Corn never gets any better than this.

Rating: 8/10 (8 September 2002)

Some critics have labelled it corn, but if it is, you'll never find a better variety. What more can you want? A beautiful cast, pleasant music, and fabulous scenery in the Austrian alps. Oh, sure, the camera is mostly very static, not much better than the Italian 1913 version of THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII. Perhaps the Todd AO process camera was unwieldy,or perhaps the director just liked it that way. As for Julie Andrews, what other actress can all at the same time project vulnerability, strength, and emotional fire? There cannot be too many such. Eleanor Parker has a thankless role as a possible wife for the von Trapp paterfamilias, but we know from the start that she hasn't a prayer up against Maria, the postulant sent out from a nearby convent as governess for the von Trapp family seven kids. Just the same, Eleanor displays her usual talent and is an ornament to the film. At the end, as the family flees the Nazi anschluss into Austria, we finally get some action and a little camera movement, with tracking shots. Whatever cavils one may rake up, this is Julie Andrews' film, no question.