The Sound of Music Blu-ray truly is a masterpiece with perfect scores all around making it a contender for best Blu-ray ever
Julie Andrews lights up the screen as Maria, the spirited young woman who leaves the convent to become
governess to the seven children of Captain Von Trapp, an autocratic widower whose strict household rules leave
no room for music or entertainment.
Hollywood insiders called it "The Sound of Money" when it started raking in loads of box office cash. Leading man Christopher Plummer, thinking it was
too sentimental, referred to it as "The Sound of Mucus." Influential film critic Pauline Kael even deemed it a "sugar-coated lie that some people seem to
want to eat." But let's set the cynicism aside for a moment. It may be syrupy, and it's definitely a Hollywood cash cow—even now, 45 years after its
release—but has there ever been a film more sincerely joyful, more wide-eyed and earnestly optimistic than The Sound of Music? (If there has,
I haven't seen it.) It's easy to be wary about unbridled hope, but this movie musical—the eighth and final collaboration between Rodgers and
Hammerstein, the greatest composer/lyricist duo of the 20th century—comes by it honestly. There's no pandering here, no wink-wink irony, no sense
of kitsch or camp. The Sound of Music genuinely believes in the possibilities of love, the certainty of good's triumph over evil, and the
redeeming, transcendent power of song. Critics can scoff and cynics cringe, but there's a reason audiences world-over have been singing along with the
film since 1965.
The based-on-a-true-story is almost universally familiar by now. Broadway star Julie Andrews plays Maria, a good-natured but troublemaking
postulant at a convent in the Austrian alps. Perhaps "troublemaking" is an overstatement. In the song "Maria," sung by her wimple-wearing
supervisors, we learn that Maria's main offenses are waltzing on the way to Mass, whistling on the stair, and—gasp!—singing in the abbey. Knowing
that she's "A flibbertigibbet! A will-o'-the-wisp! A clown!" and perhaps too flighty to become a proper nun, the Mother Abbess (Peggy Wood) puts
Maria
on probation and sends her to Salzburg to serve as the governess of the seven strapping von Trapp children. Their father, Georg (Christopher
Plummer), is a widower and former Navy captain, a hardcore disciplinarian who orders his kids around with the aid of an impossibly shrill whistle.
Maria, of course, takes a different tact, winning the children over with song, sewing play clothes out of old drapes, climbing trees, going on
mountaintop picnics, and putting on puppet shows. The captain's heart is slowly opened when he sees the change in his children, and he breaks off
his engagement with the coldly shrewd Baroness Schraeder (Eleanor Parker) to marry Maria. Alas, there's trouble in paradise. These are the last
golden days of Austria in the 1930s, and the Nazi threat looms over the alps like a thundercloud. Don't worry, though, this is The Sound of
Music, not Schindler's List, and despite a tense climax that finds the von Trapps hiding from SS foot soldiers in a graveyard, the
dénouement is pure—literal and figurative—escapism.
Every junction, twist, and turn of the plot is accompanied by song, and the musical numbers are so memorably infectious, there ought to be an
auditory branch of the Center for Disease Control working 'round the clock on an antidote for the inevitable ailment of getting these tunes stuck
permanently in your head. Nearly every song has since become a bonafide classic, from the title track—which finds Maria, arms outstretched,
spinning in euphoria—to "Climb Ev'ry Mountain," the inspiration closer. In between, there's "My Favorite Things," an ode to joyful listmaking, "Do-
Re-Mi," a veritable music lesson, and "The Lonely Goatherd," a lyrical tongue twister if there ever was one. And let's not forget the fact that most
people think "Edelweiss" is an actual Austrian folk song, and not a brilliant creation of Rodgers and Hammerstein. There's an air of abject
wholesomeness that pervades all of the music—which led Pauline Kael to controversially say, "we have been turned into emotional and aesthetic
imbeciles when we hear ourselves humming the sickly, goody-goody songs"—but delve into the subtext of Hammerstein's lyrics and you'll find slight
shades of passion, and even sex, as when eldest daughter Liesl (Charmian Carr) sings, "I am sixteen, going on seventeen, innocent as a rose." Since
when were the delicate, sensual petals of a rose considered innocent? Still, this is family friendly stuff all around, and while it may be overly
sweet, I don't think it's fair to say it's sickeningly so. Not every film needs to be a gritty, philosophically loaded, emotionally exhausting
drama.
