THE SOUND OF MUSIC: 50th Anniversary Blu-ray (2oth Century-Fox, 1965) Fox Home Video
BEST PICTURE -
1965
What more does
one say about a movie that continues to be - as Fox publicity of its day so
astutely heralded - "the happiest
sound in all the world"? Today, too few movie musicals are made – none
with the genius, inspiration or enduring poignancy of Richard Rodgers and Oscar
Hammerstein II. “What’s wrong with
sweetness and light?” Rodgers once quipped, “They’ve been around for an awfully long time.” Yet, even R&H’s
most ardent supporters were slightly put off by The Sound of Music’s cloying concoction of nuns and Nazis; the
bristling Captain Von Trapp (on stage played by a very stern, Theodore Bikel)
whose heart of stone is softened by the perky novice nanny (Mary Martin). She
transforms his militarily-precision-run household into a veritable Viennese
choral of bubbly joy and effervescence. The critics were decidedly not keen on
the Von Trapp’s family saga. Audiences, however, couldn’t get enough of it. As
Robert Wise’s 1965 movie has eclipsed the reputation of this stagecraft, people
today forget Broadway’s The Sound of
Music was hardly regarded as a towering achievement. Indeed, it broke no
new ground in musical theater as the teams previous collaborative efforts: Oklahoma!, The King and I and South
Pacific. Instead, it was unabashedly old-fashion and sentimental. Yet,
while the movie versions of these aforementioned R&H hits were successful
at the box office, none are equaled in reputation to their Broadway
predecessors, The Sound of Music
would be different. Most movies make their biggest windfall on opening
weekends. In the case of The Sound of Music, a decidedly tepid start steadily gathered steam; the picture lasting more
than half a year in some theaters with repeat business pushing its final tally
of ticket sales well into the black – an unqualified hit.
The word
‘prolific’ seems at once both appropriate, yet grossly inadequate in
summarizing Rodgers and Hammerstein. Unequivocally, their musical partnership
had all the trappings of the ideal marriage; a symbiotic union for which
Hammerstein remained the jokingly more envious of the two; waxing to the press
how he toiled for weeks on a lyric, only to have Rodgers sit as his piano and
perfectly realize his words into musical notes in a mere few hours or days. It
is rumored, as example, that Rodgers wrote ‘June
is Bustin’ Out All Over’ for Carousel
in the time it took his wife and daughter to attend a Saturday matinee.
Rodgers always protested the insinuation his contribution to their
collaborative efforts came easily. “I
think the moment of creation should be a spontaneous one,” Rodgers would
clarify years later in an interview, “But
I have to do an awful lot of thinking for an awful lot of time before I
actually do a few notes.” In point of fact, by the time Rodgers actually
sat in front of his piano several months of intense discussion about character
design and motivation had facilitated a good solid understanding for the
anticipated mood, tempo and pacing of the melody.
Today Robert
Wise’s The Sound of Music is widely
regarded as the very best of the R&H stage to screen adaptations, endlessly
revived during the holiday season, despite the fact the film contains not a
single sequence taking place at Christmas time. The Von Trapp’s tale of heroism
and escape was first brought to Rodgers and Hammerstein’s attention by Mary
Martin and expressly written to suit her talents. But the Broadway derivative
was not an overnight sensation. Moreover, it had one of the longest gestation
periods of any R&H show. Gradually, it built its reputation during out of
town tryouts - enough for 2oth Century-Fox to acquire the film rights in 1960
to produce it. But then the property languished, partly because the studio had
little faith in it; also, because musicals had quietly fallen out of fashion,
but most of all, because Fox had neither the time nor the money to invest in a
big and splashy musical. Badly needed revenues had been siphoned off to
complete Cleopatra (1963); the movie
that had virtually halted production at Fox and threatened to close the studio
for good.
