WISHING YOU ALL A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HOPE THE NEW YEAR BRINGS YOU LOTS OF JOY AND GOOD FORTUN...
WISHING YOU ALL A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HOPE THE NEW YEAR BRINGS YOU LOTS OF JOY AND GOOD FORTUNE X X
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As my film education from my hubby is continuing last night I had the pleasure of watching for the first time ever The Sound of Music.
The film is about a Nun called Maria who is always getting into trouble at the convent so she is given a job to go and do to see if she really does want to become a Nun or go out into the real world. Maria is given to job of becoming a Nanny to the Von Trapp family.
Maria arrives at the Von Trapp house to find 7 children and their father who runs the house like he is Captain on one of his ships and the children all answer to a whistle call and have their days structured and they run like clockwork. Since the death of the Captain’s wife there has been no music or fun in the house but Maria is determined to change this.
The children finally accept Maria and start to warm to her. The Captain is away in Vienna again spending time with his new lady friend so the children and Maria are free to spend their time as they wish and
Maria teaches them all how to sing. The Captain returns to find his children are happier than when he left and they are all introduced to his new love. The children sing to her and the Captain soon realises how much he has missed out on with his children as a result of being too strict. Of course Maria did have words with him and spoke her mind to help him see this!
Maria feels that her job is to find the children a new mother and is delighted with the arrival of the Captain’s new love but things start to go wrong when she finds she has feelings for the Captain herself and when the Captain’s love warns her off she runs back to the convent.
The Captain and the children are devastated about her leaving but will they be able to get her to go back? What will become of the Maria’s feelings for the Captain and will she find them a new mother?
Some of you may be shocked to find that in all my 28 years I have never seen this film but I have to say that now I have it was very good and enjoyable. The storyline was a bit predictable but I still really enjoyed it and was not expecting it to end how it did. I was expecting it to finish a least 30 minutes before it did. I found it was nice that they carry on the story after what should have been the ending.
Julie Andrews played the role of Maria and I think that she did a wonderful job and she worked very well with all of the children and they all seemed to have a wonderful chemistry together. Christopher Plummer played the role of Captain Von Trapp and he too did a wonderful job. I thought that all of the child actors and actresses did justice to their characters and all managed to bring them alive on the screen. All of the other characters and actors all worked well together and managed to give a little more depth to the film and story.
The film was set in Austria in the last 1930’s and I found that all of the settings and scenery were wonderfully done and all looked very authentic. There were a few very bad back drops and some effects which left a lot to be desired but I can forgive this as the film was made a very long time ago. I did really enjoy some of the views which we were treated to when Maria was in the mountains and thought they were wonderful.
The film is classed as a musical and I have to say that I did not find the song irritating or annoying at all and did enjoy all of them. I found that despite not seeing this film before I did in fact know the majority of the songs. I found them to all be very catchy and easy to follow and try to sing along to. The vocals on all of the songs were wonderful and I have to say that Julie Andrews does have a wonderful voice. The dance routines which accompanied some of the songs were not too my liking but they all did fit in very well with the story.
The DVD which we have is a special one which has an optional sing along feature which means that the song words do come up on the screen so you can sing along but hubby would not let me have this on. There are also some special features on the DVD which include:-
Sing Along Subtitles and Lyric Booklet Commentaries by Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer and Director Robert Wise
I have not watched any of the commentaries but the DVD did start with an introduction by Julie Andrews which I found to be quite pleasant and enjoyed hearing her talking about this film which she still holds so close to her heart.
The running time of the film is 167 minutes which I did find to be quite long and as I said before I think they could easily have ended the film a good 30 minutes before they did without the film loosing anything. The certificate on this film is a Universal which means that it is suitable for all ages and I do agree with this.
This DVD is available for just a few pounds on Amazon and I do recommend it to all as it is a wonderful film which all the family can sit and watch together as long as your are prepared for the 167 minutes!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Music / Performing Arts, Comedy - Director: Trevor Nunn, Geoffrey Posner - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, Parental Guidance - Starring: Duncan Preston, Celia Imrie, Julie Walters, Victoria Wood, Jim Broadbent
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