The Sound Of Music (1965) 20th Century Fox 📢 Director: Robert Wise 💰 Producer: Robert Wise 👫 Cast: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Richard Haydn, Peggy Wood, Charmian Carr, Eleanor Parker. 🏆 Awards ceremony: -38th Academy Awards: April 18, 1966. Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica, California. 🎭 Other films nominated for Best Picture this year: -Darling. -Doctor Zhivago. -Ship Of Fools. -A Thousand Clowns. 📕 Plot summary: Set in Salzburg, Austria 1938. Sister Maria (JULIE ANDREWS) is a nun who likes to sing in the mountains but her lack of discipline means that the head nun of the convent has her sent away to become the new governess to the seven young children of a recently-widowed Captain Trapp (CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER). After surviving a series of practical jokes from the kids, Maria quickly warms to them and they embrace her with kindness and affection. Initially the relationship between Maria and Trapp is frosty (mostly due to him being an obnoxious asshole) but they eventually become close when he sees the positive affect she has on his children. When Captain Trapp announces that he is going to marry some rich baroness (ELEANOR PARKER), Maria realizes that she herself has fallen in love with the Captain and decides to leave his home and the children behind and go back to the convent. After a chinwag with the head nun (what do you call a 'head nun' anyway?) Maria returns to the Trapp home and reunites with the kids - and marries him. But then the Nazis come looking for Trapp and the new family have to flee Austria and head across the border to Switzerland to safety. 💥 Standout scene: The 'Doe Ray Me' song was definitely a highlight. Both the song and the scene. I also liked the puppet show sequence too. 🔑 Facts: -The 38th Academy Awards. -Nominated for 10 Academy Awards, it won 5: Best Picture, Director, Music (adaptation or treatment), Sound, Editing. -A few months after the film's release it became the highest grossing movie of all time, surpassing GONE WITH THE WIND. A record it would hold on to for the next five years until THE GODFATHER came along. 🙂 Personal opinion: This was the first time I had seen this movie and my initial reaction to it is that it is the best musical I have ever seen. The songs were good and did not spoil the flow of the film (unlike West Side Story, My Fair Lady, An American In Paris, Gigi etc.) The film opens with that iconic scene of Julie Andrews singing the titular song surrounded by the mountains. Then we have the introduction of Christopher Plummer's character - a right knobhead with a bug so far up his arse no sunlight could ever penetrate it. Fortunately his behaviour does mellow as the film progresses and we almost end up liking him. The songs are good too, my stand-out one being 'These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things'. The outdoors shots and visuals are brilliant. After 1 hour I was still wide awake and still enjoying the movie, which is more than I can say about the other mediocre musicals I have had to endure for this project. A really fun movie - if only all musicals could be this good. Did it deserve the Oscar? ✅YES, it's definitely a classic and worthy of the fame it has. Not my personal favourite film from 1965 though; that award would go to The Flight Of The Phoenix (which was also released by 20th Century Fox). ⭐️7½/10

Review date: 13 March 2025