For a while, it
seemed The Sound of Music might
never get produced. By 1965, the Hollywood musical was even more the red-headed
stepchild than it had been five years earlier. Occasionally, a studio gamble
could yield an expensive masterpiece that gelled with the public. Warner Bros.,
as example, had great success with its adaptations of The Music Man (1962) and My
Fair Lady (1964). However, more often the effect derived from these costly
ventures proved too heavy-handed and overproduced. Audiences shunned these
spectacles in song. After Oscar
Hammerstein’s death in 1960, Richard Rodgers agreed to go it alone and write
several new songs for the film version of The
Sound of Music, after producer, Saul Chaplin and director, Robert Wise were
given a green light by studio chief, Richard Zanuck, who also hired
screenwriter extraordinaire, Ernest Lehman to rewrite the play. Lehman’s
prowess cannot be overestimated; his ever so delicate reorganization of the
order of the songs and the narrative course of events, smoothing out awkward
kinks in the stage show. Rodgers eventually contributed both melody and lyric
to two of the film's best recalled musical moments; the romantic ballad, ‘Something Good’ and Maria's bombastic
travelogue through Salzburg en route to the Von Trapp villa, ‘I Have Confidence’.
In their
preliminary stages of planning, Wise and producer, Saul Chaplin concurred
Christopher Plummer would make an admirable Capt. Von Trapp. Only Plummer worried that his thin singing
voice would belie the poignancy of R&H’s ‘Edelweiss’ – the eloquently stated linchpin in understanding
Georg’s dismissiveness of the Nazi high command. Wise had little difficulty casting the
children. Charmian Carr proved a virginal Liesl on the cusp of her ill-fated ‘Sixteen Going On Seventeen’ romance with
Rolfe (Daniel Truhitte). Nicholas Hammond was later to muse how unorthodox
Wise’s decision was to cast him as the eldest Von Trapp male child, Friedrich. “Here I was, auditioning with a broken arm,
a chipped tooth and a crop of dark brown hair in a room full of
blonde-haired/blue-eyed kids. How he ever chose me, I’ll never know!”
Kismet also proved the impetus for Wise’s decision to cast Kym Karath as the
youngest child, Gretl. Apparently, even at the tender age of six, Karath knew
her own strengths, approaching Wise and Saul Chaplin in a matter-of-fact
manner, talking a mile a minute and producing a portfolio of her work for their
consideration. While Wise steadily grew annoyed, Chaplin offered his director a
bit of very solid advice. “How else can
you get a child to do the things you’ll want her to do if she isn’t like that?”
Timing, as they
used to say, is everything. In April of
1964, Wise and a company of sixty cast and crew descended on Austria. By then,
the socio-political and artistic landscape of Hollywood had been so
dramatically altered as to barely make their project feasible. Indeed, nowhere
had the crunch proved more detrimental than at 2oth Century-Fox. Ever vigilante of the studio’s precarious
financial situation and its expectation for a mega hit, Wise was determined to
bring his picture in on time and under budget. He was hampered in tandem by
Austria’s chronically inclement weather; also, by a curmudgeonly farmer who
granted permission to shoot on his land, then set about punching holes in the
basin of Wise’s man-made stream when his demands for more money were not met.
When it came time to photograph Julie Andrews emblematic turn high atop the
Alps, Wise encountered two additional adversities; first, the only way to reach
the location was by ox-cart, and second, that the downdraft from the
approaching helicopter assigned to capture this breathtaking aerial shot also
created a minor hurricane, leveling Andrews into the very wet earth beneath her
feet.
Nightly, cast
and crew consoled themselves from the unusually frigid weather inside the local
hotel, cozy pubs and beer gardens, soaking up the centuries-old atmosphere of
Vienna and indulging in its rich liqueurs and pastries. At one point, actor
Christopher Plummer had to have several of his costumes let out to accommodate
for the extra girth acquired around his middle. Despite telegrams arriving
almost daily, encouraging – nee threatening – an early cancellation of his
shoot, Wise trudged onward, eventually realized there was no way he was going
to be able to complete the film on time and under budget. Still, what he had
captured around town – the Mirabell Gardens, the exterior of Nonnberg Abbey,
Winkler’s Terrace, the lush greenery and mountain exteriors of Saltzkammergut
and the Mozart footbridge – proved intoxicating. These exteriors would be
seamlessly married to sets built at 2oth Century-Fox. Production designer,
Boris Levin recreated the interior of Nonnberg Abbey down to its cobblestone
courtyard, a miraculous feat. While the moonlit gazebo where Rolf and Liesel
experience their brief flourish of young love, set against a park-like cyclorama
of artificial trees, would later be imported to Austria where it remains a
beloved pit stop today, as part of ‘The
Sound of Music’ tour package. Interestingly, the Austrians have never
entirely warmed to either the Von Trapps or their story as told on film. Indeed,
the family’s real-life stealthy migration to the U.S. – less dramatic than the
one shown on celluloid - during the Nazi Anschluss (peaceful annexation of
Austria) continues to find many detractors in these rolling hills. Nevertheless,
tourism in Austria has greatly benefited from The Sound of Music’s perennially renewable reputation.
