skjam

Fiddler on the Roof (1971) dir. Norman Jewison

Anatevka at the turn of the Twentieth Century is a small village in the Russian Empire, what is now Ukraine. It is home to a community of Jews, as well as Orthodox Christians. Our protagonist is Tevye (Chaim Topol), an impoverished milkman who has been blessed by God with kvetching wife Golde (Norma Crane) and five daughters for whom he has no dowries. At the beginning of the story, Tevye's horse goes lame, and he must pull the milk cart himself, never managing to raise enough money to buy a replacement.

Despite the dowry problem, Tevye's daughters are not without prospects. Lazar Wolf the butcher (Paul Mann), a middle-aged widower, fancies Tevye's eldest, Tzaitel (Rosalind Harris). She, however, wants her childhood friend, the also impoverished tailor Motel (Leonard Frey). Lazar is prosperous, and though he is old enough to be Tzaitel's father, seems to really care for her. So Tevye agrees to this arranged match--until Tzaitel point-blank refuses. Only when he sees that she really loves Motel, and the young man shows a spine, does he relent.

But more woes are on their way, for Tevye has four more daughters, each with their own minds. And the Russian government is putting pressure on the local Constable (Louis Zorich) to carry out a pogrom, driving the Jews from their homes.

This is one of the all-time great musicals, adapted from the stories of Sholom Aleichem about the life and times of Tevye and his struggles to hold on to the traditions of his people. Despite moments of joy, this is a sad story, as tradition breaks down and at the end the community is scattered to the winds. Still, Tevye and his remaining family are alive, and the fiddler comes down off the roof to follow them.

The unique color balance of the movie is due to it being shot through a brown nylon stocking covering the camera lens. And the music is awesome, not just one or two bangers like a lot of musicals, but good all the way through, and an excellent violin solo by Isaac Stern. The Yugoslavian (now Croatian) countryside fills in for Ukraine near Kyiv. (During the recent Russian invasion, Ukrainian refugees named their settlement Anatevka after the fictional village.) The acting is also good.

Content note: Antisemitism, naturally. When Teyve's third daughter Chava (Neva Small) decides to marry a Christian, this is more than the old man can stomach and he disowns her. Alcohol is imbibed, sometimes to excess. The themes and three-hour length may make it difficult for younger viewers. I'd say tweens and below should have grownup guidance, and the short entre d' act (intermission) is a good time to pause, take a break, and discuss what's happened before getting into the more difficult moments in the second part.

This remains one of the great movies, and well worth rewatching when you have the time.

Jailhouse Rock (1957) dir. Richard Thorpe

Vince Everett (Elvis Presley) is a nice enough young man, even if he maybe spends too much time in bars. But once he loses his temper, he doesn't know when to stop. When another patron at the bar starts abusing a woman who was hitting on Vince, and then picks a fight, Vince punches him one time too many and winds up being convicted of manslaughter. The warden (Hugh Sanders) is...not a good man, but gives Vince a lucky break by assigning him to the same cell as former country musician turned bank robber Hunk Houghton (Mickey Shaughnessy).

Hunk is an entrepreneur who runs the underground economy of favors and cigarettes. Vince is a bit surly and very independent, so doesn't take the old con up on becoming a full-time participant in the rackets. However, Hunk grows to like the kid and when he discovers that Vince has natural musical talent, teaches him better guitar playing and the older country style of singing.

A prisoner talent show is broadcast on television as part of the warden distracting reformers from the less than ideal conditions in this jail, and the response by fanmail convinces Hunk he's got a potential star. (He bribes the other mailroom workers to stay silent, and the warden confiscates all the fanmail because he's not a good person.) Hunk convinces Vince to sign an unfair contract "sharing" their showbiz salaries as the younger man is getting out relatively soon, and Hunk not for a year after that.

Vince has become more cynical in prison (especially after he finds out the warden denied him his mail) and is not overly surprised when the nightclub owner Hunk had an "in" with says the "break" he's offering isn't a chance to perform, but a menial barboy position. Vince hijacks the stage to prove he can sing, but the song is (in-universe) a snoozer, and Vince loses his temper at a rude patron. Thankfully, only his guitar gets broken.

Peggy Van Alden (Judy Tyler), an "exploitation man" (we'd say public relations outreach manager) for a record label, recognizes the raw talent under the mediocre performance, and helps him discover his own style that works in the modern era. Her boss says he doesn't like the demo tape much, but will keep it overnight to have a man from New York give a listen. They don't buy it, but the song is picked up by a much smaller label. Bad news! The song itself is public domain and you can't copyright an arrangement (or at least you couldn't at the time) so the first label simply had one of their already signed musicians cop Vince's style and put out their own version so it looks like Vince is copying their man. (In real life, this more commonly happened to black artists.) Vince slaps around Peggy's boss a bit but that's all that can be done.

Vince convinces Peggy to quit her position and join him in creating a new label. This time Vince writes his own song so it's copyrighted, and they convince wealthy lawyer Mr. Shores (Vaughn Taylor) to agree to back them if they can show initial success. Mr. Shores is strictly in this for money, which Vince feels is the correct approach for a manager. Sure enough, with some hard work and luck, that first record sells like hotcakes and Vince's star rises.

