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The Sound of Music (1965)

Rate: 6
Viewed: 7/25

SoundMusic
7/25: The Sound of Music looks nice and all, but three hours?

That's too long. I had to take a break from time to time. Story-wise, there isn't much of substance. Sure, Julie Andrews sings well, the cinematography of Austria is splendid, and the interiors (all done on a sound stage in Los Angeles) are fancy. But the whole thing is so simpleminded that I can see why critics initially hated the film. Then, like Tom Jones, it got lucky by finding an audience that fell for the trap. Forget the Nazi theme; it's just window dressing.

As far as Best Picture winners go, The Sound of Music is an harmless choice. Then again, 1965 was an extremely weak year in cinema. Therefore, I thank Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer for getting me through it rather well. I'm surprised the latter wasn't Oscar-nominated for giving the best performance of his career although somebody else did his singing parts. If it weren't for him, the movie would've been worse. He's much more tolerable than Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady. Meanwhile, Marni Nixon makes a very rare appearance as one of the nuns in the abbey; not many realize she did the actual singing for some lead actresses in famous musicals.

It's funny to see the seven children having meatless roles given that they play a big part in advancing the story. I can't remember any of their names or what they look like. They're so bland. The oldest girl is too old to pass for a kid; in fact, she was 21 at the time of filming. Basically, Captain Georg von Trapp agreed to marry Maria, so she could take care of his kids. Yet I haven't the faintest idea of how her religion plays a role into this or whether or not God even matters.

To strengthen an earlier point I made, Wikipedia mentions: "Maria and Georg married for practical reasons rather than love and affection for each other. Georg needed a mother for his children, and Maria needed the security of a husband and family once she decided to leave the abbey. 'I really and truly was not in love,' Maria wrote in her memoir, 'I liked him but didn't love him. However, I loved the children, so in a way I really married the children.'"

All in all, I only went through The Sound of Music, so I could say, "Yeah, I saw it. Let's move on."