Year: 1965
Director: Robert Wise
I had a notion to re-watch this again last night. And I’m glad I did.
It’s not just the tunes that are brilliant. I had forgotten how well staged it all is. Massive, lush, widescreen exteriors make the most of the Austrian scenery. Creamy, rich interiors look like they’ve been painted in oil. The scene where timid Maria arrives at the Captain’s foreboding house, silence echoing around the marble entrance hall, reaches Hitchcock levels of suspense. It feels solid, a proper film you can relax into and feel you are in safe hands.
It also sidesteps the usual off-putting song-and-dance routines that are a key ingredient to most screen musicals. There’s absolutely no professional-looking dancing or synchronisation on show here. It all looks very natural (don’t laugh), maintaining a high-school level of choreography that lets the characters’ charisma and youthful exuberance shine through.
The story is the essence of finding genius in simplicity. A young woman finds her place in the world working as a governess for the children of a retired Captain, while the fingers of Nazi domination slowly tighten their grip in the background. There are no real surprises, but the dramatic arc is heart-warming in a genuine way and the gathering clouds of war are authentically sinister.
Maria is a homely character, refreshingly simple-minded and unquestioning in her religious mindset. Her search for identity and her stoic attitude mark her as a feminist icon by stealth. And I bet that blonde bob was a lot more influential than Julie Andrews is given credit for.
And… that voice! Perhaps matched only by Doris Day could match ol’ Julie for sheer projection and verve as a screen singer. From the breathy whisper of Something Good (the low-key masterpiece of the film) to the yankee-doodle warblings of I Have Confidence, she absolutely nails it every time.
And yes, those tunes. It goes without saying that Rodgers and Hammerstein excelled themselves here. I doubt you’ll find a more deliciously perfect group of melodies in the western canon outside of a Beatles LP. My Favourite Things is a tumbling cascade of glitter, exhilarating in its minor/major ambiguity. Do Re Mi slots its military-grade counterpoints together with clockwork precision. The surprise for me on this viewing was Climb Every Mountain, a rousing anthem which would give Gustav Holst chills and manages the rare feat of making a singing nun seem like a life guru.
Might appeal to people who enjoyed:
Surely it appeals to everyone? I don’t really believe anyone who says they don’t like The Sound of Music. They just haven’t watched it yet.
Well, I certainly agree with you, but then I’m a sucker for all film musicals. The sillier, the better, actually.
I find it tough to sit through a stage musical though. But that can also be due to the fact that I’ve only seen bad, modern musicals in the theatre. I bloody hate Andrew Lloyd-Webber, and unfortunately his influence has ruined the genre completely IMO.
My Mum took me to see it when it first came out (after being volunteered by Dad who for some reason preferred to go the pub). I hated it. I hated it for forty years
Then a kind and beautiful lady changed my life. Amongst the many joys she has brung me is the realisation that Sound of Music is joyfully and wonderfully magnificent. Excellent review, Art.
This wouldn’t be Mistress Kinkydom of Golders Green, would it? She had a reputation for taking young lads in hand, and liked The Sound Of Music for all the wrong reasons – the Nazi uniforms, mainly.
She still talks of you fondly – late at night after a few too many tinctures she often proclaims “Boy, he sure did love that whip”
I once went to Salzburg on holiday, everywhere you turn is like living in a scene from TSoM. Watch the film for the scenery, even if you don’t like the story or the music.
But strangely apart from a couple of tours, no one’s really heard of it there. Apparently never a popular film in Austria.
I’ve tried any number of times, and doubtless will again when I’m under the house arrest of Christmas at some stage, but I’ve never managed to endure more than 30 minutes.
That’s a cracking review. I’m only familiar with the short clips I’ve seen over the years in various television formats, but now I’m minded to set aside a couple of hours for a wallow in quality film-making.
Interesting to see that I’m not the only Afterworder who’s never watched the Sound of Music…
Oh do Vulpsy. Have a few at the pub Sunday lunchtime to soften you up, then watch with a post prandial scotch, a box of Maltesers and some hankies for the soppy bits. A finer autumn Sunday afternoon you will not have.
This film was anathema to teenagers growing up in the sixties. It clogged up the album charts at no. 1 for God knows how many years keeping even the Fabs off the top spot.
Even The Bonzos took the piss out of it on one of their albums.
Can I still have a dislike for something that I have never seen ? In this case probably.
However, my wife loves it. So much so that I bought her the Blu Ray as a Christmas present last year.
Still on the pile of movies to watch. Still can’t bring myself to slot it into the player.
Would rather watch this any day over the film !
Very nice work Arthur, thank you for that.
