I try not to let the passing of certain directors influence who I write about next, but I admit it's a futile effort. Norman Jewison was one of the greats, with such an eclectic career that it's a little hard to believe that he was responsible for directing everything in his filmography. He started his film career with Doris Day comedies and ended up being nominated for the Best Director Oscar three times in three different decades for films in three different genres. He relished challenging social dramas, but was a deft hand at romantic comedies, thrillers, capers, and - in a decade when they were not very popular - musicals.
It's a famous story that Norman Jewison had to break it to the folks who wanted him to direct the film adaptation of "Fiddler on the Roof" that he wasn't Jewish, despite his name. However, he was being courted for the job because his resume had several excellent movies about fostering better cross-cultural relations like "The Russians are Coming, The Russians Are Coming," and "In the Heat of the Night." And after Bobby Kennedy's assassination in 1968, Jewison wanted to make something positive and hopeful. So his next film would be about Tevye the milkman, his wife, his five daughters, and the people of the little Jewish village of Anatevka in Tsarist Russia.
I didn't see "Fiddler" until I was an adult, but I knew many of the songs from growing up in a musical household. And after a single viewing of the film, it felt like an old favorite that I'd been watching all my life. Aside from Topol I didn't know any of the actors, but the characters were so vivid and so well defined, it felt like they were all dear friends. The age-old themes of tradition versus progress, love versus propriety, and the endless struggles with the generation gap were beautifully expressed in the context of a culture and religion that I didn't know very well, but found it very easy to relate to, with the help of Tevye's jovial commentary. As many critics have pointed out, the musical's appeal was in its universality within a very specific experience. And "Fiddler" reached a wide audience, topping the box office charts and winning warm critical notices.
Jewison has appeared in several documentaries and other media about the film, talking about the production. His approach seems to have been to get the best possible people involved, and to not fix what wasn't broken. He loved the stage musical, having seen it in its opening week, and claimed to have cried through the whole second act. He considered "Fiddler" an important work, and took the film version as seriously as he took any of his social dramas. Cuts were made for easier adaptation to the screen, but the film was designed to be a roadshow musical, and enjoyed a brisk three hour running time. This is almost certainly why I'd never seen it broadcast on television. And though there was plenty of Jewish talent behind the scenes, including screenwriter Joseph Stein and the Misrichs, authenticity was sometimes still a battle. Jewison had to fight to get Topol cast instead of a bigger star, Zero Mostel, and to convince the great violinist Isaac Stern to contribute to the soundtrack.
It's the humanity of the characters that makes "Fiddler" so memorable. Jewison could make pretty much any kind of film, but he once expressed that he had no interest in big action spectaculars. He wanted to make films about people the audience could recognize themselves in. And in "Fiddler," I recognized everybody from the busybody local gossip to the three hopeful sisters to Tevye himself, struggling in the face of a changing world, and soon to become another immigrant on his way to the New World. It's been nearly twenty years since I first saw the film, and fifty years since its premiere, and it hasn't aged at all.
I'm well aware of the irony of writing this installment of "Great Directors" directly after the one for "The French Connection," which famously beat out "Fiddler" at the Oscars for Best Picture and Director, to Jewison's chagrin. I happen to think that Jewison was right and that he made the better picture.
What I've Seen - Norman Jewison
The Cincinnati Kid (1966)
The Russians Are Coming, The Russians are Coming (1966)
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
Jesus Christ Superstar (1973)
Rollerball (1975)
… and Justice For All (1979)
A Soldier's Story (1984)
Moonstruck (1987)
Bogus (1996)
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