A winner on every count, with its score, its performances and its breathtaking scenery...

Rating: 10/10 (5 July 1999)

If "West Side Story" was the best musical film of the sixties, then "The Sound of Music," adapted from the long-running Broadway musical play about Maria Von Trapp and her singing family, was certainly the most popular
With a story that includes the right amount of family sentiment (the Von Trapp children never quarrel among themselves), religion (in the Hollywood tradition of serene, kind nuns), romance (actually two romances, one adult, one adolescent), and anti-Nazi feeling (Captain Von Trapp refuses to surrender to the Nazi invaders)and with director Robert Wise who is in fact a solid, conscientious craftsman and a fluent story-teller mercifully free of grandiose pretensions, "The Sound of Music" is perfect with its sumptuous location photography, immaculate, fluid editing, and splendid tones
The film does have a justifiably famous opening: the camera sweeps over the Austrian Alps to catch Julie Andrews, as mischievous, warmhearted Maria, exultantly singing the title song as she rushes through the bright green valley It is an exhilarating moment that the film never really matches again, but there is plenty left in the remaining hours to please the legions of devotees...
There are unquestionably some enjoyable songs and musical numbers specially when the eldest Von Trapp daughter (Charmian Carr) meets her shy beau (Daniel Truhitte) in the family garden, he sings "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" to her, and they do a charming little dance around the gazebo Maria's music lesson to the children, "Do-Re-Mi," is beautifully staged, set over several days as they amble in and around Salzburg, changing their clothing through camera wizardry And perhaps the best of the songs is the simplest, "Edelweiss," with a tender lyric and poignant melody that make a fitting last song for Rodgers and Hammerstein
Another of the film's virtues is Julie Andrew's performance as Maria... She cuts through the thick sentiment with her own sharply honed blade of authority and self-confidence, implying that at least she will get through all the high corn without damaging her self-esteem... It works to balance the tight-lipped stodginess of Christopher Plummer as Captain Von Trapp, the "adorable" posturings of the children, and the artificial airs of Eleanor Parker as the haughty baroness...