It’s easy to take The Classics in any field for granted, consigning them to the part of the brain that fondly believes you can recall them at will, but revisiting them occasionally is almost invariably instructive in showing us just how they became classics in the first place…
And even those of us here of more – ahem – vintage years might not remember just how massive TSOM was at the time – highest-grossing movie of all-time, biggest-selling soundtrack (maybe even biggest-selling album full stop), and in the days before video, it ran for literally years non-stop in cinemas in London and New York… in fact it was even deliberately held back from TV until 1976, and even then not shown again until 1979, after which it’s become a TV perennial of course…
I’ve heard there’s a director’s cut hidden away. They don’t escape but are captured by the Nazis. Maria and the captain placed in front of a firing squad. Kids led off to a boarding school run by the Hitler Youth.
That might be my preferred edit. I think the kids in SoM are my problem, along with the songs. I don’t mind musicals, Julie Andrews or the combination of both with kids – I quite enjoy Mary Poppins.
An amusing review pointed out that, as the Nazi guns never seemed to shoot straight, nor did their torches ever illuminate anything.
I have been forced to watch it a few times, it being the fave movie of my ex. There are a few good moments, some ok songs and some terrible ones, but the whole thing is way overlong, way too sugary and has a very annoying lead actress who I preferred in the far superior Mary Poppins. Christopher Plummer (who hated the film) is good.
I prefer The Bound Of Music, in which two Nazi lesbian nuns (Jennifer Tilly, Gina Gershon) get a job as governesses to [enough – Ed.]
Nice callback to my recent film mashup thread there, HP. You will, no doubt, have seen in the broadsheets the widespread acclaim received by the thread. Even though it wasn’t “Hamper-grade,” the quality of posts there lead me to believe that I’m in the running for a couple of statuettes when the AW award season rolls around this winter. Fingers crossed.
Thanks for your many grateful pms during the course of that thread, Maurice, from my first comment which got the ball rolling after nobody else could even understand what you were on about, through the many which kept it alive! Always a pleasure to help a keen young chap like yourself!
Lovely review. As lovely as the film, I’d say.
Go and sit on the softies cushion with Cowslip, yer gert girl’s blouse.
I was damning with faint praise. Sorry, Arthur.
Damn you and your faint praise.
Hey I’m hard on the inside. I like Troutmaskreplica as well, you know!
… and I quite enjoyed … almost enjoyed … didn’t exactly loathe – TSOM.
Nice post, Arthur. Like a lot of things that I scoffed at as a younger man, I’ve now grown to love TSOM – three daughters helped to show me the error of my ways. I brought my eldest to the Mary Poppins stage show in London some years ago – that particular evening was attended by Julie Andrews and we were somewhat awestruck to see her in the same postcode as ourselves.
Always thought the Baroness got a raw deal – she looked like the kind of classy dame who knew how t’have a good time compared to that prissy do-gooder nun (Sinatra mode off)
Mrs Bungliemutt’s favourite film, so I have seen it several times, yet strangely can never remember much of it….
It’s a lip-wobbler when they are performing in the theatre and the children leave one by one, looking back at their father as they go. The genius of that scene is that it’s the same throwaway song from earlier ( #So Long, Farewell…# ) but it now becomes very poignant.
Splendid review of a fab film. I’ve seen it a few times due to wandering into it being on etc and it’s great.
The DVD has been sitting on the shelf for years, unplayed. This review was the catalyst that made me reach for it last night. Sat down with my wife and two kids (who are both obsessed with Hamilton right now) and we all watched it for the first time.
From the opening aerial sequence (which goes on for quite a long time) you know you are embarking on something bold and epic. The colours are rich, the songs and staging are fantastic, Plummer is adroit and Julie Andrews is just life enhancing gorgeousness. We all loved it.
The only place my feelings diverged from your own was ‘Climb Every Mountain’. I think I’ve only ever heard snippets of this tune from a Derek and Clive record, so not ideal. I applauded the sentiment of the song, but it seemed like something more suited to a Welsh male voice choir than a singing nun and, to me, the scene came across as overwrought and unintentionally comedic.
All in all a great way to spend a Saturday night. Thanks for the review.
Aw, thanks! Good to hear you enjoyed it! I take your point about Climb Every Mountain – yeah, that’s fair enough.
It’s definitely been well served on DVD and Blu Ray – a proper, careful conversion that has preserved that richness of colour. People always seem to talk as if the strength of Blu Ray and DVD is in hi-definition modern stuff, but I’ve found some older movies of a classic vintage are ideal for the format. The other main one that blew me away was 2001 – the Blue Ray is just so beautiful. It’s thought of as a stark film visually, but the colourful bits like the spacesuits, and the red room with HAL’s memory chips, and of course the stargate, are incredible and leap off the screen.