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DiscountDelight - Sound of Music
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List Price: $19.98
Our Price: $6.49
Your Save: $ 13.49 ( 68% )
Availability:
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
Directed By: Robert Wise
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 0086162004445
Format: Closed-captioned
ISBN: 6304117752
Label: 20th Century Fox
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: 1996-08-27
Running Time: 175
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Theatrical Release Date: 1965
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: When of my favorite films ever
Comment: Every child should get a chance to watch this. I loved it so much when I was young and still am a fan. Great music.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: The gayest movie in the universe
Comment: Can someone please sue this movie? Watching this movie will make you gay. This movie will destroy you. Absolutely destroy. If aliens ever invade earth, all we have to do is to keep playing the sound of music and their heads will explode. One minute they will be melting down the eiffel tower, next minute they will be melting just like the wicked witch of the west. Could be useful after all. This movie is definitely uncool.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A life changing movie
Comment: I think the sound of music is, if you excuse the term, a sign of contradiction. Just reading here a few pages of commentaries one can see how different people's reactions are to it, some people loathe it with a passion that is fascinating to me, I, who love it with delirium.
Going over some reviews and comments from the sixties, you can find people who have seen the movie hundreds of times and their conclusion is that it's because it really helps their psyche in a similar way that a therapy would. Indeed, I'd say a 90% of the people who adore the Sound of Music don't find the words to express or understand the reason. But obviously, they keep on watching over and over because there is a positive essence that affects them in a nurturing way. The movie brings into spotlight purity and happiness as something totally possible and independent of personal circumstances. One can see in Maria, as Julie Andrews herself said, the person you'd like to be if things wouldn't be so rough in their own lives. Maybe that is why Julie's performance in the movie is timeless and fresh: so sincere and real, she really *wanted* to be Maria.
As a big fan of the movie, I've found myself seriously reflecting upon one question. Does it deserve the place it has in my heart as the best movie ever? I am torn at the question, because I find myself comparing it to something so disparagingly as Citizen Kane, the movie that is heralded by most critics circles and serious polls as the greatest movie ever. Yes, Citizen Kane is perfect and genius from a technical point of view. Cinematography and photography are flawless. But it's a shallow classic even if it's perfect. As Ebert said in his comments to the movie, the appeal of the story is to the interest of people in gossiping and intruding in the lives of the famous. So the heart of the best movie of all times is this? This is what is represented by the Number one movie humankind has produced? Deep question indeed. Maybe I take it too seriously, but truth is I really love arts and I think they should be taken seriously cause they are some of the few things that will survive long after we all are gone.
Now, although it's a completely different genre, the Sound of Music is Art. It's the movie that contains the most perfect balance of beauty I have ever found in any other film. The beauty of the soul of Maria, the positive ethics the story has, the joy that is underneath has nothing of sugary as many shallowly purport, but instead it's a soundless song by itself. The lovely and simple score with it's unforgettable songs is just natural because so much energy and youth as it is transmitted by the movie cannot be contained and bursts out naturally. The scenery of Austria gives the beauty a character and truthfulness. It's like a master painting that transmits and communicates directly even with the less sophisticated of the spectators and manage to make a direct bridge with their heart.
The script is what keeps it all together, while it's not complex it is not superficial, it has humor, irony, and fast paced wit.
It all put together seamlessly makes up for, what for me personally, is the greatest movie of all time. If indeed in one thousand years nothing is left of humankind, maybe The Sound of Music would by itself be a testimony of what is the best of the human spirit. That is love, beauty and art.
This is something I am very thankful for.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An Exhaustive DVD Package and a Pristine Print Should Satisfy Fans of This Indisputable Musical Classic
Comment: It's downright sacrilegious to say anything critical of this 1965 musical classic, and I have to admit I still love the movie like almost everyone else I know. Between the postcard-perfect Austrian scenery captured by Ted D. McCord's vibrant cinematography and the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein score, it's an irresistible entertainment with Julie Andrews ideally realizing the role of Maria, the young Salzburg novitiate nun who may be too independent to become part of the order. She is assigned by the abbey's Mother Superior to become a governess for the seven mischievous children of retired Navy Captain Von Trapp. The rest of the plot focuses on the burgeoning love that develops not only between Maria and the Captain but also between the two principals and the children.
A romantic triangle arises in the form of a Baroness who has her talons in the Captain until she realizes she cannot manipulate the inevitable, but the bigger conflict comes with the encroaching Nazi regime who attempts to strong-arm Von Trapp to serve in the Reich. A closer examination of the 174-minute movie really shows an odd imbalance to the narrative. The lighter first half is all told from Maria's perspective, and consequently, this is where most of the memorable songs are performed. After the intermission, Maria is pushed to the background when the Captain becomes engaged to the Baroness and then later when things heat up between him and the Nazi officials. Even though the story makes sense as presented, I've always thought this strange given the build-up of the story as Maria's personal odyssey.
