What's going on guys? I'm Tyler and to complete my series of old-fashioned
musical reviews leading up to the release of "Hamilton", I saved the best for
last and I'm here to let you know that "The Sound of Music" is NoPerfectMovie
but it really does come pretty damn close on so many different occasions!
I think the majority of you already know the overall story of the movie; nun-in-
training Maria (Julie Andrews) is sent to governess a military family
the Von Trapps who semi-recently have lost their mother,
and when this governess comes into their life and brings them happiness, joy, music,
it makes their widowed father Captain Von Trapp (Christopher Plummer)
realize how strict & authoritative he's been as a parent and decides to become
less strict and more loving towards his children in the midst of
their home country Austria being overrun by the Nazis in the late 1930s! And it
goes without saying I was really looking forward to seeing this movie; I had
already established how much I liked Robert Wise as a director with "West Side Story",
I heard so much hype about Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Rodgers
and Hammerstein's beautiful music and lyrics and... yeah, you know what?! This movie (for
the most part) did not disappoint-but the things that were great about it were
enough to make it one of the best, most well-made and most emotional musicals
that I've seen possibly in my entire lifetime because the musical aspect of
the movie never overshadows the story, the characters or the performances!
Everything about the filmmaking goes hand-in-hand! Julie Andrews (it goes
without saying) was absolutely magnificent-this might actually be my
favourite performance of hers because we associate her as being "Mary Poppins" or
the Queen from "The Princess Diaries"; we see her as this motherly mentor figure but
in this movie, she has an arc where she goes from being the student to the
teacher as she starts off as this immature nun who definitely has a great
deal of religious faith and wants to bring happiness to the world in the name
of God, but she tries so hard to do it on her own terms while thinking that she's
following along with the church's orders and it isn't until the church says to
her "You can't force yourself to be committed to God, God has to choose
what's best for you and you have to do go along with it, it's a 50:50 equal hand, and that was
what made her seem so especially lovable at the beginning when she's realizing
just how strict & authoritative this household is and makes absolutely no
disguises whatsoever to make it more cheerful & uplifting! In fact, when the
father comes home after a long, long absence and sees how cheerful everything
is and instantly despises it just because it reminds him of his dead wife,
she holds absolutely nothing back; she makes it very clear what she's trying to do,
what she thinks he's doing wrong and even when he tells her to get lost,
she does but openly expresses her disappointment! She's so strong-willed,
independent and you definitely get the sense that she's maturing over the
course of the movie because in the very opening number with 'The Sound of Music',
she's basically expressing what it is that she brings to this family without
ever having met them-without even realizing what her purpose in life is
going to be and then as she's accepting more responsibility as this motherly
figure to the children, you definitely feel the progression of her as
a character, you definitely feel her growing without losing her best and
worst qualities! And I got to say, Christopher Plummer really surprised me
in his performance because when I first saw him on screen, I knew he was going to
be the Mr. Banks-type of father who doesn't see what he's doing as being the
wrong way to raise a child and of course he's gonna witness something that will
make him seem a lot more free-spirited, but what really surprised me was how
soon that arc really kicks in. My favourite scene especially is when he
hears his children sing for the first time, walks in on them and I will NOT
give away what else happens after that because it was just such a beautiful
moment, my face was smiling so wide- I haven't smiled this wide since the last
time I saw "Mary Poppins Returns" (oddly enough) and I felt like tearing up
because it was just such an emotional sequence and it was such
a revelation for this character realizing what it is he's doing wrong but also
pointing out that it's not too late for him, so it's the second half of the movie
where he's trying to have more of a free-spirited person-
it feels a lot more rewarding! Every time he smiles, you smile along with him
because you've been despising him the entire time but you've also been saying
"I want to like you, so start showing the things that are great about you as
a parent"! And Robert Wise-I gotta say did maybe even a more superior job directing
"The Sound of Music" than he did with "West Side Story" because the musical numbers
in "The Sound of Music" rely a lot more on the feelings of the characters and the
way the actors sing their songs as opposed to just flashy (but still
really good) choreography-if anything, the shot sizes, the composition of the actors and
the expressions & body language that they're portraying on screen is more
than enough to make up for the fact that there really isn't that much
choreography in the overall movie. 'The Sound of Music'
really is a great opening number because as I said before, she's explaining
(through song) everything that makes her great about about her as a person, everything she's
going to set out to do in this movie without her realizing it and it's a lot
more impactful when you hear the children sing that song for the first
time and hear what their father has to say about it, it was just such a
rewarding song-and of course "My Favorite Things" and "Do-Re-Mi" go without saying,
they're very cheerful & free-spirited and I was a little afraid going into
this movie seeing the children sing and act in such an over-the-top, cheesy
fashion but it actually works in this scenario because (as I said before)
they're raised to be strict and authoritative-almost in a military
fashion, so seeing them goof around or be cheesy even for a couple seconds still
feels warranted because it just shows the emotional impact that Maria has over
the Von Trapp family and there's so many other songs that I can point out
over-and-over again about what makes them so fantastic-
"Edelweiss" is such a beautiful, simplistic love song that could really just apply
not just to Captain Von Trapp and his recently deceased wife but also to him
in his own children-I... I fucking love this movie! I can keep going on
about it, but there's so much more stuff I got to cover and I'm getting so off
track so I'm actually gonna look on my notes here to remember what other songs
I like here... Ah yes, that's right! How do you solve a problem like "Maria"-that was
not the most essential song because the nuns aren't really in the movie as much
but it's still really funny, it does highlight the fact that even though
our hero is best for being so optimistic & outspoken, it does lead
her into trouble sometimes and it's a great acknowledgement how the seemingly
perfect protagonist does have flaws that we tend to overlook just because they're
entertaining. "Something Good" was a song that I surprisingly really dug-even though
the romance wasn't my favourite aspect of the movie and I think a lot of
that has to do with the presentation. There are a lot of static, long takes of
Maria and Captain Von Trapp in near- silhouette but they're still singing and
you can see everything crystal clear, and that was something I really admired
about the direction Robert Wise's direction: whether it be for dialogue or
for musical numbers, they're portrayed in the exact same consistent visual style.
