The Sound of Music

Rating: 10/10 (18 June 2006)

There was a time when saying you had enjoyed "The Sound of Music" was considered un-hip. It is still considered corny by many, but at least, compared to the stage version, it is a masterpiece. I finally saw a theater production, and could not believe how poor the text by Russel Crouse and Howard Lindsay is. Ernest Lehman really did a genial screen adaptation, eliminating songs (can you imagine Baroness Elsa singing about a marriage proposal?), relocating "My Favorite Things" to the storm scene, turning "The Lonely Goatherd" into a puppet show, or taking "Do Re Mi" out to the Alps and the streets of Salzburg. Not much was added concerning the social and political aspects of Austria during the years of the Nazi regime (which probably would have given a greater resonance to this tale of personal struggle against totalitarianism), and very little was taken from the real Georg von Trapp, a ruined aristocrat, or Maria, who was the real stern, rigid parent that turned the family into a musical act for survival. Nevertheless, other aspects of the production augmented its entertainment value. After making the horror classic "The Haunting", director Robert Wise surpassed his talent for transferring musicals to film, making the Rodgers & Hammerstein play less stage-bound than his work on "West Side Story". Both are industrial films, done under Hollywood's zero-degree style of film-making, but Wise did give a fresh visual treatment to the musical, airing an old property, and guiding Julie Andrews to give the best performance of her career. Finally, what I find more interesting about "The Sound of Music" is its sociological value. When it was released, it had a sedative effect on the hearts and minds of almost the entire world population, who was witnessing new cracks in the U.S. empire: the questionable presence of American troops in Vietnam with a generation of young Americans killed for expansionism and not democracy, the violent deaths of major figures of its political and cultural scenes, the racial struggles, the emergence of the 1960s counter-culture, the raise of violence and death on the streets... Solidarity, love, basic family values, and especially music, were sort of rediscovered in "The Sound of Music", turning it into a mega hit, and its soundtrack into a best seller.