187. The Sound Of Music; movie review

THE SOUND OF MUSIC
Cert U
168 mins
BBFC advice: Contains no material likely to harm or offend

Every three or four years, movie distributors cannot resist re-releasing The Sound Of Music.
And why not? I could happily watch it every year, just like I see It's A Wonderful Life.
Anyway, it's on at cinemas again so I immersed myself on the bus from Coventry to Cheltenham where I was watching my football team.
Suffice to say, it put me in a good mood which was embellished by them winning 6-1.
My views have not changed since my review in 2015, so I shall reprise it here..

Monday night at Nottingham Cineworld and it was time for me to see The Sound Of Music for the first time on the big screen.
Actually, it was the first time that I can remember. It's possible my mum took me to see it as a young child but if such an event happened it has been expunged.
But my mum is inadvertently responsible for my love of Hollywood musicals after taking me to see Oliver! on a rainy day on holiday in Bournemouth.
I was hooked then and have been ever since.
So, when there was a chance for Mrs W and me to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Robert Wise's The Sound Of Music, we snapped it up.
Five decades on, it is as fresh as a new bloomed Edelweiss.
Of course, the Rodgers and Hammerstein songs are fabulous (I was humming them all week) but what I had forgotten was how funny the film is - we laughed out loud five time.
In my reading after the movie, I was disappointing to see how disparaging Christopher Plummer has been about it. I couldn't help thinking he was sneering at the golden goose.
Plummer plays the stern former naval officer who brings up his children with inflexible discipline until the arrival of a new governess in the form of novice nun  Maria (Julie Andrews).
She brings out the playful nature of the children and their wonderful ability to sing. This manifests itself in a soundtrack which has become one of the most famous in movie history.
The Sound Of Music was the favourite movie of a generation (the first time my family went abroad was in 1973 to Austria so my gran could go to Salzburg where the film was made).
And its appreciation has stretched to generations thereafter.
Sure, there is plenty of goo, as Christopher Plummer describes it, and it is historically questionable (Maria came into the von Trapps' life in the 1920s - long before the Nazis put the pressure the Captain Von Trapp) but it is still a classic.

Reasons to watch: The ultimate feelgood movie
Reasons to avoid: If you have no soul

Laughs: Still makes me smile
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 10/10

Director quote - Robert Wise: "We felt that someone of Chris's stature could make much more out of the captain's character than appears on the page."


The big question: What does Christopher Plummer really think of it?

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