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IMDbPro

The Sound of Music

  • 1965
  • G
  • 2h 52m
IMDb RATING
8.1/10
245K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
936
324
The Sound of Music (1965)
Trailer for The Sound Of Music: 50th Anniversary
Play trailer0:56
11 Videos
99+ Photos
BiographyDramaFamily

A young novice is sent by her convent in 1930s Austria to become a governess to the seven children of a widowed naval officer.A young novice is sent by her convent in 1930s Austria to become a governess to the seven children of a widowed naval officer.A young novice is sent by her convent in 1930s Austria to become a governess to the seven children of a widowed naval officer.

  • Director
    • Robert Wise
  • Writers
    • Georg Hurdalek
    • Howard Lindsay
    • Russel Crouse
  • Stars
    • Julie Andrews
    • Christopher Plummer
    • Eleanor Parker
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    8.1/10
    245K
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    936
    324
    • Director
      • Robert Wise
    • Writers
      • Georg Hurdalek
      • Howard Lindsay
      • Russel Crouse
    • Stars
      • Julie Andrews
      • Christopher Plummer
      • Eleanor Parker
    • 546User reviews
    • 137Critic reviews
    • 63Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
  • Top rated movie #242
    • Won 5 Oscars
      • 17 wins & 13 nominations total

    Videos11

    The Sound of Music: 50th Anniversary Ultimate Collectors Edition
    Trailer 0:56
    Watch The Sound of Music: 50th Anniversary Ultimate Collectors Edition
    The Sound of Music
    Trailer 1:12
    Watch The Sound of Music
    The Sound of Music
    Trailer 1:56
    Watch The Sound of Music
    Oklahoma!
    Trailer 1:12
    Watch Oklahoma!
    'Sound of Music' Anniversary Sing-A-Long
    Clip 0:22
    Watch 'Sound of Music' Anniversary Sing-A-Long
    The Sound of Music: 50th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition
    Clip 1:22
    Watch The Sound of Music: 50th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition
    The Sound of Music: 50th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition
    Clip 1:16
    Watch The Sound of Music: 50th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition
    The Sound Of Music: Do Re Mi
    Clip 1:15
    Watch The Sound Of Music: Do Re Mi
    The Sound Of Music: 16 Going On 17
    Clip 1:04
    Watch The Sound Of Music: 16 Going On 17
    The Sound Of Music: Edelweiss
    Clip 1:07
    Watch The Sound Of Music: Edelweiss
    The Sound Of Music: Favorite Things
    Clip 1:17
    Watch The Sound Of Music: Favorite Things

    Photos268

    Julie Andrews, Charmian Carr, Angela Cartwright, Duane Chase, Kym Karath, Heather Menzies-Urich, and Debbie Turner in The Sound of Music (1965)
    Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music (1965)
    Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, and Eleanor Parker in The Sound of Music (1965)
    Christopher Plummer, Charmian Carr, Angela Cartwright, Duane Chase, Nicholas Hammond, Kym Karath, Heather Menzies-Urich, and Debbie Turner in The Sound of Music (1965)
    Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music (1965)
    Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer in The Sound of Music (1965)
    Charmian Carr, Angela Cartwright, Duane Chase, Nicholas Hammond, Kym Karath, Heather Menzies-Urich, and Debbie Turner in The Sound of Music (1965)
    Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Charmian Carr, Angela Cartwright, Duane Chase, Nicholas Hammond, Kym Karath, Heather Menzies-Urich, and Debbie Turner in The Sound of Music (1965)
    Julie Andrews, Angela Cartwright, Kym Karath, Heather Menzies-Urich, and Debbie Turner in The Sound of Music (1965)
    Brigitta, Maria, Capt. von Trapp and Liesl
    Maria and kids
    A few of our favorite things