But no matter as the songs are beautifully staged and choreographed by Mark Breaux and Dee Dee Wood, in particular, the joyous Salzburg montage used for "Do Re Mi", the unintended slumber party for "My Favorite Things", the simplicity of the Captain's rendition of "Edelweiss", the gauzy gazebo duet "Something Good", the puppy love pas-de-deux in the same gazebo of "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" and of course, the how-can-it-be-topped opening title song. Besides the transcendent Andrews (is it a wonder why we all fell in love with her back then?), Christopher Plummer is far more dimensional as Von Trapp than I remember from my youth. Not only does he capture the sternness, but he brings a saucy sense of humor and fey quality to his performance. Looking regal the way Hollywood stars used to, Eleanor Parker plays the Baroness not so much as a vindictive man-handler but more as an insecure woman too comfortable with her exalted status in life.
In stock roles, Richard Haydn provides comic relief as the cagey impresario Max, while as Rolfe, Daniel Truhitte transforms from smitten bike messenger to cold Nazi youth in record time. As the Mother Superior, Peggy Wood brings calming assurance, though her dubbed performance of "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" is a tad too operatic for the movie's tone. The children are all well played, though I tend to think of Charmian Carr as a bit too Ann-Margret-kittenish as Liesl, especially as her singing voice does not sound remotely Tyrolean. Minor flaws aside, major credit should be given to director Robert Wise, who already performed similar chores on "West Side Story" and has somehow mastered the art of pacing such a marathon musical story. Wise's frequent collaborator, screenwriter Ernest Lehman, adapted the original stage book by Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse with wit and heart and manages to tone down the innately saccharine tone of the story.
The 2005 40th anniversary two-disc DVD package is obscenely full of extras which should satisfy the most persnickety aficionado. Still looking great at 70, Andrews provides brief introductions to both discs. First things first, the 2005 restoration effort and the transfer on the DVD have yielded a superb print, and it will not disappoint any fan of the movie. There are two commentary tracks, one done by Wise in a rather perfunctory fashion, the other a more anecdotal account by Andrews, Carr, Dee Dee Wood and the real Maria Von Trapp's youngest son Johannes. Then there is a very informative, 63-minute making-of documentary produced for the new DVD, "My Favorite Things: Julie Andrews Remembers" which thoroughly discusses the history of the Von Trapp family, the Broadway incarnation and the complicated transfer of the stage show to screen - even though a number of participants provide recollections, not just Andrews.
There are also two charming looking-back interview sessions. The first is a 20-minute conversation between Andrews and an especially acerbic Plummer, who seems to be ridiculing the original Maria in the Broadway version, stage legend Mary Martin, for her reputed megalomania. The second is a 33-minute group discussion among the seven actors who portrayed the Von Trapp children, all looking decidedly middle-aged (their ages now ranging from 47 to 62) and showing a friendly compatibility with one another in their remembrances. There is also a 22-minute featurette showing Carr revisiting the Salzburg locations, providing a history of the city and even joining in on The Sound of Music bus tour (I've done that one, too).
Another short focuses on the current phenomenon of the sing-along screenings of the movie, this one a massive event at the Hollywood Bowl complete with extravagantly costumed viewers. Also included are a fascinating A&E Biography special of the real Von Trapps, a text-driven demonstration of the restoration process, and a real howler - scratchy screen test footage of an 18-year old Mia Farrow sounding particularly tone-deaf in her audition as Liesl (I only wish they had similar footage for others who auditioned like Richard Dreyfuss, Kurt Russell and the Osmond Brothers). Lastly, there are a number of trailers and an exhaustive photo gallery. Whew. This really defines what a complete DVD package is all about, and in this case, it's perfectly justifiable.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Happy Memories
Comment: THE SOUND OF MUSIC holds many happy memories for me, first when I saw many years ago at the movie theater and then as a perennial classic around Thanksgiving. It is a happy film, very uplifting, with a happy ending. The ending is so moving that it makes me cry every time I see it and the Von Trapp family walking along the hilltop in beautiful bright sunshine into freedom and happiness.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Some people may sneer at this 1965 musical, but the truth is the film has earned its status as a perennially watchable romantic-drama, largely on the strength of a fun story and chemistry between stars Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. Veteran filmmaker Robert Wise (The Day the Earth Stood Still) mostly stays out of the way of the film's appealing elements, which include a based-on-fact tale of Austria's von Trapp family, who fled their Nazi-occupied country in 1938. Andrews is delightful and even fascinating as Maria, who sheds her tomboyish ways as a novice nun to accept the mantle of adulthood, becoming matron of the motherless von Trapp clan. Plummer is matinee-idol handsome and gives a smart performance to boot, and the cast of young people and kids who make up the singing von Trapp children make a strong impression. Based on the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical, the score includes such winners as "Maria" and the future John Coltrane hit "My Favorite Things." --Tom Keogh
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