Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #338 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-11-13
• Rating: Universal, suitable for all
• Aspect ratio: 2.20:1
• Formats: Box set, PAL, Special Edition, Widescreen, Digital Sound
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 165 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The most widely seen movie produced by a Hollywood studio, The Sound of Music grows fresher with each viewing. Though it was planned meticulously in pre-production (save for the scene where Maria and the children take a dipping in an Austrian lake that nearly cost a life), on each viewing one is struck anew by the spontaneous almost improvisatory air of the acting, notably of Julie Andrews under Robert Wise's direction. There are also the little human touches he brings to, for instance, the scene where Maria leads the children to the hills, over bridges and along tow paths where the smallest boy trips up and momentarily gets left behind: it creates a feeling that most of us have encountered. From the opening pre-credit sequence of muted excitement as the camera roves over the Austrian Alps (photographed in magnificent colour), where little phrases from the wind instruments on the soundtrack are flung as if on the breeze, foreshadowing the title song to follow, the production never puts a foot wrong.

Synopsis
Shot in Salzburg against the majestic Bavarian Alps, THE SOUND OF MUSIC is considered one of the greatest screen musicals ever made. The film, based on a real family and their true events, tells the story of a young postulate, Maria (Julie Andrews), who, after proving too high-spirited for the Mother Abess and other nuns, is sent off to work as a governess to seven unruly children. The Von Trapp family is run, in military style, by the seemingly cold-hearted Captain Von Trapp (Christopher Plummer), a lonely widowed naval officer. Seeing how badly he and his children need companionship, he proposes to the Baroness Schraeder (Eleanor Parker), a calculating, mutual friend of beloved family friend Max Detweiler (Richard Haydn). It is the baroness who soon realises that it's Maria - with her warmth and love for the children - the captain really loves. It is nearly bliss for the newly formed family who loves to sing together - except for the cloud looming over their beloved Austrian horizon: Hitler is ascending to power, forcing Von Trapp to decide whether to join the Nazi party - which he loathes - or force his family to leave their home forever. One of the most memorable scores ever written (by Rodgers and Hammerstein) and breathtaking performances by Andrews, Plummer, and the seven children mark this classic as one of the world's most favourite films.

Customer Reviews

A timeless classic - digitally remastered!
The Sound of Music needs no introduction but this 40th anniversary DVD might do. If you are like me and you probably own quite a few DVDs and videos of the Sound of Music, the obvious question will be `why should I buy this new version?' Well this new version has been digitally remastered for starters and has 2 discs packed with special features. The 1st disc is introduced by Julie Andrews and contains the movie which can be viewed with or without sing-along subtitles, then it has as special features which include feature commentary by the director Robert Wise, feature commentary by Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Charmian Carr, Dee Dee Wood and Johannes von Trapp and songs only chapter list i.e if you want to listen to any of the songs you can just click on that song from the chapter list and voila it plays without having to forward or rewind the movie to find the song. The second disc is even more awesome. Once again introduced by Julie Andrews, introducing all the special features which includes: My favourite things -Julie Andrews remembers in which she recalls her fond memories of the making of the sound of music; there is the 40TH anniversary reunion of the 7 Von Trapp children from the movie( from Liesl to Gretel), they discuss their favourite memories and what they are all doing now; there is the moving and beautiful reminiscence by Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, also included in the special features is a 50 minute biography of the real Von Trapp family, a featurette of Charmian Carr returning to Salzburg for the 40th anniversary, a documentary on the making of the sound of music with Julie Andrews and lots more.
Last but not the least a booklet of all the songs and the lyrics for the sing-along are included in the DVD. This is a great DVD to own for all lovers and fans of the Sound of Music.

A restored version & mondo extras of the best movie musical
As far as I am concerned there are two reasons to pick up "The Sound of Music (40th Anniversary Edition)" DVD is you already have the movie on DVD. First, the movie has been digitally restored and if you look at the examples of the restoration on Disc 2 where they the right half of the frame has been cleaned up you can see that they really got the red out (seriously; the old version does not look so much washed out as it does rather reddish to me). Consequently, the movie looks a lot better. The change is not as thrilling as when I got to first see it in the letterbox format at home on the laser disc version and realized that on pan and scan we were missing literally half the picture (my kids still remember the shot where they could finally see the massive fountain on the left half of the scren), but if you really love this movie then you want a copy of the new print because the difference is so noticeable.