    Top cast

    Edit
    Julie Andrews
    Julie Andrews
    • Maria
    Christopher Plummer
    Christopher Plummer
    • Captain Georg von Trapp
    Eleanor Parker
    Eleanor Parker
    • The Baroness
    Richard Haydn
    Richard Haydn
    • Max Detweiler
    Peggy Wood
    Peggy Wood
    • Mother Abbess
    Charmian Carr
    Charmian Carr
    • Liesl von Trapp
    Heather Menzies-Urich
    Heather Menzies-Urich
    • Louisa von Trapp
    • (as Heather Menzies)
    Nicholas Hammond
    Nicholas Hammond
    • Friedrich von Trapp
    Duane Chase
    Duane Chase
    • Kurt von Trapp
    Angela Cartwright
    Angela Cartwright
    • Brigitta von Trapp
    Debbie Turner
    Debbie Turner
    • Marta von Trapp
    Kym Karath
    Kym Karath
    • Gretl von Trapp
    Anna Lee
    Anna Lee
    • Sister Margaretta
    Portia Nelson
    Portia Nelson
    • Sister Berthe
    Ben Wright
    Ben Wright
    • Herr Zeller
    Daniel Truhitte
    Daniel Truhitte
    • Rolfe
    Norma Varden
    Norma Varden
    • Frau Schmidt
    Gilchrist Stuart
    • Franz
    • (as Gil Stuart)
    • Director
      • Robert Wise
    • Writers
      • Georg Hurdalek
      • Howard Lindsay
      • Russel Crouse
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Charmian Carr, who played Liesl, and was twenty-two at the time, wrote in her autobiography that she was attracted to the 35-year-old Christopher Plummer, who played her father. Plummer admitted that the feeling was mutual, but insists that it didn't get beyond mere flirtation.
    • Goofs
      The Mother Abbess tells Maria that Captain Von Trapp's wife died "several years ago". A distressing number of people have heard this as "seven years ago" and wonder how she can have given birth to the five-year-old Gretl.
    • Quotes

      Maria: When the Lord closes a door, somewhere He opens a window.

    • Crazy credits
      The 20th Century Fox logo is played in complete silence.
    • Alternate versions
      The 1996 video fits the movie onto one VHS cassette by removing the Intermission screen as well as the Entr'acte.
    • Connections
      Featured in Film Review: Julie Andrews (1967)
    • Soundtracks
      Prelude
      (1959) (uncredited)

      Music by Richard Rodgers

      Played during the opening aerial shots

    User reviews546

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    9/10
    Sometimes saccharine can be a good substitute.
    1965's "The Sound of Music" is everything a bad musical should be. Providing more sap than a forest full of Vermont maples, it has coy, silly songs, an inane, innocuous script, and unbelievably sugary characters. So why is it one of my favorite musicals? OK, go ahead. Shoot me at twenty paces. But after all this time, it still remains a guilty pleasure. I find myself going for a tub of rocky road ice cream and Rodgers & Hammerstein's immortal classic whenever the real world gets to be too much. I seem to play it a lot around tax time.

    And I'm not alone. Why is it still considered the most popular musical of all time? Well, first of all they spared no expense. The extremely well-produced blockbuster has gorgeous, eye-popping scenery. From the first moment Julie Andrews flails her arms and circles around on that beautiful sunny hillside singing the rousing title song, I know I'm being swept away to another world. I'm not in Kansas anymore...or L.A., anyway. The panoramic Salzburg background complements and never intimidates or takes away from the characters or their story (like the other R & H extravaganza "South Pacific.") That in itself is an incredible feat.

    Now about those songs. Almost every one of them is absolute drivel. So what makes them work? Easy. The utter joy and sincerity of the cast who sings the infectious, hummable tunes, which are backed by extremely moving orchestrations and an exceptionally beautiful score. It's hard to resist Maria prancing about, pillow-fighting with a bunch of knee-highs and gushing about her most favorite things. Or the austere Captain Von Trapp (the meticulous Christopher Plummer) turning to butter after hearing his brood sing in perfect harmony for the first time (with no prior lessons even) and joining right in. Or the Mother Superior's soaring number that unknowingly forewarns Maria to head for the hills (I mean, mountains) before the Nazis escort them elsewhere. Or the 16-year-old going on 17 squealing with delight after receiving her first kiss. Or the kids working up a clever little ditty to leave their formal party guests when its time for bed. Or two people declaring their love in a moonlit gazebo. The songs work because they come straight from and aim for the heart, not the head, which is exactly the place the viewer should be coming from when watching this movie. If the songs don't transcend the script (which they didn't prior to the 70s), they certainly transcend the mood.

