Robert Wise has transformed the delightful Rodgers and Hammerstein musical stage production of "The Sound of Music" into a magical film in which Julie Andrews gives an endearing performance in the role of Maria, the governess.
The 20th-Fox release will be one of the movies' all-time hits, one of the all-time great pictures. It restores your faith in movies. If you sit quietly and let it take, it may also restore your faith in humanity. It does this with infectious wit, with consistent gaiety, with simple and realistic spirituality, with romance of heartbreak and heartmend. This is set against the most beautiful scenery you have seen in your life. The Sound of Music is quite a picture.
Wow, wow, and wow, what a movie, what a Masterpiece, a Musical Masterpiece, no many words to describe The Sound Of Music, just watch the movie, forget about the duration, just enjoyed it, smile with it, sad with it, angry with it, happy with it, and sing with it, The Sound Of Music is a magical of a movie, it's wonderful, so wonderful.
The Robert Wise production is a warmly pulsating, captivating drama set to the most imaginative use of the lilting R-H tunes, magnificently mounted and with a brilliant cast headed by Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer which must strike a respondent chord at the box office.
Robert Wise's adaptation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical still has a little soul in its bones, with its reactionary nature tempered by Ernest Lehman's supple screenplay, and its elephantine running-time eased by a set of songs that lodge in your system like hookworms.
Though Director Robert Wise (West Side Story) has made capital of the show's virtues, he can do little to disguise its faults. In dialogue, song and story, Music still contains too much sugar, too little spice.
Miss Andrews, with her air of radiant vigor, her appearance of plain-Jane wholesomeness and her ability to make her dialogue as vivid and appealing as she makes her songs, brings a nice sort of Mary Poppins logic and authority to this role, which is always in peril of collapsing under its weight of romantic nonsense and sentiment.
This 1965 hit is the sort of film that reeks of emotional Muzak, the most elemental responses programmed right into the scenario. Every audience sniffle and tear has been taken into account.
The Sound of Music is one of the greatest masterpieces in the history of cinema through its undeniably charming music and grand musical story brought to film in the best way to imagine.
A cultural icon.
This is probably one of the most iconic musical films of all time. It is not just a film, it is a reference for those who like cinema, it is a cultural landmark of indisputable value, which has been copied, parodied, praised, admired, satirized, repeated and remastigated over and over again in the cinema, in the theater, on TV, in advertising, in literature, on the radio ... It is the film that forever immortalized Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, two actors who made great cinematographic careers afterwards. The impact of this film on culture and cinematographic art is immense and difficult to calculate. It has become a huge box office and critical success, and is still regularly shown on TV, especially around Easter.
The story of the film, based on real events and a family that exists in real life, couldn't be sweeter and is known to most people, so I think it is very difficult to spoil here: a young novice is sent to a mansion in an Austrian aristocrat, a former naval officer from the First World War, as the tutor of his seven children. The cheerful and understanding way she presents conquers the little ones and ends up, in time, also conquering the rigid military, for whom discipline was fundamental. All of this happens, however, in the late Thirties, with Austria on the verge of annexation by the Third Reich. Captain Von Trapp's exacerbated nationalism will eventually conflict with the new order of things and motivate the family to flee.
The film is dominated by Julie Andrews. She is great in every way and does everything in an almost perfect way. Not to mention he has a beautiful voice and sings very well. Children are equally good and do everything very well, especially Charmian Carr and Kym Karath. Plummer is impeccable and makes an excellent pair with Andrews. Good dialogues help. In the secondary cast, I would highlight the good performance of Peggy Wood and Richard Haydn.
At a technical level, the excellent choice of filming locations, all or almost all in the Salzburg region in Austria, stands out. It doesn't matter the reality here. The film did not seek to be a documentary about the real Trapp family and therefore did not want to go to the real places where everything happened, but wanted to tell a story with glamor, with sweetness, based on their lives. And the film uses very beautiful and charming places to acquire great visual beauty. But even more interesting are the songs in the film. Almost all of them are worthy of memory and can be heard very easily, but I would especially highlight the title song "Sound of Music", as well as "So Long, Farewell", "How to Solve a Problem like Maria", "Edelweiss" and "Sixteen going on Seventeen". They are incredible.
Nominated for ten Oscars, he won five statuettes (Best Film, Best Director, Best Sound, Best Edition and Best Adapted Soundtrack), but the best award will certainly be the status of cultural icon that he has acquired over time.
This is a reasonably fun musical. Its well known for being a classic and certainly I was aware of most of the songs, from mentions/references on TV shows and the like. I quite liked the cinematography towards the start and its a fairly pleasant watch I suppose but I did feel it went on a bit too long and I also felt unconvinced by how long it took into the plot for the obvious **** Germany issue to be brought up, given its set in late 1930s Austria. The songs are relatively catchy I suppose but it was a bit too 'chocolate box soppy' for my personal preference. Its a light and somewhat enjoyable watch, which I can understand why some people may really like but its no more than an ok watch for me personally, hence my rating. I would only recommend it if your interested in it as a historical/musical period drama watch.