When The Sound of Music had its world
premiere on March 2, 1965, few at 2oth Century-Fox could have hoped for a more
successful debut. Despite only slightly above average grosses on its opening
weekend, word of mouth and renewed ticket sales caused the film’s weekly intake
to steadily rise during the Spring and Summer months – a virtually ‘unheard of’
phenomenon. In the final analysis, The
Sound of Music became the studio’s most popular and profitable film of the
decade; eventually becoming the highest grossing movie musical of all time. Fresh
from her Oscar-win in Mary Poppins
the year before, Julie Andrews assimilated the part of Maria Von Trapp as a
sugary-sweet Austrian governess with a pert exuberance that convincingly
translates into a believable romantic longing for the Captain. To see Andrews
high atop the picturesque Alps, deliriously spinning as she belts out the
opening strains of the title song, is to be magically teleported to an
alternate universe where goodness and light not only are enduring principles by
which to live, but always refreshingly in vogue. Yet, Julie Andrews is far more
than simply a golden voice and fresh face. Indeed, she brings a deliciously
tart underlay of perfect comedic timing; as when – after having been taught by
the captain how to blow whistle calls for the children, she instead devilishly
squirts a sour note in his direction, adding, “Excuse me, sir. But I don’t know your signal!” These gems belong
to Ernest Lehman’s screenplay, but their delivery is all Andrews and she manages
to be ‘practically perfect’ in every
way.
It must also be
noted Christopher Plummer’s Captain is a far cry from the stage’s stern
disciplinarian or the real-life Georg Von Trapp. On stage, the captain was
little more than a curmudgeonly disciplinarian, infrequently interrupting
Maria’s re-education of the children and depriving the real captain of his
genuine affection for his children. Thanks to the combined intervention of
Wise, Lehman and Plummer, the character’s appeal is softened and warmed up – if
only slightly. But it is Plummer’s dashing good looks, coupled with his uncanny
ability to exude authority and sex appeal that make Georg more acceptable to
audiences as the desirable stud of a young girl. In reality, there was a
discrepancy of some years between Von Trapp and Maria. The movie, as well as
the stage play, tends to level off this disparity. While Maria (still very much
alive when the movie was made, and actually appearing in cameo during Andrew’s
‘I Have Confidence’ travelogue) and
the rest of the Von Trapp’s have always been exceedingly grateful for the
film’s perennial popularity, the real Von Trapp family saga is a story unlike
the clan, as depicted in the film.
Maria was indeed
a novice at the abbey when Mother Superior assigned her the duties of looking
after the captain’s brood for the summer. But it was the family’s spiritual
adviser who taught the family to sing, including Maria. Their notoriety as a
musical group spread throughout Europe with the Captain’s complicity and helped
keep the family’s dwindling finances afloat. The real Von Trapps were hardly as
wealthy as their filmic counterparts. In fact, they had taken in tenants to keep
their home. Twice were they scheduled to give a command performance at the
personal request of Adolf Hitler; and twice did they refuse. The Captain’s
first refusal was polite and viewed in good faith. His second, however, came
under political scrutiny by the Nazi government after the Anschluss or
‘peaceful’ annexation of Austria. “You
couldn’t say no and stay,” reasoned Maria Agatha Franziska Gobertina von
Trapp, the second eldest of the children, “So,
we left – by train. And the next day, the borders were closed.”
Making their way
to America with their spiritual adviser Reverend Franz Wasner in tow, the Von Trapps settled
in Stow Vermont; a climate and landscape not unlike their beloved Austria.