    The script is undeniably trite and probably the film's weakest link. But again, the characters play it straight all the way. Not one actor looks embarrassed. Every scene is done with total enthusiasm and total commitment, and the performers who are telling the story are pitch-perfect and picture perfect.

    And as for the characters. Try and think of anybody better than jubilant, crop-haired Julie Andrews as a postulant nun who has gorgeous pipes, can make play clothes out of curtains, can set up and operate marionette shows at the drop of a hat, and is confident enough to convince a man that a failed nun is ideal marriage material. I certainly can't. Thank heavens for her Oscar-winning "Mary Poppins" the year before or we might have gotten Julie LONDON instead! After all, Andrews did lose out on "My Fair Lady" the year before. But now certifiably bankable, she proved she could handle this dream role. Andrews is cutely silly, cutely stubborn, cutely astute, cutely shattered and cutely...well, cute. She gives the most wholesomely appealing musical perf since Judy Garland in "The Wizard of Oz." To actually make you forget Mary Martin in the Broadway role takes some doing and she does it effortlessly. Christopher Plummer is all seriousness, handsomely patrician, and quite a catch for anybody...much less a nun. I can't think of anyone more suitable for this role either. As for the Seven Little Foys, I mean the Von Trapp children, they are adorable and perfect in their own ways too, whether they are marching or singing, creating their own individual personalities by film's end.

    Richard Haydn as Max and Eleanor Parker as the flamboyant, haughty Baroness provide wonderful catty relief. Despite having their musical numbers snatched away from them, they make up for it with droll, sophisticated humor. The elegant, perfectly coiffed Parker is particularly delicious as Maria's chief romantic rival, getting some of the film's best zingers and delivering them with biting understatement. Parker developed a devout cult following after this role. Peggy Wood's Mother Superior is suitably reverent and inspiring.

    For those who tear "The Sound of Music" apart for its shameless, sugar-coated manipulations, well, I can respect that. But to attack it for its political and historical inaccuracies is like attacking "Peter Pan" for being a subversive plot that encourages young children to run away from home. It's ludicrous. Despite the fact that it's based on a true story, we're not watching "The Sound of Music" for stark realism. Like a sparkling and lavish Ernst Lubitsch operetta, we want a feel-good movie, with feel-good songs, with a feel-good story, and a feel-good ending. Nothing more. If you want a movie that presents a potent depiction of pre-war Austria or anti-Nazi sentiment, rent "Holocaust" or "Schindler's List." Here, we want to believe that a group of nuns can tear out an automobile carburetor and save the world! Period.

    I suppose the reality-based MTV generation cannot truly respect or relate to the relative innocence and pure escapism like "The Sound of Music." If this movie was made today I'm afraid the Von Trapp children would not be dangling out of trees for fear of drive-by shooters. It's a tough new world today, sad to say. The 50s and 60s are looking better all the time.

    Anyway, for what it's worth, "The Sound of Music" is indeed schmaltz, but its QUALITY schmaltz at its very, very best.
    helpful•146
    53
    • gbrumburgh
    • Mar 31, 2001

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    FAQ2

    • Mary Martin originated the role on Broadway; was she considered for the movie?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • April 1, 1965 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Official sites
      • Facebook
      • Official Site
    • Languages
      • English
      • German
    • Also known as
      • Rodgers and Hammerstein's the Sound of Music
    • Filming locations
      • Felsenreitschule, Salzburg, Austria(music festival scenes)
    • Production companies
      • Robert Wise Productions
      • Argyle Enterprises
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $8,200,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $159,287,539
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $413,497
      • Sep 9, 2018
    • Gross worldwide
      • $159,437,744
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours 52 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.20 : 1

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