Camp Classic

Rating: Null/10 (2 January 2004)

I was pretty dismissive of The Sound of Music for a long time, but when it was shown on TV on New Year's Day I thought I should dragoon my girlfriend into watching it for the first time.
The knowledge that it's been showing in London for some years in a "singalong" version (alternate weekends with the "Rocky Horror Picture Show" - people cheer the nuns, boo the Nazis and so on) probably helped, also I've been seeing a lot of opera recently which probably gives one more of a handle on this sort of thing. Not to mention the bottle of sparking wine we had to hand. To cut a long story short we enjoyed the movie immensely.
Bringing a sense of irony to this film, while not essential, certainly makes it a better viewing experience for adults. Let's face it; singing nuns, children lining up for inspection, lederhosen made out of curtains, grown men singing about small white flowers - this is funny stuff. Any sort of musical drama is inherently ridiculous but the best succeeds in spite/because of that and TSoM falls into that category.
The music however is excellent on any terms; melodically and harmonically inventive - John Coltrane didn't cover too many songs from musicals, let's face it. Catchy tunes do have to be the most important thing in a musical and there is not a song in TSoM that lets the side down. My personal favourite this time round was "Sixteen Going On Seventeen" which not only has a lovely chromatic melody but has Liesl running emotional rings around Rolf in a way I didn't appreciate when I last saw the film many years ago.
To complain about lack of realism is on a par with pointing out that the disguises in Cosi fan Tutti are unconvincing, or that Dick Van Dyke's English accent in Mary Poppins is a bit shaky - it's entirely missing the point. This movie is immense fun and anyone who says different should be forced to watch it repeatedly.