Evan D. As a project this year we are taking a trip through time to revisit all of the Best Picture winners in history, Wings to Anora. The Sound of Music is the thirty-eighth film in that series, to see all the other Best Picture reviews, click here. The film version of The Sound of Music is a fusion of the Rogers and Hammerstein musical of the same name and the real Maria von Trapp’s own autobiography. Julie Andrews — in her second star making performance in as many years — plays Maria as an exuberant miscast among her fellow nuns. Not knowing what to do with her eccentric personality, Mother Abbess (Peggy Wood) sends her off to serve as governess for the seven children of Captain von Trapp (Christopher Plummer.) Maria’s free spirit comes into conflict with the harsh Captain and his mischievous children. Meanwhile the Nazis are preparing to take over Austria, much to the dismay of the von Trapp clan. Robert Wise’s second Best Picture winning musical — he also made West Side Story — is an absolute delight from start to finish. Rather than a one for one adaptation of the stage play, the filmmakers decided to build a film around the music. It’s a choice that pays off in spades. The Rogers and Hammerstein songs are iconic and delightful romps, from well known anthems like the titular ‘Sound of Music’ all the way to playful one-off ‘The Lonely Goatherd.’ Of course, a great deal of that comes right out of the vocal cords of Julie Andrews. Relatively unknown in Hollywood when she was cast, before the release of Mary Poppins, Andrews gives such heart and a belting voice to Maria that carries the songs to new heights. Undoubtedly there is a saccharine tone to The Sound of Music. The children, said to be unruly menaces, warm immediately to Maria. Even the love triangle between the Captain, Maria and his fiancé (Eleanor Parker) resolves itself with relatively little drama. That sweetness, at times, sits at odds with the more serious parts of the story, especially in the final act when the threat of Nazi Germany moves onscreen in a very tangible way. While that tonal discrepancy might be a fault at some points, it also serves as an asset. Simplicity and sentimentality may not pair ideally with a war and refugee tale, but it certainly does mesh nicely with musicals and offsets a harshness of story with a much needed dash of hope. Sitting right in the heart of the the golden era for Hollywood musicals, The Sound of Music is one of its most endearing and entertaining. Like the very best of the genre, it is a film that elicits more smiles than most any other movie could. A delight that earnestly believes in its music’s power to mend old wounds and inspire change. One of the iconic films of the 60s has endured in the cultural consciousness this long because it is a universal embrace of childlike innocence and a timeless piece of musical composition 10/10
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