A Personal Recollection

Rating: Null/10 (1 May 2001)

The winter of 1967 I was 9 years old. My 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Newby packed up our class and headed to San Francisco to see a movie: The Sound of Music. We drove through the hippies and the sleazy theaters of North Beach 'til we came to the movie house where the S.O.M. was still in its initial release. I sat next to my teacher.(I was her pet I guess).The lights dimmed, the overture started and then the most beautiful girl I had seen started singing. I sat in my seat transfixed by the show. Here was something rare and special. Music and words and kids my age on screen. Magic happened that day to me. I didn't know what a Nazi was, nor where Austria was but it was important to my teacher that I learn. Mrs. Newby sat silent during the film until the last reel. She wept as the von Trapps crossed into freedom. I didn't know what that was either. I do now. When the Iron Curtain fell in Europe my teacher was on the other side. Like Maria she and her family escaped East Germany to come to the west. Perhaps as Matlin says this is a bit of corn...but not for me, not for my teacher, and certainly not for those who never made it out. This was the LAST great musical made. It was made entertaining and suffers from closer examination of historical truths, but it is AN IMPORTANT FILM. You do not have to be a victim of the Holocaust or escape from a totalitarian state to appreciate why. I could go on but others have said what I would have. I easily give it 10 for 10. Only Casablanca and Citizen Kane rank higher on MY all time list. See this film and show it to your children...and their children. Charles