The Sound of Music

The Sound of Music ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Director: Robert Wise. Cast: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Eleanor Parker 

My son is about to start learning about World War II at school and I’ve been looking for a film to introduce him (even if in some subtle way) to one of the darkest period of our modern history and the idea of Nazi (and ideally something a bit less cartoony than in “Raiders of the Lost Ark”). The choice fell on “The sound of Music”.

I had of course seen this film before, but not in a long time and I could hardly remember some of the plot turns. I was ready to scorn at the sentimentality of it all, the children marching and singing all dressed up in curtain fabrics, I was ready to laugh at the corny songs, I was ready to roll my eyes at how unashamedly kitsch it all is and excuse it by saying “Oh well, it was 1965 after all…”and in a way I probably did some that, but at the same time I could not help being swept away by the joyous exuberance of the songs, the beauty and talent of Julie Andrews and the charisma of Christopher Plummer who manages to be hateful at the start and ever so charming and likeable in the second half. I was also very impressed by how masterfully worked out was the whole choreography and staging of the musical pieces. Robert Wise’s direction (By the way, what a career, from being the editor of “Citizen Kane” to “Star Trek” and everything in between), while it may not have the gritty edge of his other musical “West Side Story”, here is un-showy and yet clear and precise: his camera always seems to be in the perfect place at the perfect time as it captures not just the the beauty of the landscape and his characters, but his happy energy given by those songs. I was actually amazed by the huge amount of iconic one: I won’t deny that we ended up singing along while watching it tonight.Of course we have moved a fair bit since 1965 and today we would never get away with this amount of schmaltz. Also I’m sure you could pick holes left and right if you wanted to and even say that the film turns into a sudden war movies completely out of the blue and that some of it is as cheesy as hell, but 56 years later, this Is still one of the best “cheese” in film history (and that’s from someone who doesn’t actually like cheese). Watching it tonight I had to put all my cynicism aside and confess out-loud that this is still one of the best musicals ever made.

A charming, joyous happy film which truly deserves its status as a timeless classic.

Aufiderzen and goodbye.