Oscars Retrospective: The Sound of Music (38th Academy Awards Review)
Do Re Mi~Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II, vocals by Julie Andrews and The Sound of Music ensemble - The Sound of Music
Julie Andrews had a busy couple of years in the mid-1960s. After a star-making turn in Mary Poppins (1964), she cemented her leading lady singer status in The Sound of Music. As you can probably tell, this was the height of the epic musical zeitgeist of the early 60s. Over the previous year alone, audiences would’ve seen My Fair Lady (1964), The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) and Mary Poppins, which was the highest-grossing movie of that year. The Sound of Music would one-up that by not only being the highest-grossing film of 1965, as well as the winner of 5 Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Scoring of Music - Adaptation or Treatment and Best Sound) but bumped off Gone With the Wind (1939) to become the highest-grossing movie of all time. It would hold that record for 5 years before MGM re-released Gone With the Wind to keep their studio afloat and promptly took the title back. This could also be considered the last hurrah of the epic musical as films after this one would culminate in pretty hilarious disasters though we’ll get to those stories in due time.
The Sound of Music revolves around a spunky and free-spirited nun-in-training at an Austrian convent named Maria (Julie Andrews). Upset with her free-wheeling, fun-loving attitude, the Mother Superior (Peggy Wood) assigns Maria to work as a governess/nanny for the von Trapp family. The widowed Captain von Trapp (Christopher Plummer, singing voice dubbed by Bill Lee) is a very strict, rule-abiding man who needs someone to watch over his 7(!) children when he’s not around and is frustrated as the mischievous children have chased off his past couple nannies. Maria signs up for the job, slowly gets the children to love her through their shared passion for music and eventually may even get the Captain to come out of his shell as well.
Simplifying the plot like this, The Sound of Music does seem more than a little reminiscent of Mary Poppins and it would be easy to see it having been commissioned as a cash-in/ripoff. In actuality, the production of the movie goes all the way back to 1962 when Fox bought the rights to adapt the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical of the same name. Both films would’ve been undergoing production simultaneously, though The Sound of Music’s director, Robert Wise (the same man who directed West Side Story (1961)), was eager to snatch up Andrews after being invited to watch dailies of Mary Poppins. I think any similarities in the plot between the two films simply come down to this being a typical plot that would’ve been popular in movies and musicals at the time. While both are fun musicals about a woman who raises children raised by a strict father, they are ultimately very different films.
Once again, Julie Andrews is the glue that holds this movie together and her turn as Maria is every bit as iconic and memorable of a role as her turn as Poppins. While Poppins was refined and mysterious, Maria is an everygirl-next-door. She’s chipper, she’s bubbly, she clearly does not fit in at a convent (in fact, she fits in so poorly that it’s actually a bit of a head-scratcher why she even went there in the first place) and she’s also one of those people who’s just naturally really good with kids. It’s actually a fun switcheroo as the film’s set-up shows Maria dealing with the children and dreading the fact that she’s the umpteenth nanny in a row that the children have scared off. Yet, she ends up cowing them pretty easily; it’s dealing with their father that gives her the issues.
Speaking of which, Captain von Trapp is the other main character of the movie and every time I watch this film, I always end up surprised by how lovable he ends up being. This is one of the most perfect stick-in-the-mud fathers in cinematic history. While Mr. Banks was always clearly a bit of a well-meaning doofus from the start, von Trapp is the archetypical Prussian officer. He’s very strict, a stickler for the rules and has little patience for horseplay. They do such a great job at making him so intimidating: every time he enters a room, you feel his sheer presence as all the voices and dialogue immediately come to a screeching halt. He seems so beyond joy and passion that it makes it all the more satisfying when he finally cracks a smile for the first time.
The Sound of Music revolves around a spunky and free-spirited nun-in-training at an Austrian convent named Maria (Julie Andrews). Upset with her free-wheeling, fun-loving attitude, the Mother Superior (Peggy Wood) assigns Maria to work as a governess/nanny for the von Trapp family. The widowed Captain von Trapp (Christopher Plummer, singing voice dubbed by Bill Lee) is a very strict, rule-abiding man who needs someone to watch over his 7(!) children when he’s not around and is frustrated as the mischievous children have chased off his past couple nannies. Maria signs up for the job, slowly gets the children to love her through their shared passion for music and eventually may even get the Captain to come out of his shell as well.
