Beware the scorn of the heartless

Rating: 10/10 (27 November 1999)

As a teenager in the swingin' 60's, this movie was, to myself and every male contemporary, an object of derision, a sickly piece of confection for soppy girls and their mothers who had an unofficial competition running to find who had seen it the most times and consumed the most tissues.
I finally came to it many years later in a moment of weakness, watching it alone, gratefully, as it was still suspect for a chap to have moist cheeks in a movie.
The borderline between true sweetness and mawkish sentimentality in film is very hard to draw, but repeat viewings confirm that this is not a marginal case. The portrayal of that increasingly-scarce commodity, genuine innocence, is so finely played by the first-class cast that one can only marvel at how well they pull it off. This was a role that could have been made for showcasing the talents of Julie Andrews, and like most peak-of-career performances it is impossible to imagine anyone else in the part.
The music of Rodgers and Hammerstein has been condemned for being below the standards of their contemporaries (Gershwins, Berlin, Bernstein et al), and although that is arguable, it is also incontrovertible that the majority of their musical offerings have withstood the test of time for the sheer rightness of time and place of the songs that assist the dramatic flow rather than stopping it in its tracks. And their innate 'hummability' continues to sustain both the amateur and professional musical theatre in countless revivals. Most modern musicals consistently fail to attract widespread support because while the writing may be more 'clever' in an often self-indulgent way, they lack the memorability of a single simple tune.
I have just watched this film again with my daughters, 10 and 7, and while they have been unavoidably exposed to some of the harshness and cynicism of the 90's I was pleased to see that they accepted and enjoyed the film for what it is, an honest, highly agreeable telling of a story in words and music, that speaks of essential goodness amidst both bright and dark moments. This is the never-ending-story which will delight all those of cheerful heart for as long as films are shown.