The Sound of Music is, at the very least, well-made fluff, but it's frequently much more than that. The film is exhilarating from the first
frames, as Director Robert Wise takes us on an aerial tour of the alps, culminating in a helicopter shot that swoops down on a twirling Julie Andrews
right as she erupts into song. Wise has a keen sense of mise-en-scène, and all of his compositions
emphasize depth and movement, particularly his arrangements of the seven von Trapp children. The kids themselves come across as precocious, but
never obnoxious, and when Christopher Plummer's steely eyes soften at the sound of their singing, even the most hardened moviegoer is likely to
break into an insuppressible smile. The movie is essentially engineered to make you feel good, to make your heart swell, and whether or not you
think this is manipulative or superficial, it's certainly effective. I can think of few better cures for the blues than spending 174 minutes with The
Sound of Music. Yes, at nearly three hours long—thanks to reprises of just about every song—the film would seem to run the risk of sagging in
the middle, but it surprisingly never does, floating along instead on its own glee-filled effervescence. And the source of this bubbly propulsion is Julie
Andrews, who practically radiates joy and goodness. It's easy, maybe even fashionable among critics, to dislike The Sound of Music, but we
could all stand to be a little bit more like Maria, waltzing, whistling, and singing our way through life.
Now this is how you do a restoration of a film from the mid-1960s. The Sound of Music was shot in the widescreen 70mm Todd-AO
format, and for this new release, the original negatives were scanned at 8K and downsized to a 4K master that has been given an extensive restoration.
Color fluctuations between takes have been corrected and thousands of instances of dirt and debris have been removed, resulting in a 1080p/AVC-
encoded transfer that's absolutely pristine. Most importantly, the fine grain structure of the 70mm negative hasn't been tampered with at all and there
have been no attempts to artificially sharpen the picture. It simply isn't needed. Like most of the other 70mm films to appear on Blu-ray—2001: A
Space Odyssey, Baraka, etc.—The Sound of Music inherently has a tremendous sense of clarity, revealing every detail of the wool
and herringbone suits, the ornately gilded interiors of the von Trapp estate, individual blades of grass on a mountaintop meadow, and the fine textures of
the actors' faces. Some close-ups do appear softer, but this is only because a diffusion filter was used during filming to give a flattering glow to some of
the older performers. Color reproduction is warm and dense as well, with vivid primaries, rich neutrals, perfectly attuned black levels, and skin tones that
are natural and consistent. Unlike the artifact-heavy DVD, there are no real compression issues to speak of here. I did spot—briefly—some moiré-like
shimmer on the fine lines of Maria's apron at the very beginning of the film, but it's hardly a distraction. I can't imagine The Sound of Music
looking any better than it does here, and I have no problems giving it a full 5/5 for picture quality.
Unusual for the mid-1960s, The Sound of Music featured six-track stereo, allowing seamless pans and sweeps and plenty of room for the
orchestral score to breath. For the first time, the film's restorers had access to the original six-track print master, which they've digitally restored and
expanded into a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround mix. The results—without gushing too much—are flawless. I mean, you'd expect nothing
less from a film called The Sound of Music, right? Well, rest assured, the music sounds fantastic—rich, dynamically expressive, and wonderfully
clean. The score fills every channel during the musical numbers, and the spacious mix generates a great sense of interplay between the individual
instruments. And the singing! As crisp as the alpine air. The same goes for the non-sung dialogue, which is perfectly balanced. Fans couldn't ask for
more. Like the restoration of the print, it's clear that a lot of time and effort went into optimizing the audio for this release. (If you're interested, make
sure to check out the Restoring a Classic: A Glorious Sound featurette for details on how the audio cleanup was accomplished.)
Your Favorite Things - An Interactive Celebration
Like most of Fox's tent pole Blu-ray productions, The Sound of Music comes with an all-new interactive bonus features interface that can be
accessed while watching the film. When you select "Your Favorite Things" from the extras tab, a brief video tutorial plays and you're taken to a menu
where you can customize the experience. There are four options here, and you can select as many or as few of them as you'd like. Making Music:
A Journey in Images is a picture-in-picture mode that displays many never-before-seen storyboards and photographs of the film's production in
the upper right corner of the screen, The Sing-Along Experience provides karaoke-style lyrics across the bottom of the screen, Many a
Thing to Know is a trivia track about the making of the film and the real Maria, and Where Was it Filmed? is an ongoing multiple-choice
quiz. With all four options turned on, I find that the interface obscures too much of the film, but I can see many fans taking advantage of the karaoke
mode.
Music Machine (1080p, 58:02)
From here you can skip directly to your favorite songs from the film or watch them all consecutively.
Sing-Along (1080p, 54:22)
For all intents and purposes, this mode is exactly the same as "Music Machine." In fact, I'm not quite sure what's different about the two, except that
"Sing-Along" seems to trim off some of the music before the singing starts.
Audio Commentaries
The disc includes two commentaries tracks. The first, with Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Charmian Carr, Choreographer Dee Dee Wood, and
Johannes von Trapp, is one of those tracks where all the participants are recorded separately and patched in to comment on certain scenes. Andrews
is the most vocal figure, but there are many long stretches of silence throughout. The second track, with director Robert Wise, is where you'll find
more concentrated making-of information, although fans will eventually want to give both commentaries a go.
