More endless than timeless

Rating: 7/10 (4 August 2007)

With all the respect for this movie's fans, but seriously I don't find it that great.
For one thing, the biggest downside of this movie is its runtime. I mean, this movie is almost 3 hours long! It's too long and becomes tiring! A movie like this could be told in less 1 hour than this.
The movie itself is nothing extraordinary either. But not everything is bad. It has some great moments which are really enjoyable.
The opening sequence is perfect. It shows us all the beauty of big mountains, large lakes and a blue sky with clouds. Then Julie Andrews appears singing «The hills are alive with the sound of music». After that, the nice village of Salzburg (in Austria) is presented to us, which is another quality of the movie.
Other great and memorable moments of this movie are the sequence "I'm sixteen, going on seventeen" and the part when Maria takes the 7 Von Trapp children for a walk in Salzburg and teaches them how to sing. This sequence has also the precious help of the naturally gorgeous backgrounds, surrounded by green places, giant mountains, a blue sky with clouds and a view to the village.
I also enjoy when Captain Von Trapp finally accepts to bring back music to his life and his kids's lives. He even sings very well, like Julie Andrews does. More than that: from a cold and very serious man, he becomes a loving and nice man.
The songs of this movie are all nice and classics.
But the rest of the movie isn't that good. I think it has too many needless moments and perhaps that's why it becomes too long and even a bit boring. It naturally loses some of its enchantment and classic status. By the end, when the war starts, it becomes even slower.
Julie Andrews and Cristopher Plummer play very well their roles and it's notorious that they really enjoyed making this movie.