Simplifying the plot like this, The Sound of Music does seem more than a little reminiscent of Mary Poppins and it would be easy to see it having been commissioned as a cash-in/ripoff. In actuality, the production of the movie goes all the way back to 1962 when Fox bought the rights to adapt the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical of the same name. Both films would’ve been undergoing production simultaneously, though The Sound of Music’s director, Robert Wise (the same man who directed West Side Story (1961)), was eager to snatch up Andrews after being invited to watch dailies of Mary Poppins. I think any similarities in the plot between the two films simply come down to this being a typical plot that would’ve been popular in movies and musicals at the time. While both are fun musicals about a woman who raises children raised by a strict father, they are ultimately very different films.
Once again, Julie Andrews is the glue that holds this movie together and her turn as Maria is every bit as iconic and memorable of a role as her turn as Poppins. While Poppins was refined and mysterious, Maria is an everygirl-next-door. She’s chipper, she’s bubbly, she clearly does not fit in at a convent (in fact, she fits in so poorly that it’s actually a bit of a head-scratcher why she even went there in the first place) and she’s also one of those people who’s just naturally really good with kids. It’s actually a fun switcheroo as the film’s set-up shows Maria dealing with the children and dreading the fact that she’s the umpteenth nanny in a row that the children have scared off. Yet, she ends up cowing them pretty easily; it’s dealing with their father that gives her the issues.
Speaking of which, Captain von Trapp is the other main character of the movie and every time I watch this film, I always end up surprised by how lovable he ends up being. This is one of the most perfect stick-in-the-mud fathers in cinematic history. While Mr. Banks was always clearly a bit of a well-meaning doofus from the start, von Trapp is the archetypical Prussian officer. He’s very strict, a stickler for the rules and has little patience for horseplay. They do such a great job at making him so intimidating: every time he enters a room, you feel his sheer presence as all the voices and dialogue immediately come to a screeching halt. He seems so beyond joy and passion that it makes it all the more satisfying when he finally cracks a smile for the first time.
Christopher Plummer loathed the character of Captain von Trapp and was reportedly intoxicated for most of the filming. He also refused to watch The Sound of Music for over 30 years before finally begrudgingly doing so and admitted that it was a good movie… although he still hated Captain von Trapp.
As time goes on, the two slowly start to fall in love as Maria realizes that her being intimidated by Captain von Trapp is also partly due to her crush on him. This is a problem both because of the professional boundaries but also because von Trapp is set to marry another woman, the Baroness von Schraeder (Eleanor Parker). Further, von Trapp has other problems he’s dealing with as he’s involved in local politics and is increasingly disturbed and pressured by some of his friends to join the new Nazi Party that’s starting to ingratiate itself in the country.
Writing this long-hand, it’s very easy to see this twofold synopsis as an incredibly hackneyed, eyeroll-worthy plot that shouldn’t work. The love triangle is a plot whose clichés were well worn-out a dozen times over by now throughout the entire history of movies and romance stories. And, similarly, the idea of including the Nazis in the film does seem a little ridiculous saying it out loud. You get it? Maria’s love of music is so contagious, it can bring joy to anyone, even those who are being threatened by the most evil regime in human history!
It probably bears mentioning at this point that I was surprised to learn that The Sound of Music was actually not critically well-received when it first came out. Critics such as Bosley Crowther and Pauline Kael lambasted it for its schmaltziness and wearing its heart on its sleeve and derisively referred to it as “The Sound of Mucus.” This is interesting as I always thought that this movie was regarded as a classic. Lord knows it made a ton of money. West Side Story and My Fair Lady seemed to get pretty well-received. Yet, for some reason, this is one that just rubbed them the wrong way. Why is that?
If you may recall our discussion on the French New Wave, you’ll remember that one of its primary causes were up-and-coming film critics and young filmmakers becoming more and more picky about the films that were being distributed by the industry. For example, the film Mon Oncle (1958), which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film and was a resounding success, was roundly lambasted in Cahiers du Cinéma because it wasn’t challenging the audiences enough. Applying this logic to The Sound of Music and the upcoming Hollywood New Wave, it’s easy to see its mixed reception as an unfortunate casualty from this mindset.
