In honour of the 50th Anniversary of the Sound of Music and the enormous tribute paid to it on Oscar Night, I would like to add my two cents worth.
I understand that the Sound is a revered motion picture, but let me state categorically it should not have won BEST OSCAR of 1965. That honour should have gone to DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, but in the 60's the Academy was obviously still at its idiotic best in always choosing musicals over other great works. The most blatant example of this occurred in the 50's when AN AMERICAN IN PARIS won over A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, a perfect motion picture or A PLACE IN THE SUN! I literally hate An American in Paris and have only seen bits of it so does it irritate me. This was total hogwash. Had I been around I would have caused a riot in single handed fashion.
As for THE SOUND, yes, it is a pleasant picture, but does it deserve the obvious immortality it has received? I think not. R & H's music is pleasant enough though not their greatest score. I think that belongs to one of their musical's no one knows, namely ALLEGRO, a flop, way ahead of it's time when produced in the 50's. Back to MUSIC! The performances are fine but just a bit too "goody" for something anywhere realistic. If The Sound of Music is sweeping in its grandeur, well, what can one possibly say of DOCTOR ZHIVAGO. Robert Wise did a good job in directing The Sound, but no way should he have won over the perfection of David Lean's DOCTOR That was criminal... Today, musicals are actually looked down upon. Had one to vote today over the saccharine laced SOUND of MUSIC, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO would win by a country mile.
Sorry... fans of MUSIC! Cute film but no big score from me!
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