison · 3h 01m · MPA G · Drama, Romance **Fi1m score: 77** · Critics 69 from 12 reviews *In a sentence:* A milkman argues with God for three hours and the milkman, mostly, has the better lines > Norman Jewison’s film of the stage musical is long, brown and often lovely. Chaim Topol’s Tevye is the reason to sit through 181 minutes; the film around him does not always know when to stop, but it knows where to look. ## Synopsis Anatevka, a Jewish village in Tsarist Russia, 1905. Tevye (Chaim Topol), a milkman whose horse has gone lame, pulls his own cart to market and talks to God about it. At home are his wife Golde (Norma Crane) and five daughters, and Yente the matchmaker (Molly Picon) has found a husband for the eldest, Tzeitel (Rosalind Harris): Lazar Wolf (Paul Mann), the widowed butcher, who is rich and more than twice her age. Tzeitel has promised herself instead to Motel (Leonard Frey), the tailor, who is poor and cannot find the nerve to ask her father. Into this walks Perchik (Paul Michael Glaser), a student from the city with revolutionary opinions, who takes a room in exchange for teaching the younger girls, while the local constable warns Tevye that orders about the village are coming from above. ## Review Norman Jewison’s film of *Fiddler on the Roof* takes Joseph Stein’s stage musical, drawn from Sholem Aleichem’s stories of a Jewish milkman in Tsarist Russia, out of the theatre and into the mud. A show about a village should be shot in one. The result runs 181 minutes, is coloured like an old photograph, and is good for most of its length and a little too pleased to be sad for some of it. It is worth an evening, and the evening is long. Chaim Topol is the reason. His Tevye is a big man who moves like a smaller one, and he talks to God the way you would to a neighbour who has borrowed something and not returned it. “If I Were a Rich Man” is done alone in a barn with a horse for an audience, and Topol plays it as a man thinking out loud, breaking off to check the sky for a reply. When the daughters slip out of his hands his face does the grief before the script gets to it. Norma Crane’s Golde meets him with a dryness that suggests thirty years of not being impressed, and their scenes are the best acted here. Oswald Morris shoots it in browns, greys and the yellow of tallow, with the colour drained so far that a splash of anything brighter registers as an event. Robert F. Boyle built Anatevka as a real place of thatch, crooked fences and standing water, and Joan Bridge and Elizabeth Haffenden dress it in wool that has been patched and patched again. The opening “Tradition” moves through the whole village at first light, milk cart, bakery, study house, and by the end of it we knew where everyone lived. The wedding is the film’s finest half hour and the place it got us. The guests hold candles under a black sky, Morris lights the faces from below with almost nothing else, and “Sunrise, Sunset” is sung by people who look as though they are about to lose something. We have heard that song at more weddings than we can count and had long stopped hearing it; here it moved us far more than we expected. John Williams takes Jerry Bock’s tunes and gives them a full orchestra without smothering them, and the fiddle that opens the film is left thin and alone, which is right. The dancing is where the move from stage to screen costs the most. Robert Lawrence and Antony Gibbs cut the tavern sequence for “To Life”, Jews and Russians drinking in the same room, with real momentum, and the dream in which the butcher’s dead wife rises shrieking is the one stretch where the film drops the realism and comes alive as theatre. Elsewhere the numbers are shot in real yards and lanes, and people breaking into song beside a real chicken look faintly embarrassed; “Matchmaker” is staged as if the camera would rather be somewhere else. Around the two-hour mark we caught ourselves checking how much was left, and were then a little ashamed, since what was left is the point. The daughters are uneven. Rosalind Harris’s Tzeitel has spine, Michele Marsh gives Hodel a stillness the second half needs, and Neva Small’s Chava is barely written. Paul Michael Glaser’s Perchik declares his politics as if reading them off a card. Leonard Frey is better than the part as Motel, the tailor who cannot speak to Tevye without apologising, and Molly Picon’s Yente is pure stage business, which sits oddly in a film this determined to be real. The second half takes turns we will not describe, and Jewison holds on each longer than he needs to. Most critics have landed roughly where we have, complaining of the same things: the length, the sentiment, the dances. Against the big musicals of its time this is one of the few that trusted its material enough not to prettify it, and the mud and the candles are what stay. It carries a U certificate. Give it the whole evening, and a break in the middle, because Topol has earned the second half whether or not the film around him always has. *Fi1m score 77, published 20 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics come away well disposed. Nearly every review, including the unfavourable ones, settles on Topol’s Tevye as the reason to watch: a performance most describe as warm, witty and bombastic, carrying a huge production largely on its own. The score is the other point of agreement, with John Williams’s orchestrations credited for improving on the stage version, and several reviews single out the photography, the candle-lit wedding sequence in particular, and the real Eastern European locations. The spread is wide. The New York Times argues that enlarging the show onto real landscapes drains it of the intimacy that made it work, and that the performances and choreography suffer from the literal approach. Time Out and the Evening Standard both find it too sentimental and too eager to be loved, the latter calling it unremarkable as a musical despite its star. Even admirers concede it is long, and Collider notes the first hour drags. The more recent reappraisals are noticeably warmer than the reviews of 1971. ### Reviews we read (12) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, THR Staff (90/100, inferred): The critic praises the film as a lavish, carefully made, and splendidly designed musical that demonstrates how time and money can buy perfection when intelligently used. They single out the improved musical score thanks to John Williams's orchestrations and conducting, while noting it ranks high among the best musicals ever put on film despite some contrived moments. