![]() ![]() She had won the Academy Award one year earlier for “Mary Poppins,” but this one is the performance that defined her career. Julie Andrews and the seven young actors remained close friends, and forty years after the film’s release, it was truly heartwarming to see them reassemble to make the rounds on TV talk shows.Īndrews is a wonder to behold here, for both her acting and her singing. Watch how well they handle the intricate choreography during the “Do Re Mi” number. They don’t develop much as characters, but they serve their purpose well. Captain Von Trapp initially forces them to dress in identical sailor uniforms their big step toward independence comes when Maria instead allows them to dress in identical jump suits made from her floral curtains. The other six children function effectively as a chorus in the musical numbers and as a plot device that gradually serves as the romantic bridge between their father and the new governess. The one exception is the eldest, Liesl (Charmain Carr), who is “sixteen, going on seventeen” and has a full plate of adolescent angst to deal with even before her boyfriend enthusiastically signs on with the Hitler Youth. It is true that the von Trapp children are largely one-dimensional and indistinguishable as individual characters. Here, the very fact of their basic decency is actually refreshing. If this film were made today, Maria’s antagonists – the sisters at the abbey who are frustrated by her independence, the baroness who emerges as her romantic rival – would most likely be made into spiteful, manipulative villains. In at least one way, the movie’s sweetness works in its favor. Captain Von Trapp, as first introduced, is an obsessive-compulsive tyrant with his children, and we like that Maria is strong enough to stand up to him it is a triumphant moment when she tells him that he should not call his children with a whistle unless he is equally willing to answer to a similarly demeaning call. Is “The Sound of Music” overly sweet? Sure. When the producers made it clear that they wanted a faithful adaptation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, Wyler backed out and was replaced by Robert Wise, who had done so well with “West Side Story” four years earlier. He signed on with the goal of emphasizing the Nazi menace – sort of like Anne Frank’s diary, but with songs. William Wyler, the original director, was among them. There are those who find “The Sound of Music” to be intolerably sweet. I stayed that way, with a grin on my face, for the entire three-hour movie (including the intermission). By the time the song is done, less than five minutes into the movie, I was transfixed. We view her from low angles so that the wide-open sky frames her beaming face. She sprints, scampers across a stream on some rocks and skips a stone in the water. She moves through a small cluster of trees. We sense none of that in the opening shots – just grace and exuberance. In interviews, Andrews describes how the helicopter would come in so close that the draft from its blades would knock her to the ground she would pull herself back up and the helicopter would circle around and come back in for another take, flattening her each time. We sense motion before we actually see Maria, but as the camera swoops from the sky toward the ground, she begins to take form – like Sherif Ali emerging from the desert sun in “Lawrence of Arabia.” Even before we can make out her face, her movements convey unrestrained joy. Finally, the camera identifies a clearing and begins to move in. The film begins with a series of wide-angle shots taken from a helicopter, depicting Austria’s snow-capped mountains. But restore it to its context, especially on the big screen, and it is part of one of the great opening moments you’ll ever see. ![]() Taken out of its context, reduced to the first line of the song (“The hills are alive with the sound of music!”), it has become cliché. You’ve seen that shot a thousand times – it’s the iconic image of the film, and for that matter, of the entire musical genre. The film opens with Maria (Julie Andrews) singing the title song, spinning in a field with her arms spread wide. I loved it, quite literally, from the start. My dad, no doubt, rolled over in his grave.) One of the titles was “The Sound of Music.” Less than a month after my realization that I had never seen “The Sound of Music,” I would get to watch it on a gigantic XD screen. A week later, I learned that a local cinema was promoting a weekly series of classic movies. Right then and there, I made plans to watch “The Sound of Music.” Providence was smiling upon me. That night, I called my best friend – who has been known to drive along the interstates with the soundtrack in her car stereo, happily singing along at the top of her lungs – and I confessed to her. ![]()
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