August is Musical Month in Catholic Movie Club! We’re going to look at movie musicals from across the history of the genre to see how these song-and-dance spectaculars can teach us about our faith.
A community shaped by an ancient, vibrant faith faces changes, both external and internal. Some believers say that they should stand firm and resist change at all costs. Others believe that their traditions must evolve in response to the signs of the times. And in the middle, ordinary people try to discern what God is calling them to do.
You can see why I thought “Fiddler on the Roof” (1971) would be a good choice for Catholic Movie Club.
The film, directed by Norman Jewison, is an adaptation of the celebrated Broadway musical by Joseph Stein, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick (itself an adaptation of the short stories of Sholem Aleichem). While the story is rooted in the experience of early 20th-century Russian Judaism, it has much to teach us about how we live out an ancient faith in a constantly changing world.
The film takes place in Anatevka, a tiny Russian shtetl near modern-day Kyiv, in 1905. Our guide through the village’s traditions and personalities is Tevye (Topol), a poor milkman who lives with his wife, Golde (Norma Crane), and five daughters. Tevye is a pious man who engages in wry conversations with God and cherishes the venerable traditions of his faith. But the world is changing, and Anatevka is no exception: One after another, Tevye’s three eldest daughters (Rosalind Harris, Michele Marsh and Neva Small) defy the prescribed customs of courtship to follow their hearts and be with the men they love. Torn between religious devotion and his own children, Tevye struggles to hold onto his faith in a new and uncertain world.
The opening musical number, “Tradition,” establishes that faith and its related cultural practices are the lifeblood of Anatevka. Throughout the film, we see how religion is woven through every aspect of village life (particularly in two beautiful musical numbers set during a Sabbath dinner and a wedding). These traditions are essential to their survival: The Jews of Eastern Europe in this time period lived a precarious existence, marginalized and surrounded by hostile neighbors. Their faith is a source of hope and strength in hardship, and a way of holding onto their identity even as the world around them seeks to erase it. Tevye’s anxiety about his daughter’s choices isn’t merely philosophical; he fears that they are a threat to their community’s very existence.
As Catholics, I’m sure we recognize that reaction. Some of us would like to revert the church to a pre-Vatican II state and freeze it there, a fortress raised against the modern world. While we don’t face the same sort of oppression or prejudice that Tevye’s community does, many Catholics would argue that this is a matter of survival. If our traditions evolve, they say, we lose the faith of our ancestors, the faith that makes us who we are, and perhaps put ourselves beyond salvation.
This, I think, underestimates God. Faith rests on eternal truths, but the expression of those truths—including particular customs or traditions—may change depending on the unique opportunities and challenges of a moment in history. In “Gaudium et Spes,” the council fathers of Vatican II articulated the church’s mission to read the signs of the times so that “in language intelligible to each generation, she can respond to the perennial questions which men ask about this present life and the life to come, and about the relationship of the one to the other.” Our faith doesn’t need to change with the times, but it does need to be conversant in the ever-evolving language of the present so that we can keep telling our eternal story in every age.
That theme resonates on a metatextual level as well. When “Fiddler” came out, the American movie industry was reeling from the shockwaves of the gritty New Hollywood movement. Compared to complex, groundbreaking films like “The Graduate” or “Midnight Cowboy,” big gaudy musicals felt passé. So Jewison opted for verisimilitude, creating a lush, tactile period drama instead of the stylized, Marc Chagall-inspired design of the stage show. That realistic style may have won over audiences who would otherwise scoff at a musical: “Fiddler” was a massive success, earning the highest box office gross of the year and winning three Academy Awards (it was nominated for, but did not win, Best Picture and Best Director).
This is not to say that movies should always conform to the most popular trends; a couple of decades later audience patterns changed and the big, stylized movie musical returned. It’s no use trying to chase fads. But sometimes it’s worth telling an old story in a new way.
“Fiddler on the Roof” is streaming on the Roku Channel, Tubi, Hoopla and Kanopy.
