The Sound of Music (1965)At some point in the late '90s I realized that serious cinephiles weren't supposed to love The Sound of Music. The high caloric count, the music, little children in curtain outfits, marionettes, singing nuns. All of these things, I learned, were embarrassing. I was supposed to turn my nose up when confronting those living hills and their thousand year old songs.
What can I say. I rejected this epiphany. In the Sound of Music scenario I'm most decidedly (and eternally) Maria. Other critics can play the stuffy nuns:
Cineastes/Nuns: "How do you solve a problem like
Maria/Nathaniel: "My heart wants to sing every song it hears"
About the music: I love every song. I believe that one of the principal reasons for the general musical's decline in modern times is the presence of song filler. I blame Andrew Lloyd Webber (come to think of it: I blame him for a lot of things). All songs in a musical should be memorable. Not just the main theme that you repeat over and over. There's not a clunker anywhere in this Rodgers & Hammerstein masterwork. Even the comic relief songs are hugely pleasureable. I know all the words to The Lonely Goatheard and sang them at the top of my lungs two nights ago @ Marie's Crisis (I was drunk. Don't judge!)
I love all seven and 1/2 hours of The Sound of Music. I love that Marni Nixon is in it (as opposed to just singing in it as she did for so many movie musicals) I love Julie Andrews. I even love that Aryan beauty Rolf (hey, I was like 4 when I first saw this...which is kind of like being Liesl. The Nazi thing escaped me.) If this post has induced sugar coma, please remember that I usually lurve horribly depressing musicals best. But it's in my nature to go to both extremes.
Your thoughts or requests for next Monday? Maybe I'll choose your pet topic.