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/fiddler-roof-1971-film-850257/) - **The New Yorker** (90/100, inferred): The film is a powerful, square, and vital movie musical that succeeds as American folk opera on the theme of Jewish immigrant heritage. Topol’s Tevye carries the huge production with brute vitality and clownish energy. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1971/11/13/a-bagel-with-a-bite-out-of-it) - **Empire**, Caroline Westbrook (80/100, inferred): The critic calls it one of the few screen musicals that works, crediting its authentic glimpse into a long-gone Jewish culture in pre-revolutionary Russia along with its memorable songs. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/fiddler-roof-review/) - **Radio Times**, Tony Sloman (4/5): The film is a lasting memorial to the great play, with memorable performances especially Topol, and a wonderful Oscar-winning soundtrack and photography, though a bit long-winded. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-jq2jzl/fiddler-on-the-roof/) - **Variety** (70/100, inferred): The screen version of the stage smash is sentimental, romantic, nostalgic, and affirmative of human decency and folk humor. Topol brings bombast, compassion, and vitality to Tevye, though some songs lose fun in the transfer. [Read](https://variety.com/1970/film/reviews/fiddler-on-the-roof-2-1200422507/) - **Evening Standard** (50/100, inferred): The piece reflects on Topol's definitive performance as Tevye but finds the film itself unremarkable as a musical, with poor choreography capture and overly sentimental Chagall-inspired visuals, though it respects the stage show's fidelity. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/fiddler-on-the-roof-7433231.html) - **Time Out**, TM (40/100, inferred): The critic finds the film overly sentimental and hard to take due to its excessive eagerness to be lovable, though praises the score, choreography, and Topol's performance. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/fiddler-on-the-roof) - **The New York Times**, Vincent Canby (30/100, inferred): The film enlarges the stage musical with real locations and scale but drains much of its life and intimacy in the process. The score remains strong, but performances and choreography suffer from the literal approach. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1971/11/04/archives/fiddler-on-a-grand-scalelifestyle-of-the-aleichem-characters-is.html) - **/Film**, Sandy Schaefer (85/100, inferred): The critic finds the film holds up remarkably well on revisiting and remains powerful and relevant today. Topol's charming, spit-and-vinegar performance as Tevye and Jewison's gorgeous compositions that mix intimate character study with dynamic musical sequences are singled out for praise. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/1223109/over-50-years-later-fiddler-on-the-roof-and-topols-performance-are-more-relevant-than-ever/) - **Film Stories**, Sarah Cook (80/100, inferred): The critic praises Jewison's direction for blending stage and screen elements effectively in this lavish adaptation. Topol's warm, complex performance as Tevye and the stunning candle-lit cinematography in the wedding sequence stand out as highlights of this magical, transcendent musical. [Read](https://filmstories.co.uk/features/old-movies-looking-under-the-bonnet-of-fiddler-on-the-roof/) - **HeyUGuys**, Dave Roper (4/5): The critic calls the film an utter success that remains iconic, moving, important and heart-warming decades later. Topol's perfect portrayal of the warm, witty Tevye anchors the memorable adaptation of the beloved stage musical. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/fiddler-on-the-roof-bluray-review/) - **Collider**, Jackson Jackson (70/100, inferred): The critic views the 1971 film as one of the last great MGM musicals that blends classic traditions with emerging gritty realism, remaining a multiple Oscar-winner and enduring classic. The review singles out the on-location shooting and visual style for praise while noting some pacing issues in the first hour. [Read](https://collider.com/fiddler-on-the-roof-blu-ray-review/) ## Details - **Director:** Norman Jewison - **Director:** Norman Jewison - **Screenplay:** Joseph Stein - **Cinematography:** Oswald Morris - **Editor:** Antony Gibbs, Robert Lawrence - **Music:** Jerry Bock, John Williams - **Production design:** Robert F. Boyle - **Costume design:** Joan Bridge, Elizabeth Haffenden - **Producer:** Norman Jewison - **Cast:** Chaim Topol as Tevye; Norma Crane as Golde; Leonard Frey as Motel; Molly Picon as Yente; Paul Mann as Lazar Wolf; Rosalind Harris as Tzeitel; Michele Marsh as Hodel; Neva Small as Chava - **Runtime:** 3h 01m - **Certificate (MPA):** G - **Release (the US):** 3 November 1971 - **Genres:** Drama, Romance - **Budget:** $9 million - **Box office:** $83 million ## Where to watch in the US - Amazon Prime Video: streaming - The Roku Channel: free, hd, leaving 2026-10-01 - Pluto TV: free - Tubi: free, hd, leaving 2026-10-01 - Amazon Prime Video: free - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $14.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $14.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-20.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IT, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1972: Best Actor (nominated); Best Picture (nominated); Best Production Design (nominated); Best Supporting Actor (nominated); Best Cinematography (won); Best Original Song Score (won); Best Sound (won) ## If you liked this - *Cabaret* (1972), Fi1m 88: The musical that went the other way the following year: cold, sharp and short. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/cabaret.md) - *Hester Street* (1975): What happened to the people who left, shot small and in black and white. - *Yentl* (1983): Streisand’s shtetl, sung mostly in her head; odder and braver than its reputation. - *The Dybbuk* (1937): A Yiddish-language ghost story from Poland, made before the world it shows was gone. - *A Serious Man* (2009), Fi1m 84: The Coens open in a shtetl and spend the rest arguing with God in Minnesota. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/a-serious-man.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/fiddler-on-the-roof