I love that part!
I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.
Yes, it's great.
Love the bottle dance too, especially the climax of that scene.
Sorry: I just hate it.
The first time I saw Fiddler, my instant reaction to the voice interrupting the Jewish rejoicing was, 'Oh f___, the Ukrainians are irked that the Jews are having such a noisy good time and are going to give them a kicking', and from the Jews' reaction it's clear that that's going through their minds too. And even though it turns out that the Ukrainians aren't going to do that, their behaviour is intensely aggressive - they've broken up the Jews' dance, they sweep them back off the floor with their own Cossack-style dancing, and force Tevye to join them and dance Russian-style. As 'friendliness' goes, it's thoroughly threatening and aggressive: it's saying 'this is our turf and any merrymaking here is going to be done OUR way'. The Jews, true to the principle expressed in their own song, make the best of it with the attitude 'Rejoice! Today they just want to dance with us, not beat us up and burn our houses down!' but the whole incident is an ominous foreshadowing of the violence at Motel and Tzeitel's wedding (which itself is - as the Jews of Anatevka know - very small beer compared to how bad it might have been.)
So no: it's good singing, and good dancing, but it makes me flinch every time.
Aww. I see exactly what you mean, I honestly do.
But maybe you need to lighten up a little and enjoy the movie? Because, like you said, not too long after that, the movie becomes one downer after another.
I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.
You know, that is just a bit like saying "maybe you need to lighten up a little and enjoy the spectacular cross-burning scene, because after that the movie becomes a bit of a downer with all that lynching".
I don't think my reaction is only on account of the fact that I'm only here posting today thanks to a string of direct ancestors who - unlike many of their relatives and neighbours - were alert enough to sense that RIGHT NOW was the time to throw their kids and possessions into a handcart/wagon/train/car/plane and get the h*ll out of town, sharpish. I also reckon this scene is likely to cause unease in anyone who has ever walked innocently into a bar in foreign territory and realised that they and their mates stick out like a sore thumb and that the natives are not only not friendly but just possibly actively hostile; an experience I have had.
Or you could look at it that there is a moment of warm camaraderie between two different peoples.
I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.
Sorry: I just hate it.
Even better is a minute or two later, when the Russian peasant puts his hand out and challenges (dares!) Tevye to dance with him. Intense!
shareYes; I suspect that if there were sufficiently more moments like that one, there wouldn't have been anyone to go on the pogroms.
I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.