“The Sound of Music” Movie Review

 

“The Sound of Music”

 

Movie Review

 

 

The Sound of Music is a 1965 American musical drama film produced and directed by Robert Wise, starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, as well as Richard Haydn, Peggy Wood, Charmian Carr, and Eleanor Parker. The theater musical of the same name by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II served as the inspiration for the movie. The screenplay for the Broadway musical was written by Ernest Lehman and based on the book by Lindsay and Crouse. The movie, which is based on Maria von Trapp's 1949 autobiography The Tale of the Trapp Family Singers, tells the story of a young Austrian postulant who, in 1938, was sent to Salzburg, Austria, to be a governess for a widowed retired naval officer's seven children. She marries the officer and, with the children, finds a way to survive the loss of their homeland to the Nazis after introducing love and music into the family's lives.

 

Five Academy Awards were given to The Sound of Music, including those for Best Picture and Best Director. This was Wise's second time winning both awards after West Side Story in 1961. The movie received nominations for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement, the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Musical, and two Golden Globe Awards for Best Motion Picture and Best Actress. The Sound of Music was named the fifty-fifth greatest American film of all time and the fourth greatest film musical by the American Film Institute in 1998. The film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress in 2001, citing its "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" nature.

 

In 1938, Maria is a free-spirited young Austrian girl studying to become a nun at Nonnberg Abbey in Salzburg. Her youthful exuberance and lack of discipline are cause for concern. Mother Abbess sends Maria to Captain Georg von Trapp's villa to be a governess for his seven children:Liesl, Friedrich, Louisa, Kurt, Brigitta, Marta, and Gretl. Following the death of his wife, the Captain has been raising his children alone, adhering to strict military discipline. Despite the children's misbehavior at first, Maria responds with kindness and patience, and the children soon come to trust and respect her.

 

Maria creates play costumes out of leftover curtains for the kids while the Captain is gone in Vienna. She shows them around Salzburg and the surrounding mountains while teaching them to sing. When the Captain returns to the villa with Baroness Elsa Schraeder, a wealthy socialite, and their mutual friend Max Detweiler, they are greeted by Maria and the children, who have just returned from a boat ride on the lake that ends when their boat flips. The Captain attempts to fire Maria because he is dissatisfied with his children's clothes and activities, as well as Maria's impassioned plea that he get closer to his children. He is surprised to hear singing coming from inside the house and to see his children singing for the Baroness. The Captain, overcome with emotion, joins his children in singing for the first time in years. Maria is apologized to by the Captain, who invites her to stay.

Max, who is impressed by the children's singing, suggests that he enter them in the upcoming Salzburg Festival, but the Captain is opposed to allowing his children to sing in public. Maria and the children watch from the garden terrace during a grand party at the villa, where guests in formal attire Waltz in the ballroom. When the Captain notices Maria teaching Kurt the traditional Landler folk dance, he intervenes and joins Maria in a graceful performance that culminates in a close embrace. Maria blushes and walks away, perplexed about her feelings. Later, the Baroness, who has noticed the Captain's attraction to Maria, conceals her jealousy by convincing Maria indirectly that she must return to the abbey.

 

Mother Abbess, on the other hand, learns that Maria has remained in seclusion to avoid her feelings for the Captain, and she encourages her to return to the villa to find her life's purpose. When Maria returns to the villa, she learns of the Captain's engagement to the Baroness and agrees to stay until a replacement governess is found. When the Baroness discovers that the Captain's feelings for Maria haven't changed, she calls off the engagement and returns to Vienna, encouraging the Captain to express his feelings for Maria, who marries him.

 

Max enters the children in the Salzburg Festival against their father's wishes while the couple is on their honeymoon. After learning that the Third Reich has invaded Austria, the couple returns home, where Captain receives a telegram telling him to report to the German Naval station in Bremerhaven to accept a commission in the Kriegsmarine. The Captain, who is vehemently opposed to the Nazis, tells his family that they must leave Austria immediately.

 

The von Trapp family attempts to flee to Switzerland that night, but they are stopped by a group of Brownshirts led by Gauleiter Hans Zeller who are waiting outside the villa. To cover his family's tracks, the Captain claims they are on their way to perform at the Salzburg Festival. Zeller insists on accompanying them to the festival and then accompanying the Captain to Bremerhaven.

 

Later that night, during their final number at the festival, the von Trapp family flees and seeks refuge at the abbey, where Mother Abbess hides them in the cemetery crypt. Zeller and his men arrive quickly and search the abbey, but the family escapes using the caretaker's car. When they try to pursue it, they discover that two of the nuns have sabotaged their engines, preventing them from starting. The next morning, after driving to the Swiss border, the von Trapp family walks across the border into Switzerland, seeking safety and freedom.

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