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Mark Bubien reviews
Five Star Collection
20th Century Fox
- Cert: G
- Cat.no: 2000037
- Running time: 175 minutes
- Year: 1967
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 1, NTSC
- Chapters: 61 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 4.1, Dolby Surround
- Languages: English, French
- Subtitles: English for the hearing impaired, Spanish
- Widescreen: 2.20:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: 2 * DVD 9
- Price: $29.98 (US), $37.98 (Canada)
- Extras : Scene Index, Commentary with Director Robert Wise and Isolated Score, “Salzburg Sight and Sound” Featurette, “Sound of Music from Fact to Phenonemnom” Documentary, Audio Supplement with Screen Writer Ernest Lehman, Interviews with Julie Andrews and Robert Wise.
Director:
- Robert Wise
Cast:
- Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Rochard Haydn, Peggy Wood, Eleanor Parker
I have a friend, one of my movie-going compatriots, who recently told me that he considers The Sound of Music the best movie ever made. Now, I honestly don’t know how Sound of Music fares on the AFI Top 100, but when he said this I hardly batted an eyelash. Sure, maybe it’s not actually on top, but it certainly must be in the running!
Beside the plain and simple fact that it’s a Classic (capital ‘C’), The Sound of Music really has a lot of elements that make it one of the great movies of all times.
Start with the infectious singing voices of Julie Andrews and cast, add in the musical genius of Rogers and Hammerstein at their finest, mix in romance, humor, drama, and suspense – and make it believable! – and you simply cannot lose. Of course, it being a true story helps too. And then there’s the cinematography, with dazzling shots in and around Salzburg, framed beautifully for widescreen (something modern movies can, but seem unwilling to accomplish these days). Oh yes and did I mention great acting across the board? And.. and…
Oh, you see? I could go on forever. The Sound of Music is just a wonderful movie all around. A Classic amongst Classics. And better yet, Fox has chosen to give this masterpiece the royal treatment it deserves on DVD!
Never before have I been struck by such cinematography. The widescreen presentation lends so much to the dazzling vistas of the Salzburg countryside. And this is on TV! Equally dazzling are the colors. One brief moment makes the point perfectly. During the “My Favorite Things” Salzburg Montage, Maria and children end up in a market. Purple flowers, red tomatoes, and green attire, all had me fishing my pocket for spare change.
The sound mix too, arguably the most important aspect of this film, lives up to the musical grandeur that historic Austria is so famous for. I may not have a clue what they mean by “4.1 Surround” (my three front speakers and two rears all worked fine!), but I do know that I can’t stop tapping my toes or resist the urge to sing along with my favorite “The Lonely Goatherd” (okay, I admit I still lose it on the yodels).
Put simply, the whole Sound of Music experience was a complete joy!
And it doesn’t end with the film, either. There’s a second disc full of supplemental material, all adding to the splendor that is The Sound of Music.
I must admit to a bit of trepidation every time I hear the word “featurette,” but when it came to “Salzburg Sight and Sound,” I had no reason. While I’m sure it served primarily as a marketing vehicle for the movie, it’s still captivating. It follows Charmain Carr‘s experiences around Salzburg when not performing her duties as eldest Von Trapp, Liesel. I think it’s the authentic innocence of Carr, and the mixture of brief behind-the-scenes vignettes that make this featurette so appealing.
But don’t stop there, because a full-fledged documentary awaits you on this supplements disc, almost 90 minutes worth! Anything you wanted to know about the movie must surely be revealed here. From disclosing that sweet sixteen-going-on-seventeen Carr was really twenty one, to discussion of celebrated voice-double Marni Nixon‘s appearance as a nun in the film.
Better yet, you are hearing it from the very people that experienced it. Yes, that was Carr and Nixon themselves that let you in on these titbits. You’ll also hear Andrews and Christopher Plummer reminisce about the ups and downs inside the set (popping lights) and outside Salzburg (rain, rain, rain!), while Screenwriter Lehman and Director Wise give the ins and outs of getting the movie to the theater.
All this, and that’s still not the best part! The documentary actually tells the real story of the Von Trapp family. It’s a bit different than the film, but certainly no less courageous or inspiring. I won’t ruin it by giving away the details, but while watching the documentary, I was constantly reminded of an old saying: “God is on his thrown and all is right with the world.” If anything ever bears witness to this fact, it’s the lives of the real Von Trapps.
One drawback I want to note is that the Documentary froze up three times on me. A friend of mine – same friend as before! – actually called me to ask about these very freeze-ups on his DVD player. So I know it wasn’t only my disc. If your player stalls, the solution is to simply scan back a few seconds, push play again, and everything should run through just fine.
There are actually several other features, including interviews, isolated score and commentary track, but I don’t have time to go into these. Suffice it to say that they are like extra EXTRA features – you’ve gotten way more than your money’s worth long before hitting them!
While I do have to forego a top-10 list this time around, I want to wholeheartedly recommend this DVD. It’s certainly risen to become the crown jewel in my collection. And why is that? Well, I think Julie Andrews says it best: “These Rogers and Hammerstein’s Musicals are the Classics, the popular classics of their day, and they stand as important as any opera or any great play.”
And if DVDs themselves will ever be given such distinctions, certainly The Sound of Music – Five Star Collection will garner equal praise.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL Check out Mark’s homepage: www.storybytes.com.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.