By the time Hunk gets out of prison, Vince has a deal for a television special. While he's able to score Hunk an appearance, the older man's music is out of style and Hunk proves unable to adapt to the new music scene. His number gets cut. Vince informs Hunk that the contract they signed in prison was unlawful, and that Hunk is an ass, but he also remembers the good things the older man did for him, so keeps him on as a well-paid flunky.

Peggy is laying down hints that she wants to be a partner in more than the business sense, and Vince isn't picking them up, being more concerned right now with advancing his career and getting way more money. They separate.

Then Vince gets a chance to star in a Hollywood movie, and the resulting drama leads us to the climax of the movie we're watching.

This was Elvis Presley's third movie, and the first really "Elvis" movie designed to make full use of his skillset and personality.

Vince is a decent person underneath, but his temper and later surly attitude cause friction with both friends and strangers. For example, when meeting Peggy's parents at a party they're throwing, they're only slightly taken aback by him being an ex-convict (and generally this isn't a problem for him at all) but get upset when Vince is horribly rude about jazz.

I like Peggy better when she's a partner helping Vince navigate the cutthroat world of professional music than as a love interest, but the actress is solid throughout and has good chemistry with Mr. Presley. Sadly, she passed away between the filming and premiere so this was the only time he got to appear with her, and he was so saddened by her loss that he was unable to bring himself to come to the premiere, and possibly never saw the movie himself.

In the last third of the movie, Mr. Shores takes over as the narrator, recording his memory of events. This allows a compression of events to make time pass more quickly within the story. We never find out who Mr. Shores is narrating to.

But it's the music that most of the fans came to the movie for, and Elvis certainly can sing, even in the parts where he's deliberately dialing it down to represent Vince not having found his groove yet. Hunk is also a perfectly good singer for the couple of numbers he gets--his timing for that style of music is just atrocious as it would be back in favor with audiences soon enough.

Content note: Vince throws fists a few times, once lethally--no blood. There's quite a bit of alcohol use, and some abuse. Mr. Presley is shirtless a few times, most notably when the prison warden orders him whipped. The visual depiction of the whipping and its aftermath are toned way down, but it's made clear that this is meant as torture and the warden cruelly enjoys watching it. Vince does some non-consensual kissing, and extramarital sex is heavily hinted at.

The movie is as cynical about music showbiz as it was possible to make it under the Hays Code, so may do well with viewers who like their musicals a bit on the dark side. While naturally Elvis Presley fans will get the most out of this movie, it holds up pretty well as an actual film for a more general audience.

Beauty and the Beast (1991) dir. Gary Trousdale

Once upon a time, there was an enchantress who went to an eleven year old boy's house in disguise. When he refused to let her in because her disguise was ugly, she punished his rudeness by turning him into a beast, and everyone else in his house into "inanimate" objects. But the curse didn't have to b e permanent. If the Beast could find someone he could love and they loved him back by the time an enchanted rose lost its last petal on his twenty-first birthday, the enchantment would be lifted.

Of course, being a monster on the outside made it very unlikely the Beast would ever find love, and as the years passed he sealed himself off from the world and his behavior became more and more beastlike, especially his terrible temper. The outside world forgot that he even existed. For his servants, trapped in the castle with him, all seemed lost.

But a couple of hours away by fast walk, there was a village, and almost ten years later, a wacky inventor, Maurice, and his beautiful daughter Belle had moved there. Belle felt stifled in the provincial village where she was the only literate woman and considered an oddity because of that. But leading citizen Gaston, most handsome and virile fellow in the village, was willing to overlook Belle's brain on account of her beauty, and made attempts to woo her.

Maurice made a wrong turn in the dark and wound up in the Beast's castle, where the Beast kept him prisoner. Belle came and offered herself as hostage in exchange for her aged and ill father. Secretly touched by this filial loyalty, the Beast agreed. And thus began the tale of the Beauty and the Beast.

This was a huge hit for Disney back in the early 1990s, and was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. It is a very good movie with stunning animation for the time, some excellent songs, good performances by the voice actors (I am especially fond of Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Potts,) and a cool character design for the Beast.

The central relationship relies heavily on our understanding of condensed action; there's only ninety minutes to tell the story, so Beast's learning to control his temper and show his finer qualities, and Belle's realization that there is a person she can love under that monstrous exterior, have to happen in a tiny amount of time. Beast's early unspoken moment where he realizes Belle is sacrificing herself and honors that is key to showing that he's not lost to monsterhood. Kids might want to avoid trying to cure a monster this way at home.

Gaston, conversely, is admired by the public not just because of his good looks, but fulfilling the role of the mighty hunter and strong man that are considered heroic in that time and place. His arrogance and slyness are not considered drawbacks by the villagers, as long as he's a winner. But to modern eyes, he's pretty obviously a villain because of his anti-intellectualism and vindictiveness.

One does have to wonder about events after the movie, when the villagers suddenly have a prince who presumably holds authority over them, and who they were recently trying to kill. How are the other nobles going to react? Not to mention that weirdo Belle is now the princess. And can the other village men step up on the hunting front?

Like many of the Disney animated movies, this is a classic and well worth gathering the family to watch. The littlest ones should not watch alone the first time as there are some scary and sad bits.