Back to the Sound of Music

What a movie! The Sound of Music is one of the things that's easy to make fun of from afar but sit down and watch it and see a perfect movie. I've just finished it again, all 3 hours of it and I'm blown away by how perfect it is. My memory of the film is that it's sweet and cute and all that but watching it tonight I was struck by how serious it is. It's a movie filled with pain and longing and confusion and sadness. It's actually a very tense film. I'm rewatching it right now, listening to the audio commentary and the wedding scene is playing and even that scene is filled with tension. It's not a bouyant sappy wedding ceremony but a serious event about two people beginning new lives. The Sound of Music is a completely serious film about people and nations in crisis. It's a film about fear.

Maria fears leaving the abbey.
The children fear their father.
The Captain fears his heart.
The Baroness fears Maria.
Liesl fears losing Rolf.
Everyone fears Germany.

It just goes on and on.

The scene after the wedding is followed with a chilling juxtaposition of shots of marching Nazis. I love this movie, more than ever. I did some Googling to see what happened to the kids in the film and I found this cool page hosted by Angela Cartwright, the actress who played Brigitta. She has a web page explaining what all the kids have done and are doing with their lives. She has a blog, too. Who doesn't these days?

Click here to check it out:

http://www.angela-cartwright.com/soundof.htm

I've always felt a connection to this film because my mother loved it and we would all watch it together as a family. My childhood memories of the movie focus on the wholesomeness but seeing it today as an adult I'm struck by how much better it is than I ever understood. I never thought about things like lighting as a child but this movie is so beautifully lit. I also never understood how Maria and the Captains conflict in the early part of the film perfectly mirror the conflict the Captain has with the military at the end of the film.

In the first half of the film Maria fights with the Captain to get the kids out of uniforms and stop running the house like the military and by the end of the film the Captain is fighting to keep himself out of uniform and out of the military. It's an interesting reversal.

Anyway, I know this isn't news but The Sound of Music is a truly stunning film. I'm in awe.