With slight moves of the camera the landscape changes from one breathtaking view to another. Snow clad peaks to rocky mountains, the brook, the sea, the river, lakeside mansion, the village and the castle. Suddenly the spell is broken as the camera focuses on an angel faced girl, singing The Hills have become alive
It seems like the hills actually did and you are in to experience one of the greatest Hollywood musical of all times.
Based on a true story and inspired by Baroness Maria Von Trapp’s autobiography The Von Tropp Family Singers, The Sound of Music is the story of Maria Von Trapp nee Maria. Maria (Julie Andrews) , a nun in Salzburg Abbey is a girl with a pure soul and a free will.
She is a girl who climbs trees and waltz on her way to mass.
She is a girl who is late for everything except for every meal.
She is a girl whom hills beckon and who can’t stop singing wherever she is.
Well good enough for Maria but the mother superior of convent thinks that she is not yet ready to take her final vows as a nun. So Maria is to go away for a while and work at Captain Von Trapp’s as a governess of his seven children to find the meaning of life. The captain is a widower who dictates his family and instead of talking he blows whistles. The children range from 16 years to 5 years old and characterize themselves as impossible, incorrigible and defiant.
Thus the story unfolds but I can’t be a spoilsport by reciting the whole of it here.
Julie Andrews as Maria was indeed an asset to the movie both as an actress and a singer. Unfortunately she lost the best actress academy award of that year to another Julie(Christie). Christopher Plummer as Von Trapp, Peggy Wood as mother superior, Eleanor Parker as Baroness were equally impressive. Director Robert Wise got an academy for best director for the same.
Music, as one can very well imagine is the soul of a musical. Do-Re-Mi, Edelweiss, I’m sixteen, The hills have become alive, Sound of music, Something good, I have confidence; all scores are great.
Final Word The critics called it an overrated sentimental musical but as they say action speaks louder than words. This movie came as a savior to 20th century fox in those times. It was the most successful movie of 1965. For many years none of the other musical could surpass the business it did. In my opinion Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II should be given a lot of credit for the success of this movie. Had it not been a musical it would have really been a mere sentimental drama.
It is grand but it is not ostentatious. It is musical but it is not loud. It is simply good.
May peace be everywhere.
Jai