Pollyanna Personified

Rating: Null/10 (30 November 2005)

One of the most beloved films of all time, "The Sound Of Music" conveys optimism and beauty, much needed in a real world that too often sinks into pessimism and ugliness. It is this underlying theme, the heart and soul of the film, that explains its enduring popularity. And rightly so.
That theme is attractively wrapped in a cinematic package consisting of, among other things, topnotch direction, cinematography, editing, and dialogue. The bow on top is the music, which exudes enough inspiration to warm the coldest of cold, cold hearts. It's as if "Edelweiss", "Climb Every Mountain", and "The Sound Of Music" were written to be hymns for the next thousand years.
These towering cinematic achievements make the film a classic among classics, in the abstract. But, in practical terms, they do not offset the film's downside which, for me, keeps the film at arms length.
"The Sound Of Music" is sugary. The sappy story has "cute" Julie Andrews playing a Miss-Goody-Two-Shoes character preoccupied in some euphoric fantasy, oblivious to reality. Maria (who curiously has no last name) thus seems as lost on her side of the rainbow as Oz's Dorothy is on her side.
And so, my thoughts and feelings are ambivalent. I admire the film for its uplifting theme and for its technical quality. But it is not a film that I would watch often for fear that I might choke on all that sugar.