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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