The Sound Of Music (film)

What can I say about this classic that hasn’t been said already?

I mean everybody loves The Sound Of Music don't they. Even if you've never seen it in your life, you already know what it's about, who it stars, and even half the songs. I mean what else does that leave to say, huh? HUH?

Well, er, criticism I guess.

Even so, the best that I can manage is that it's very slow at the beginning, rather long throughout, and suffers from a large amount of echoing outdoors (=dubbing), but really what does that matter?

Even the story - of a nice catholic girl falling in love with a guy who she has such a major personality clash with - is hardly anything to act surprised about in a movie.

All the same, although I know that I did enjoy this in retrospect, the guilty truth is that I spent the first two hours sitting there uncomfortably checking the clock. Even at the start, it already seemed so long that I actually wanted it to say farewell.

At one stage, just after Maria and Georg had wed, it really looked as though it was all going to finally end, but - d'oh - then there was another half-an-hour. However since this wound up focusing more on gun-toting Nazis, here I have to admit that I started to take a much greater interest. (I was rooting for the von Trapp family to escape, what did you think I meant?)

In fact, having just read the Marvel Comic The Life Of Pope John Paul II #1 immediately beforehand, my whole morning was now quickly becoming about catholics vs. Nazis. They were certainly no idle Reich.

In summary, The Sound Of Music looks and sounds great all the way through, but with so little story I'm sorry to confess that it did make me feel quite restless.

So how do you solve a problem like inertia? Well, now that I have a better idea of what to expect, I have confidence that repeated viewings would probably make it all feel pleasantly familiar. Not quite one of my favourite things, but at least something good.

Yes, that sounds like music.

Available here.