why was "Now I Have Everything" cut from FIDDLER film?

[Auggie27]

Posted: 12/11/07 at 8:53pm

I didn't always, but over the years have grown to love this song, as an exploration of the chilly radical Perchik's other, human side. So I'm baffled by its exclusion from the FIDDLER film, and had forgotten it was removed. We get to Perchik's proposal to Hodel, and they take off across the farmland, and never hear his inner romantic side. On the new (circa 2007) edition's "extras," it's revealed that Norman Jewison felt the character needed a radical treatise in song, and Bock/Harnock wrote something called "Any Day Now" which voiced Perchik's fervor. It was recorded, and sounds like something cut from RAGS, not FIDDLER. But it's a pointless number that adds zero to the tale; that side was already in the text. "Now I Have Everything" beautifully augmented his burgeoning political persona an showed the inner man. Too bad. I would've liked to hear its ravishing, heart-opening lyric and melody in the film.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 12/11/07 at 8:58pm

I liked this movie a lot as a kid, but I tried to watch it recently and I just found it interminably slow. I didn't know until then that Topol was only 35 or so when he made that.
Updated On: 12/11/07 at 08:58 PM

[BigFatBlonde]

Posted: 12/11/07 at 8:59pm

The movie was long enough without it.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 12/11/07 at 9:03pm

It is slow. The first half of the first act almost refuses to come to life. Jewison seemed scared to have anyone sing on camera, and a lot of the alternative stuff -- jump cuts of Jewish iconography -- feels very much like a film about Jews pitched toward people who've never even met a Jew. It's strangely pandering, as if shots of a Synogogue were required to explain the faith and culture. I thought it pantronizing. Just tell the story.

[BigFatBlonde]

Posted: 12/11/07 at 9:05pm

I saw the movie after I saw the Topol Revival. It was a let down.

Fiddler might be a good candidate for a TV movie remake.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 12/11/07 at 9:06pm

I never thought of it like that before, but you're right. Heh. It's just kind of lacking in... warmth? heart? I dunno. Something's not there.

[jasonf]

Posted: 12/11/07 at 9:17pm

Out of curiosity - are any of you Jewish?

I grew up with the movie being Jewish, and maybe it's made me biased but it almost seems woven in the fabric of being a Jew to me. In that sense, the movie as is is virtually iconic to me.

[BrianIdol]

Posted: 12/11/07 at 9:18pm

I tried to watch it a year or two ago (after I saw the Molina bway one - which I liked, despite what others thought)...and turned it off after a half hour - BORING....needed to be tightened up BIG TIME. If a great editor went back and shaved off 35 minutes or so, I bet it could be much fresher......

[BigFatBlonde]

Posted: 12/11/07 at 9:26pm

I'm Catholic and LOVED the Topol Revival... I had such a great time that I could have converted right there and then!

But the movie put a stop to that!

[Auggie27]

Posted: 12/11/07 at 9:43pm

I'm old enough to have seen if not Zero (though I could have, at 14) Hershel Bernardi ... and loved him ... and frankly, I loved Harvey Fierstein. He moved me to tears; the emotional stakes were just so there. He gave us a way in. But despite its turgid pace, again, particularly its inabilty to get started, I like Topol in the film. He reminds me of a wild-eyed brother of Dustin Hoffman. I'm less taken with Norma Crane -- and she seems looped in every scene. The daughters still look authentic and just lovely. And Paul Michael Glaser and the late great Mr. Frey are perfectly cast.

[roquat]

Posted: 12/11/07 at 11:40pm

I LOVE this movie and have always thought it severely under-rated. It gains so much from being set outdoors, in a realistic village. Nearly everyone is cast wonderfully, even in the small parts (Neva Small's Chava is funny and heartbreaking with a minimum of lines). It's true it's a little too verbatim (even the transitional "scene change" scenes are retained) but that just contributes to the feeling of a big bold tapestry of life--it truly is the story of a people, not just a milkman and his family.

I must say, though, that I never liked "Now I Have Everything" (or the character of Perchik) particularly. This may be a result of having seen the movie first. I still prefer it to the stage version.

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 12/12/07 at 12:20am

Fiddler might be a good candidate for a TV movie remake.
Wasn't there an ABC musical remake with Victor Garber as Tevye planned?

[bwaylvsong]

Posted: 12/12/07 at 12:26am

I always thought it would work well as an animated film in the style of Chagall, with perhaps Stokes as the voice of Tevye.