Second, if the first reason is not strong enough, they have loaded up on extras for this DVD. You have a commentary track by the late director Robert Wise and another with Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Charmian Carr, choreographer Dee Dee Wood, and Johannes Von Trapp (the 10th and last of the Von Trapp kinder). If you think listening to songs on the DVD is better than listening on the CD (I often find that to be the case), then you can play only the songs or play the songs with sing-a-long subtitles in three languages. I especially liked the retrospective documentary "A Few of My Favorite Things" because it talks about the way the Broadway musical was turned into a Hollywood film by shifting songs and setting them up differently (see below). The reminiscence by Andrews and Plummer is worthwhile as well and the "Biography" episode "The Von Trapp Family: Harmony and Discord" will certainly open your eyes to the "true" story behind it all.

Watching the film again and learning about how the film was created from all of the DVD extras got me thinking about why this is the most popular movie musical of all time. The first thing that works is that Robert Wise frontloads this movie big time. We begin with the wonderful descent of the camera from the clouds until it finds Maria on top of the mountain, where she bursts into the title song and makes it clear that the beautiful vistas of Austria are integral to this film (it did for Salzburg, Austria what "The Lord of the Rings" did for New Zealand). After the overture during the title credits we have the "Preludium (Dixit Dominus)," during which Wise presents us with some stunningly beautiful shots of nuns at prayer, establishing weight to the religious elements of the film. Then when we get to "Maria" the Mother Superior and the rest of the nuns strike absolutely the right tone for singing a cute song while dressed in habits. There is not a moment in this film where Peggy Wood's Mother Superior does not seem like an absolutely real person. By the time Maria runs past them and does the big double take at having been caught, the film's first big joke, Wise has already established an extremely serious tone for a movie musical.

What impresses me about this film is that if you take out the songs I think it still works as a drama and the only reason Julie Andrews did not win an Oscar for the best thing she ever did on film was that she had won the year before for playing the title role in the Dick Van Dyke film "Mary Poppins" (you have to be Katharine Hepburn not to overcome this sort of liability). The only musical number that is in danger of going too far is the new "I Have Confidence," but that is because Andrews plays it as bluster on Maria's part (e.g., the stumble on the last run). Once we get past the opening of the movie where Wise so beautifully sets the stage for the film, the person who deserves a lot of the credit is screenwriter Ernest Lehman. Pay attention to how he sets up the songs so that the seque from dialogue to singing is more naturalistic ("My Favorite Things" is a prime example of this in the film). Lehman's script also turned the Captain into a more of a fully developed human being than the martinet of the Broadway version.

Of course, if you have seen the show performed on stage you know that some of the songs have been put in different contexts. For example, "My Favorite Things" was originally sung by Maria and the Mother Superior on stage and now becomes the song Maria sings with the kids to establish a report with them instead of "Do Re Mi." That, of course, becomes the show piece of the film as Maria and the children tour Salzburg and the countryside singing, which gets us back to the wonderful scenery that Wise highlights from the opening moment of the film. There are few Broadway musicals that have been transformed rather than ending up being merely translated when they are brought to the screen. Some take advantage of more locations (e.g., "Camelot," "Evita"), but all things considered no musical has been upgraded on the big screen as much as "The Sound of Music," which is why it remains on the top of the mountain forty years down the road.

The hills ARE alive
I grew up with this film, so it was inevitable that I would buy it on DVD, and it doesn't dissapoint. The picture quality is superb, the sound even better, and you can always make your own kareoke version by putting the subtitles on!

I never knew that there was an intermission in the film - with all the advert breaks on the tv version I suppose you wouldn't have to, but the DVD includes this, and extended scenes of the Austrian scenery, making you believe that you are truly there, with the VonTrap family as they fight off repression from the Nazi's.

If like me you watched this film as a child, I suggest you get the DVD, not only will it bring back memories of singing in front of the tele regardless of who was there, but it will also recreate the magic that is somewhat lacking from films today. A classic of all time.