BD-Live Exclusive: Laura Benanti on The Sound of Music (720p, 3:33)
Disc Two: Extras
Musical Stages
An "interactive backlot tour," Musical Stages allows you to explore the foyer of the Von Trapp home, which serves as a menu for a host of all-new
special features, including profiles of many of the film's songs and featurettes about The Sound of Music's production and enduring legacy.
Maria in the 21st Century (1080i, 6:52)
Restoring a Classic: Bloom and Grow Forever (1080p, 5:54)
Edelweiss (1080i, 2:28)
I Have Confidence (1080i, 3:09)
My Favorite Things (1080i, 2:47)
Sixteen Going on Seventeen (1080i, 2:20)
After the Escape (1080i, 8:43)
R&H: Partnership at its Peak (1080i, 3:43)
Shaping the Story (1080i, 4:50)
The Von Trapps Today (1080i, 5:48)
Climb Ev'ry Mountain (1080i, 2:07)
Stage Vs. Screen (1080i, 3:12)
Maria (1080i, 3:03)
The Sound of Music (1080i, 2:32)
Maria and the Musical (1080i, 5:06)
Cutting Room Floor (1080i, 2:50)
Something Good (1080i, 2:17)
The Lonely Goatherd (1080i, 2:30)
Do-Re-Mi (1080i, 3:31)
So Long, Farewell (1080i, 1:11)
A Generous Heart (1080i, 3:54)
Final Dream: Oscar Hammerstein Remembered (1080i, 5:51)
Stories from Broadway (1080i, 4:19)
Restoring a Classic: A Glorious Sound (1080i, 5:31)
A City of Song
An interactive map of Salzburg, from which you can access "Fascinating Facts," photos, and brief video clips about each location seen in the film.
Mellweg: Maria's Mountain (1080i, 2:26)
Nonnberg: Maria's Abbey (1080i, 2:42)
Residenzplatz: Scenes of Joy and Sorrow (1080i, 2:23)
Siegmundplatz: The Horse Pond (1080i, 1:26)
von Trapp Villa: A Place of Harmony (1080i, 00:43)
Frohnburg: A Facade Fit for Hollywood (1080i, 1:36)
Mondsee Cathedral: A Marriage of Fact and Fiction (1080i, 2:27)
Rock Riding School: Staging a Festival (1080i, 2:23)
St. Peter's Cemetery: Safe Haven (1080i, 1:33)
Rossfeld: A Dangerous Escape (1080i, 1:02)
The Sound of Music Tour: A Living Story (1080i, 2:40)
Vintage Programs
An enormous collection of special features that appeared on previous DVD releases, including vintage featurettes and several exhaustive making-of
documentaries.
The Sound of Music: From Fact to Phenomenon (SD, 1:27:22)
My Favorite Things: Julie Andrews Remembers (SD, 1:03:18)
Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer: A Reminiscence (SD, 19:24)
From Liesl to Gretl (SD, 33:33)
Salzburg Sight and Sound (SD, 13:04)
On Location with The Sound of Music (SD, 22:33)
When You Know the Notes to Sing: A Sing-along Phenomenon (SD, 12:50)
Rodgers and Hammerstein: The Sound of American Music, 1985 (SD, 1:23:25)
Rodgers and Hammerstein: The Sound of Movies, 1996 (SD, 1:36:36)
Location Interviews (audio only, 11:49)
Reissue Interview with Julie Andrews and Robert Wise, 1973 (audio only, 7:46)
A Telegram from Daniel Truhitte (audio only, 13:02)
Ernest Lehman: Master Storyteller (audio only, 34:56)
Rare Treasures
Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall: The Pratt Family Singers (SD, 6:41)
The Julie Andrews Hour: Julie Andrews and Maria von Trapp (SD, 16:33)
Screen Tests (SD, 26:13)
40th Anniversary DVD Introduction by Julie Andrews (SD, 2:10)
Pre-production, Production, and Publicity Galleries (1080p, windowboxed)
Publicity
Fox Movietone News Academy Awards (SD, 2:46)
Trailers and Teasers (SD, 20:35 total)
TV Spots (SD, 1:23)
Radio Spots (1:00)
Note: English SDH, French, and Dutch subtitles are available for all special features.
It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but you'd have to be a cold-blooded, stonyhearted cynic to actively dislike a film that's so guilelessly joyful, so
infectiously optimistic. The Sound of Music is cinematic sunshine—vitamin D in filmic form—and on Blu-ray, it's unadulterated home video
happiness, complete with a pristine transfer, lush audio, and seemingly endless hours of bonus features. If the onset of a gloomy winter has got you
down, The Sound of Music just might be the perfect remedy. Our highest recommendations!
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