If you may recall our discussion on the French New Wave, you’ll remember that one of its primary causes were up-and-coming film critics and young filmmakers becoming more and more picky about the films that were being distributed by the industry. For example, the film Mon Oncle (1958), which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film and was a resounding success, was roundly lambasted in Cahiers du Cinéma because it wasn’t challenging the audiences enough. Applying this logic to The Sound of Music and the upcoming Hollywood New Wave, it’s easy to see its mixed reception as an unfortunate casualty from this mindset.
It’s one of those things about cinema that can be a bit hard to define and seems to be defining our modern debates about filmmaking, that being what is the cutoff of what’s considered pulpy or artistic, fun moviemaking or junk food? We’ve obviously talked about genre snobbery a few times in this blog and it’s interesting to see it now from the other side of the fence where an Academy Award-winning movie was derided by the critics.
In total fairness, if you read enough columns by Bosley Crowther, the chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle in the 60s, it’s not hard to see him as one of the most stuck-up, unlikable, arrogant sticks-in-the-mud to have ever become a movie critic.
While audiences may have had a right to start demanding more artistic films dealing with real problems, it seems a bit unfair to have lavished this scorn on The Sound of Music. A New Wave film is not the type of movie it’s trying to be; it’s trying to be an epic musical with a grand scale and lovable characters. And, by those standards, The Sound of Music is indeed an excellent film (especially compared to many of the other mid-to-late-60s epics, which would become increasingly bloated and budgetary disasters).
Going back to the set-up we discussed, while saying them out loud can come off as pretty hackneyed, they’re done pretty well. The love triangle isn’t treated as a silly misunderstanding with the Baroness acting as a strict and evil stick-in-the-mud that only wants to marry the Captain to seize his fortune. The love triangle is, instead, treated as just an unfortunate fact of life for all the parties involved. For starters, Maria is Captain von Trapp’s employee and he’s already dating the Baroness when Maria’s introduced to the family so, if anything, Maria is the other girl in this relationship. For another, the Baroness isn’t evil or even a bad person, she just isn’t the right person for the Captain or his children.
It also helps that a lot of this love triangle is told visually. Sure, they’re weaved into the songs eventually and it does come to a head but the build-up is fairly subtle. Throughout the first act, you’ll catch Maria staring at the Captain for longer than normal and her constantly walking on eggshells around him and fearing making him upset. Thus, when they do reveal that she’s attracted to him, it feels like the most obvious thing in the world: it’s not out of left field but it’s not beaten over your head either.
More unique, and probably easier to go awry, is the subplot with the Nazis. Once again, it’s believably built up and given the proper time to breathe before they enter the picture. Whenever von Trapp invites his friends over for a party, there’s one who keeps putting pressure on him to join the movement. While von Trapp is the typical humorless Prussian, the film is clever in how they draw the distinction between German/Austrian culture and the pure evil that was National Socialism. When the movie gets to the last act when the Nazis become the front and center threat and the von Trapp family uses music to outfox them, it’s not played quite as sillily as this may sound. The Nazis are treated like genuine threats and the climax where the family escapes them is genuinely very suspenseful to watch. Considering the wall of sound that permeates the rest of the film, the climax is very quiet which both serves to make the Nazis more menacing by contrast and add a fun meta commentary on how their cruelty sucked all the joy and fun out of life.
In terms of the music itself, the soundtrack is, of course, wonderful. As mentioned, this was directed by the same man who directed West Side Story, and Wise once more demonstrates a very deft hand at balancing upbeat songs with some darker aspects of humanity. The cinematography is incredible, giving a beautiful scale to most of the movie. From the warm colors of the von Trapp mansion to the darkness of the chase through the streets after the Third Reich to the soft Gaussian Girl effects of Maria and Captain von Trapp’s love scenes, The Sound of Music is just gorgeous to look at.
Wise’s direction of the music sequences are a bit different though as this time around as Wise didn’t have Jerome Robbins backing him up. Ergo The Sound of Music doesn’t have as much of a heavy influence in terms of dance. Yet, he still finds a way to make the movie visually interesting. For example, look at this song called “So Long, Farewell.” It’s choreographed but definitely not even close to the same realm as West Side Story but it’s not trying to be. Wise also doesn’t just adapt the play verbatim, by focusing on character reactions, knowing the right moment to cut away and making all of his actors as charming as possible, The Sound of Music once more makes the successful jump from play to movie.
