Currently Watching - Fiddler on the Roof (1971)

Fiddler on the Roof was one of the last great MGM musicals belonging to the classic movie musical tradition of which MGM was the undisputed king.  The genre would veer course in the ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s and ‘00s, adding more and more realistic elements and losing that spontaneous breaking into song that otherwise interrupts the narrative, culminating in the total integration of a film such as Chicago.  But Fiddler also exhibits a gritty realism, not yet of the level that would eventually be achieved in the mid- to late-1970s, but definitely a precursor of such.  Shot on location in 2.35:1, the film also shares some qualities with the epics of the 1960s, although not epic in scope itself.