There are a lot of shots of Maria and Captain Von Trapp with silhouettes masking
their entire faces or there are some shots where they're standing behind
fences, gates or a flight of stairs and the bars seem like prison bars which you
can obviously say is foreshadowing the events that we're going to get with Nazi
Germany occupying Austria, but it's a great example of the themes and messages
of this movie; about how people feel restricted and that feeling of
restriction is what's making these characters make a lot of really
crappy choices. Maria, the more she gets closer to this Captain, gets the feeling
that they're falling in love and is so afraid of committing and is so afraid
that it might go against the will of God and her purpose, and with Captain Von
Trapp it's very simple and obvious-he's so haunted by the death of his wife that
he refuses to let anything remind him of her because it'll just bring a lot more
personal pain-at least that's how he feels about it.
And that's actually what makes the romance between Maria and the Captain
(Gale is his 1st name) that's what makes the romance seem so genuine and
believable is because they really are meant for each other!
They surprisingly don't feel like they're free and open with the
world until they actually meet each other and even though Maria is a lot
more conflicted about the feelings of love, with the captain I feel like Gale
is hit especially harder with the romance, he just doesn't show it very
often because we don't hear really anything about his dead wife-we never
even learned her name but that's actually what makes him a lot more
mysterious of a character when he's being so strict and then once he comes
out of his shell, he's wondering who he loves more-this Baroness that he spent
so much time hiding with away from his children or this one woman who has so
many positive aspects that remind him of his wife (supposedly) that he feels as if
she's the one that's really meant for him! The one thing about the romance in
this movie that really didn't work for me was this love triangle between Maria,
Gale and this Baroness-whose name escapes me because everyone just calls
her Baroness half the time. And there really wasn't that much weight to it for
one specific reason; the movie doesn't hide the fact that we know for sure
where this story is going, we're just there for the emotional ride and there
wasn't really much of an emotional ride with the love triangle because we
already know what the outcome is going to be-even in the 60's, a romance triangle
like this was already so obvious and for whatever reason it's drawn out so much-
especially towards the 2nd half of the movie where the 1st act was all
about Christopher Plummer coming out of his shell and being a good father,
the 2nd act is Maria faced with the fears of having a life outside of the one she
already knows and that's why even though she runs away, she's forced to come back
and confront it by the nuns who obviously want to have more women in
their worship but at the same time respect the fact that they can't decide
these things, in their mind it's God who decides it and they feel that they're
doing God's will and the religious aspects of this movie actually really
surprised me for that reason... but getting back onto the love triangle, it really
didn't have any stakes or suspense because even back then, people already
knew what was gonna happen and you really didn't work and I thought the
Nazi plotline in the 3rd act where now that... I don't really think I'm giving
anything away here, Maria & Captain Von Trapp and the rest of the family are
trying to escape Nazi Germany felt a little random & forced at 1st and
I thought it was kind of Oscar-baity in regards to the
drama and suspense but then it really hit me, the 1st act was the two of them
not really realizing they were meant for each other, the 2nd act was them
realizing that they are and in the 3rd act
now that they are, they have to face so many more dangers in life but they're
doing it together and they're doing it as a family.
Plus, the Nazi parallels in the way that they're authoritative to each other through these
whistling commands, did remind me of the beginning of the movie where
Captain Von Trapp actually commands his own children with whistles,
it's a very strange parallel of how he's becoming less of a dictator in his own
personal life that once he sees dictatorship being around him in the
rest of the world, it makes him sick-it reminds him of his past mistakes and all
of a sudden what seems like a forced plotline made for the sake of delivering
an intense final act actually felt warranted and really added to the drama
and suspense and everything that these characters have learned over the course
of this movie and... I don't really know what else to say about this movie!
"The Sound of Music" has excellent music & singing, well-performed actors, fantastic
direction-this might be Robert Wise at its best! The cinematography makes
Austria look massive & beautiful in scope-so many helicopter shots of the
hills being so alive... I had to shove that in there, I'm sorry...
actually, no I'm not! I'm not sure if this was filmed on 70 mm but
I hope it is because everything looks so bright and colourful, everything looks
unbelievably huge and out of this world and the period piece setting really
blended in so seamlessly and... I'm just running out of things to talk
about with how great "The Sound of Music" is so for all those reasons,
it's probably not gonna surprise anyone, I'm gonna give "The Sound of Music" 4.5/5!
Guys, thanks as always for watching! If you have seen "The Sound of Music",
let me know in the comments below what you thought of it, let me know what your
favourite old fashioned musical is or just favourite musical in general! Be sure
to let me know in the comments below, be sure to stay tuned for more classic
movie reviews, more cooking reviews and my upcoming review of "Hamilton" on Disney+,
look forward to that on Saturday and be sure to like and subscribe!
Take care!