It also helps that a lot of this love triangle is told visually. Sure, they’re weaved into the songs eventually and it does come to a head but the build-up is fairly subtle. Throughout the first act, you’ll catch Maria staring at the Captain for longer than normal and her constantly walking on eggshells around him and fearing making him upset. Thus, when they do reveal that she’s attracted to him, it feels like the most obvious thing in the world: it’s not out of left field but it’s not beaten over your head either.
More unique, and probably easier to go awry, is the subplot with the Nazis. Once again, it’s believably built up and given the proper time to breathe before they enter the picture. Whenever von Trapp invites his friends over for a party, there’s one who keeps putting pressure on him to join the movement. While von Trapp is the typical humorless Prussian, the film is clever in how they draw the distinction between German/Austrian culture and the pure evil that was National Socialism. When the movie gets to the last act when the Nazis become the front and center threat and the von Trapp family uses music to outfox them, it’s not played quite as sillily as this may sound. The Nazis are treated like genuine threats and the climax where the family escapes them is genuinely very suspenseful to watch. Considering the wall of sound that permeates the rest of the film, the climax is very quiet which both serves to make the Nazis more menacing by contrast and add a fun meta commentary on how their cruelty sucked all the joy and fun out of life.
In terms of the music itself, the soundtrack is, of course, wonderful. As mentioned, this was directed by the same man who directed West Side Story, and Wise once more demonstrates a very deft hand at balancing upbeat songs with some darker aspects of humanity. The cinematography is incredible, giving a beautiful scale to most of the movie. From the warm colors of the von Trapp mansion to the darkness of the chase through the streets after the Third Reich to the soft Gaussian Girl effects of Maria and Captain von Trapp’s love scenes, The Sound of Music is just gorgeous to look at.
Wise’s direction of the music sequences are a bit different though as this time around as Wise didn’t have Jerome Robbins backing him up. Ergo The Sound of Music doesn’t have as much of a heavy influence in terms of dance. Yet, he still finds a way to make the movie visually interesting. For example, look at this song called “So Long, Farewell.” It’s choreographed but definitely not even close to the same realm as West Side Story but it’s not trying to be. Wise also doesn’t just adapt the play verbatim, by focusing on character reactions, knowing the right moment to cut away and making all of his actors as charming as possible, The Sound of Music once more makes the successful jump from play to movie.
The songs are, of course, incredible. This is Rodgers and Hammerstein at some of their absolute best and just about every song from the movie is iconic. The Hills Are Alive, My Favorite Things, The Lonely Goat Herd; odds are pretty good that even if you’ve never seen this movie, you still probably know most of these songs because of how famous they are, as evidenced by each song's numerous parodies in pop culture.
Despite this high praise, The Sound of Music isn’t a perfect film (though it’s definitely a lot closer to one than My Fair Lady or Tom Jones (1963)). The biggest issue isn’t actually the sanctimony and schmaltziness since the acting is so charming and likable that it doesn’t matter. The bigger issue is that, despite them being the nucleus that the film revolves around, most of the von Trapp children are pretty damn dull. With the exception of the oldest daughter, Liesl (Charmian Carr), all of their personalities blend together and I could not tell you a single thing that distinguishes one character from the other. They don’t even do that simple thing clichéd family movies in the 90s did where one’s a little more bratty, one’s a little more gross, one’s a little more silly etc. I really do mean they all have the exact same personality as each other. It’s really hard to care about Maria constantly talking about the constant progress of all 7 when, honestly, 6 of them seem completely superfluous.
It’s so distracting that the question becomes why not condense the whole family down into two or three children to make things easier for the audience? The answer, of course, being that, in real life, there were 7 von Trapp children though this is when we run back into our question and philosophy of how historically accurate movies based on real-life stories should be, which can be an interesting digression point to discuss in future reviews of movies based on real-life events.
This is a case where the broad strokes are generally true: the Trapp Family Singers were a real-life group of siblings who became musicians after being trained by their governess-turned-stepmother and fled to America during the Anschluss (Nazi Germany’s forced annexation of Austria). That’s about where the facts end. The real-life Maria and Georg von Trapp married in 1927 but the Anschluss didn’t happen until 1938. While the film does take place over a longish period of time, it’s definitely not 11 years long, as evidenced by the children never aging all that much. In addition, despite the moniker of “the von Trapp children,” Georg’s offspring were well into adulthood when the family fled to America. The oldest (a boy, not a girl as in the movie) was born in 1911, making him 27 when the Anschluss happened. The youngest was born in 1921, making her 17. Maria and Georg had two more children during the 30s (who are omitted from the film) who would’ve been closer to the toddler-esque age showed of the youngest though this brings the total of children up to nine, not seven (the von Trapps would have one more child in America, making a nice round ten).