Throughout the war years, they toured the United States as a commercially
viable singing group, making friends wherever they performed. After Georg’s
death, the Von Trapps began a summer music camp at the chalet in Vermont. So,
the story goes, Maria began telling stories about what their lives had been in
Austria to entertain an audience, after the arrival of their musical instruments
and songbooks was delayed by a few hours. The stories held the audience’s
attention, and afterward, an eager publisher took notice, suggesting to Maria
that she write them down as her biography. At first reluctant to do so, Maria
eventually relented and, upon publication, the book had modest sales.
Nevertheless, it caught Mary Martin’s eye.
The Sound of
Music is only interested in a very small piece of the Von Trapp’s life story;
the years leading up to the Anschluss, as a young Maria (Andrews) is proving an
embarrassment to the nuns and Nonnberg Abbey. To ‘solve their problem’ that is Maria, the Mother Abbess (Peggy Wood)
decides to send her away for the summer to the sprawling country estate of
Captain Georg Von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) as a replacement governess for
his seven children: Liesl (Charmaine Carr), Freidrich (Nicholas Hammond),
Louisa (Heather Menzies), Kurt (Duane Chase), Brigitta (Angela Cartwright), Marta
(Debbie Turner) and Gretl (Kim Karath). In reality, there were ten Von Trapp
children at the time the real Maria arrived at the villa. In the movie, and, at
first, Maria’s transition as a domestic is awkward at best. The Captain is a
tyrannical patriarch (again - not true, in real life); his children prone to
mischievous practical jokes. These backfire when Maria makes the brood feel
guilty for their ‘undue’ unkindness. Gradually, Maria strives to gain the
children’s confidence, particularly Liesl, who is having an unrequited love
fantasy with local telegram delivery boy, Rolfe (Daniel Truhitte). Before long,
Maria has the children well in hand, filling their minds with love and their
hearts with music. It helps that the Captain has departed for Vienna to woo
Baroness Elsa Schraeder (Eleanor Parker); an elegant creature, alas lacking the
essential ingredient – maternal warmth – to be a second wife and their stepmother.
Upon the
Captain’s return with Elsa and her chaperone, Uncle Max Detweiler (Richard
Hayden), Georg discovers his children have been transformed into a formidable
singing group – one Max would relish the opportunity to promote and/or exploit at
the pending Salzburg Folk Festival. Although immediately cross with Maria for
having taken his children everywhere in some play clothes she stitched together
from the drapes that used to hang in her bedroom, Georg’s heart is stirred to
fond recollections of his late wife after the children serenade Elsa.
Rethinking what Maria’s presence has meant to his family, the Captain softens,
indulging the children’s whim to own an elaborate marionette theater. He also
agrees to stage a lavish house party to introduce Elsa to his friends. However,
at this party Georg comes to the sudden realization he has fallen in love with
Maria, much to Elsa’s jealous chagrin.
Elsa goads Maria
into running away from her true feelings, forcing her into seclusion at the
abbey. After a period of convalescence, the Mother Abbess declares Maria must
face her destiny, explaining to her that simply because she loves a man more
does not mean she loves God any less. Moreover, everyone must discover the
satisfaction of pursuing their dreams as they metaphorically ‘climb every mountain’. On this advice,
Maria returns to the Captain’s villa. There, she learns Elsa and Georg have
since become engaged. Although this reunion is bittersweet, the Captain quickly
deduces he loves Maria. Anticipating the end of their affair, Elsa ends their
relationship with her pride intact. Georg pursues Maria and she confides her
love for him in return. The two are wed in a lavish ceremony with the blessing
of the Captain’s children and the nuns in attendence. Shortly thereafter, the happy newlyweds embark
upon a month-long honeymoon.
In Georg’s absence,
Max rehearses the children to perform at the Salzburg Festival, something Georg
has expressly forbade. However, upon his return to Austria, Georg learns he has
been ‘requested’ to accept a commission in the naval forces of the German
Reich. Attempting a late-night escape, Georg, Maria, Max and the children are
confronted by the Nazi’s newly-appointed Gauleiter, Herr Zeller (Ben Wright) and a pair of
storm troopers. Zeller is there to take the Captain to his new naval post at
Breymar Harbor. Instead, Georg lies to Zeller, his family is on their way to
the festival to perform. Very reluctantly, Zeller provides them all with an
escort to ensure they will not ‘get lost in the crowd’. Predictably, and most
deliberately, the Von Trapps do just that, taking refuge in the abbey. Alas,
they are discovered by Rolfe, now a Hitler youth/SS officer in training. The
family’s penultimate escape is ably abetted by some last-minute intervention
from Sister Berthe (Portia Nelson) and Sister Margaretta (Anna Lee); confiding
to Mother Abbess that they ‘have sinned’
by removing the spark plugs and distributor caps from the Nazis vehicles parked
out front, thereby foiling their pursuit of the Von Trapps. This joyous defeat
dissolves to a breathtaking aerial view of the Von Trapp family, having
abandoned their car, now scaling the Alps to freedom on foot.