[BrianIdol]

Posted: 12/12/07 at 1:03am

ooo that sounds like it would be GORGEOUS!

[Roninjoey]

Posted: 12/12/07 at 1:11am

I like this movie too.

It's a nice song but it's just out of step with the score and with the character. The cut is pretty justified.

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 12/12/07 at 10:46am

I love the movie. I haven't watched it in so long.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 12/12/07 at 10:49am

Fiddler might be a good candidate for a TV movie remake.

Dear God no. Please. Mainstream America doesn't need to be exposed to this mixed-up garbage in 2007.

It is very much a period piece, and for people out in the middle of nowhere who have never met a Jew in their life, to be exposed to this as "Jewish philosophy" will only do harm.

The revival was completely unnecessary, and it was a horrendous production.

This story needs to remain on Video/DVD and in productions only at high schools and JCCs, and even that's too much.

Personally, I wish that this story would die with the generation that first saw it.

We don't need entertainment to be teaching young people today easier ways to stereotype and write off Jews as closed off, closed minded individuals.

We have the real living ones to do that enough on their own.

[ggersten]

Posted: 12/12/07 at 12:20pm

jeez, foster. That's kind of an odd take on the show. While Fiddler is very jewish - it's also universal - or it wouldn't have run as long as it did. It is not so much about Russian jews as it is about Americans, dealing with changing times that come up against "Tradition". Lots of cultures in America have faced the same battle, and are still facing it.
Closed Minded - doesn't Tevye change?, don't his daughters change?, isn't Perchik jewish? The ones who are closed minded are "the others" the Cossacks, even Tevye's friend who nevertheless promulgates the wedding night pogrom.

btw, I'm not a big fan of Now I Have Everything and don't miss it in the film. I've grown to like Far From The Home I Love.

Updated On: 12/12/07 at 12:20 PM

[Jon]

Posted: 12/12/07 at 12:42pm

As Roninjoey said, the song doesn't really blend well with the rest of the score. It sounds very "1960's Broadway" as opposed to "1900's Russian Jewish village".

I've seen many productions that cut the song.

[robbiej]

Posted: 12/12/07 at 12:59pm

The only problem I've ever had with the movie is that the village is quite expansive. That seems like an odd criticism and it may very well be geographically correct...but it's hard to get the 'community' aspect of the movie until the wedding sequence (beautifully shot).

Glaser's Perchik is so fully realized that the song my have just seem...I don't know. Unnecessary. And I've never liked the song. It's actually the first song I ever sang solo in front of an audience...and even at age 9 I disliked it.

I also was completely astonished to find out that the director of the film, Norman Jewison, was/is not Jewish. I wonder if that had something to do with his fascination with Jewish iconography interspersed throughout the film.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 12/12/07 at 3:08pm

We don't need entertainment to be teaching young people today easier ways to stereotype and write off Jews as closed off, closed minded individuals.

Based on that statement, I would swear you have never actually seen the show since the entire story pretty much points out the exact opposite.

Love the movie. Loved the recent revival (as compared to other productions I have seen). I like Now I Have Everything, but I never really notice its absence from the film. I have to agree with robbiej. I think Perchik's character arc is a bit more defined in the film than on stage, which pretty much renders the song obsolete.

For me, one of the most glorious aspects of the film is the cast. Virtually ever member of the cast is perfect. And I love what they did with Matchmaker, which starts off meekly pensive and escalates into optimistic joy. Beautiful.

[Roninjoey]

Posted: 12/12/07 at 3:16pm

Nothing in the film detracts. I don't feel like I'm watching movie stars acting (so rare in today's movie climate).

You know the composer never studied any period music at all? He just sat down and wrote things he thought sounded jewish-ish and appropriate.

[Dancin Thru Life]

Posted: 12/12/07 at 3:23pm

I love that everyone is having this discussion about Fiddler!

It's a great movie and will always take me back to the first time I saw it as a child. I MUCH prefer it over ANY of the hundred or so stage productions of it that I've performed in or seen. It really does take the viewer to a certain place and make them part of the family.

I never feel like I'm "on the outside looking in" while watching the film...I always feel absorbed into the story. Onstage, the story does not have the same effect on me.

Even I don't know if that makes sense, but it's true! :)

Sorry to aviod the original question. CARRY ON!