I think The Sound of Music is a bit easier to excuse in this regard as it’s clearly a work of historical fiction. Real people don’t usually spontaneously break into song and dance so one would hope to know that the audience knows that this is all pretend. On the other hand, a lot of people do seem to erroneously think that the von Trapps did get dangerously close to getting killed during the Anschluss and really did escape Austria in a picturesque escape across the Alps. In reality, they just saw things were going sideways, got onto a train and left. It was less of a big chase and more of an Irish goodbye. Still, the film does do justice to the family’s love of music and it’s not like it’s disrespectful to them in any way.
In conclusion, The Sound of Music remains a masterpiece of song and dance, sticking out from the pack of the 60s epic musicals with its combination of charming acting, catchy songs and a masterful directing job from Robert Wise. Its lukewarm critical reception does seem like a cultural bypass that you had to have been there to properly experience. A lot of the coastal and big-city critics who were in the midst of the counterculture and experiencing a lot of the foreign cinema were impatient for the same thing to happen here in the States. Thus, it’s easy to see why they may have been upset at The Sound of Music’s success, especially with it winning the Best Picture. Audience members who weren’t in this counterculture, or even ones who were but were just grading The Sound of Music on its own merits, seemed to enjoy it much better. Thus, now we can come back to million dollar question:
It may be a good, even great, movie but was it actually the best of the year or were there some counterculture/lower-budget films that should’ve gotten the win instead?
In case you missed it:
1st Academy Awards (1927/28): Wings/Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans: Part 1, Part 2
2nd Academy Awards (1928/29): The Broadway Melody: Part 1, Part 2
3rd Academy Awards (1929/30): All Quiet on the Western Front: Part 1, Part 2
4th Academy Awards (1930/31): Cimarron: Part 1, Part 2
5th Academy Awards (1931/32): Grand Hotel: Part 1, Part 2
6th Academy Awards (1932/33): Cavalcade: Part 1, Part 2
7th Academy Awards (1934): It Happened One Night: Part 1, Part 2
8th Academy Awards (1935): Mutiny on the Bounty: Part 1, Part 2
9th Academy Awards (1936): The Great Ziegfeld: Part 1, Part 2
10th Academy Awards (1937): The Life of Emile Zola: Part 1, Part 2
11th Academy Awards (1938): You Can't Take It With You: Part 1, Part 2
12th Academy Awards (1939): Gone With the Wind: Part 1, Part 2
13th Academy Awards (1940): Rebecca: Part 1, Part 2
14th Academy Awards (1941): How Green Was My Valley: Part 1, Part 2
15th Academy Awards (1942): Mrs. Miniver: Part 1, Part 2
16th Academy Awards (1943): Casablanca: Part 1, Part 2
17th Academy Awards (1944): Going My Way: Part 1, Part 2
18th Academy Awards (1945): The Lost Weekend: Part 1, Part 2
19th Academy Awards (1946): The Best Years of Our Lives: Part 1, Part 2
20th Academy Awards (1947): Gentleman's Agreement: Part 1, Part 2
21st Academy Awards (1948): Hamlet: Part 1, Part 2
22nd Academy Awards (1949): All The King's Men: Part 1, Part 2
23rd Academy Awards (1950): All About Eve: Part 1, Part 2
24th Academy Awards (1951): An American in Paris: Part 1, Part 2
25th Academy Awards (1952): The Greatest Show on Earth: Part 1, Part 2
26th Academy Awards (1953): From Here to Eternity: Part 1, Part 2
27th Academy Awards (1954): On the Waterfront: Part 1, Part 2
28th Academy Awards (1955): Marty: Part 1, Part 2
29th Academy Awards (1956): Around the World in 80 Days: Part 1, Part 2
30th Academy Awards (1957): The Bridge on the River Kwai: Part 1, Part 2
31st Academy Awards (1958): Gigi: Part 1, Part 2
32nd Academy Awards (1959): Ben-Hur: Part 1, Part 2
33rd Academy Awards (1960): The Apartment: Part 1, Part 2
34th Academy Awards (1961): West Side Story: Part 1, Part 2
35th Academy Awards (1962): Lawrence of Arabia: Part 1, Part 2
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