The Sound of Music is a potent allegory for deriving
spiritual strength from one’s faith and blind optimism. Is it any wonder this
lighter-than-air confection of nuns, Nazis and good-nature children has retained
its freshness and vitality today? With Rodgers and Hammerstein’s score a myriad
of instantly recognizable hits, including the buoyant ‘Do-Re-Mi’ the whimsical, ‘How
Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?’ and rambunctious ‘Lonely Goatherd’ The Sound
of Music springs forth like "a
lark who is learning to prey." Few movies can so completely fill the
heart and soul with "something good",
encouraging the human spirit to
"climb every mountain" until it finds its’ dreams. In the final
analysis, The Sound of Music has endured
because the fantasy seems utterly genuine; the reality, gleaned, thought
heavily rewritten, far more fantastical, yet satisfying than any truth from
history itself.
Seven years ago,
Fox Home Video gave us a simply gorgeous Blu-ray box set to mark The Sound of Music’s 45th
Anniversary. Two years ago, they offered a much scaled down offering for its 50th
– bizarre, actually. I am not sure that I comprehend the logic in this, other
than a studio money grab. We lose all the swag of the former release, but mercifully
keep the same video extras and stunning 1080p transfer. Scanned from archival
70mm Todd-AO elements at 8K, down-sampled to 4K, and, finally, restored and
remastered in 1080p, The Sound of Music
on Blu-ray is everything it was before and all that one could ask for from a
gorgeous image harvest. If you already own the 45th Anniversary box set there
is really no need to upgrade. Color fluctuations have been corrected and
thousands of instances of dirt and debris removed. Fine grain has been lovingly preserved.
Overall visual clarity is tremendous, while color reproduction is warm and
vivid. Contrast too is superb. Prepare
to be impressed by the 7.1 DTS audio, featuring Irwin Kostal’s lush
orchestrations as never before appreciated.
Disc One features
the movie, plus an all new trivia track entitled, ‘Your Favorite Things: An Interactive Celebration’. Directly ported
over from the previous release is the ‘music
machine’ sing-a-long option, plus vintage audio commentaries from Julie
Andrews, Christopher Plummer and Robert Wise. Disc Two features identical
extras to those included on the aforementioned 45th Anniversary Blu-ray,
covering, in great detail, the making of the movie, its restoration and also
the real Von Trapp family saga; plus a virtual map of locations in Salzburg,
Austria and all of the vintage R&H programs featured as before, screen
tests, interviews, photo galleries, etc. et al. Disc Three provides us with the
only NEW extra of substance: an hour-long documentary as Julie Andrews returns
to Salzburg to remember the movie and happier times. This a poignant tribute,
but it is much too light on details, despite the reminiscences provided. It
should be pointed out The Sound of Music
is available also as a 3-disc edition that includes all of the aforementioned
content. The added bonuses in this 5-disc offering are a DVD copy of the movie
(Disc 4) and an exclusive CD – alas, not of the movie’s soundtrack (no, Fox
wants you to pay for that as they have already reissued the OST to coincide
with this Blu-ray release), but of some ‘international
performances’ of the songs. Personally, I don’t really want my beloved
memories of the movie tainted by other artists’ reinterpretations, although I
will confess to having found Lady Gaga’s Oscar tribute one of the finest things
she has ever done; a show-stopper indeed. Bottom line: this is Fox’s double-dip
down a very deep well. The Sound of
Music just keeps on giving. It is perennially satisfying. You cannot go
wrong by owning it in hi-def. But if you already own the 45th
Anniversary box set, think twice on this one. There is very little here to
recommend a repurchase.
FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)
5+
VIDEO/AUDIO
5+
EXTRAS
5+
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