The Sound of Music, the sound of freedom.

This classic film is filled with glorious songs and has plenty for hopeless romantics to enjoy. The Sound of Music also effectively works in the tension and foreboding of the time period. Everyone in Austria has to make a choice when the Nazis arrive. Even the nuns in the abbey must make a choice.It's worth discussing with older kids why this was such a tense time and why the Von Trapps made the painful decision to flee the country they loved. It is a movie of catching freedom.

"The Sound of Music" has contributed to the legend which has grown around the true life story of the Trapp family. ------Yidioo

A spirited nun leaves her convent and becomes a governess in pre-war Austria. Here she teaches the six children about love, life and music against the growing threat of Nazism.

Your fingers hesitate on the keyboard before making comment on a film that is more a phenomena than a stretch of celluloid. This wasn't just a smash hit in the normal western markets - it also went huge everywhere and has stayed huge. The whole Indian film industry is descended from the template set down here.

While this was a well regarded stage musical, this wasn't seen as a natural box office smash (a musical based on the life of a nun!) and was probably thrown to Robert Wise (more an action - than a music - man) because he was known for being able to operate well on a budget (all those B pics!)

It was just as well, production was hellish: They had forgotten (didn't know?) how moody the European weather could be (even in Summer) and the genuine Austrian period folk songs didn't shine (new ones were quickly written); and beyond that many of the children had no real film acting experience.

The success of the film is nothing but a bag of paradoxes, the must striking being that is was old fashioned even when it was released. Beat based pop music was dominating the sales charts and the sixties were beginning to swing. Hem lines were going up hair lines were going down and James Bond had already introduced casual sex and violence to the screen.

This may have been made in 1965 - but it could easily have been made 20 years earlier and is the (off-screen) product of people that probably were coming to the end of their best creative period. Oscar and Hammerstein had already penned most of their famous musicals and must have been amazed that they struck their largest gold reserve so late in the day.

As Noel Coward once observed, the one thing that critics overlook is that the public are looking for simple minded entertainment, not messages or meaning. And this is both simple minded and entertaining (if you can live with heavy schmaltz). There are certainly no messages, unless you need to be told that love and music are good and Nazi take-overs are bad!

The songs don't so much act as light relief, but provide the film with a life support machine. As drama the whole thing can't get out of second gear - even the Nazi threat doesn't raise the drama level beyond village theatre. I also guess we are supposed to know what these people really represent from other sources?

Julie Andrews performance is massively underrated. Here is someone that has to sing, dance and act with children (sometimes all at the same time!) and yet makes it look easy, natural and spontaneous. When has, say, Robert De Niro ever done anything as technically difficult as this?

In many ways SOM is bullet proof (can you imagine Mel Brooks/Jerry Zucker doing a spoof?) family entertainment. A plot everyone can follow, charming children, excellent score, pretty scenery, perfect lead and a happy ending - if not for the rest of war torn Europe!

As a footnote. Twentieth Century Fox lost all the profits they made on this film on musical follow ups that included Hello Dolly, Star and Dr Dolittle - which makes clear that the whole thing was, indeed, just a giant happy accident and musicals were not what the audience secretly wanted all along.

The Sound of Music (1965) is an all time classic family musical that has always been one of my favorites. Ever since I was child, I would watch this movie and just love every minute of it. This movie really was destined for greatness from the beginning, anyone at all could have seen that. Between the A list cast, great performances, top notch singing, and the enchanting story.... there's no wonder people still love it to death. Julie Andrews stars as Maria, who is a nun, but not a very good one, and she gets sent to be a governess to the Von Trapp family. The Von Trapp family is a very well to do family in Austria. The father is a former captain and the mother died some time ago. Christopher Plummer plays captain Von Trapp, and he does a great job. Every member of the cast does a great job with their performances, both singing and non. The singing alone in this film is just astounding, every single musical number is just as good, if not better than the previous one. If you do not care for musicals, then I wouldn't really suggest this movie to you. It really is a lot of singing, but it is great singing by talented artists, which is really why it will forever have a place in classic great cinema. 10/10 for The Sound of Music. Enchanting story with lovely entertaining music.