Best Picture Winner: 1965

The Sound of Music (1965)

Inspired by the true story of the von Trapp Family Singers, The Sound of Music is one of the high points of the musical genre. With a mesmerizing Julie Andrews in the lead and one memorable song after another, The Sound of Music is a celebration of the power of song.

At an abbey located in Austria in the late 1930s, Maria (Julie Andrews), in preparation for taking her final vows, is having difficulty living the life of a cloistered nun. Sensing Maria’s struggle the Mother Abbess (Peggy Wood) sends Maria to work for widower Captain von Trapp (Christopher Plumber) as governess to his seven children. Horrified to see the children being ordered about as if they were navy personnel, Maria decides to educate the young ones in the ways of song and play. But while warmth is filtering through the von Trapp household, and the Captain’s heart, the threat of Nazi occupation looms over Austria, something of which the Captain wants no part.

Director Robert Wise wastes no time getting to the musical numbers in The Sound of Music. The opening shots glide silently through the Swiss Alps. Suddenly, in a sweeping camera pan we encounter Julie Andrews twirling about singing the title song. Not long after we are treated to several nuns crooning about the strengths and weaknesses of “Maria.” Later, as a thunderstorm brews outside, the children gather in Maria’s room and she eases their fears by sharing “My Favorite Things.” To aid in her charges’ musical education Maria teaches them "Do-Re-Mi." Other highlights include "Sixteen Going On Seventeen," "The Lonely Goatherd," "So Long, Farewell," and "Climb Ev'ry Mountain." The Sound of Music is practically a greatest hits album of movie musicals.

Julie Andrews, who the previous year had won Best Actress for Mary Poppins (1964), shines as Maria. Maria is a thoroughly charming character, and Andrews is perfectly matched with the role. Generally sweet natured and eager to please, Maria nevertheless will stand up for her beliefs if need be, such as when she challenges the Captain on his child rearing. As Andrews does her own singing, we’re never taken out of the story when the film segues to another of its first rate musical set pieces. While the rest of the cast is fine (Richard Haydn is a hoot as Max Detweiler, the agent who sets the von Trapps to sing at a music festival) it's Andrews’ joyful turn as Maria that gives The Sound of Music its emotional resonance.

One of the refreshing elements of The Sound of Music is its treatment of the nunnery and the Mother Abbess. Eschewing the stereotype of the hardened, humorless Mother Superior for an observant, thoughtful one who knows God’s will can be served in various ways, The Sound of Music avoids what may have been a predictable glimpse in the abbey. Such an approach leads to a humorous punch line involving certain nuns who “sin.”

While The Sound of Music involves the audience in several plot complications – the threat to the Captain by the Nazis, Maria’s competition with a baroness for the Captain's heart, the eldest child’s romance with a boy who joins the Third Reich – the film emerges as the ultimate feel-good movie as the von Trapp family truly bring the sound of music to the hills in the film’s closing shot. Only a sour puss could fail to be enchanted by The Sound of Music.