8.3 | / 10 |
Users | 4.9 | |
Reviewer | 5.0 | |
Overall | 4.9 |
A young woman leaves a convent to become governess to the seven children of a Naval officer widower. Filmed in 70mm.
Starring: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Eleanor Parker, Richard Haydn, Peggy WoodFamily | 100% |
Romance | 66% |
Musical | 62% |
Epic | 48% |
History | 29% |
Melodrama | 24% |
Drama | 6% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.20:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.20:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 4.0
French: DTS 5.1
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Three-disc set (2 BDs, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Bonus View (PiP)
BD-Live
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 5.0 | |
Overall | 5.0 |
Hollywood insiders called it “The Sound of Money” when it started raking in loads of box office cash. Leading man Christopher Plummer, thinking it was too sentimental, referred to it as “The Sound of Mucus.” Influential film critic Pauline Kael even deemed it a “sugar-coated lie that some people seem to want to eat.” But let’s set the cynicism aside for a moment. It may be syrupy, and it’s definitely a Hollywood cash cow—even now, 45 years after its release—but has there ever been a film more sincerely joyful, more wide-eyed and earnestly optimistic than The Sound of Music? (If there has, I haven’t seen it.) It’s easy to be wary about unbridled hope, but this movie musical—the eighth and final collaboration between Rodgers and Hammerstein, the greatest composer/lyricist duo of the 20th century—comes by it honestly. There’s no pandering here, no wink-wink irony, no sense of kitsch or camp. The Sound of Music genuinely believes in the possibilities of love, the certainty of good’s triumph over evil, and the redeeming, transcendent power of song. Critics can scoff and cynics cringe, but there’s a reason audiences world-over have been singing along with the film since 1965.
Now this is how you do a restoration of a film from the mid-1960s. The Sound of Music was shot in the widescreen 70mm Todd-AO format, and for this new release, the original negatives were scanned at 8K and downsized to a 4K master that has been given an extensive restoration. Color fluctuations between takes have been corrected and thousands of instances of dirt and debris have been removed, resulting in a 1080p/AVC- encoded transfer that's absolutely pristine. Most importantly, the fine grain structure of the 70mm negative hasn't been tampered with at all and there have been no attempts to artificially sharpen the picture. It simply isn't needed. Like most of the other 70mm films to appear on Blu-ray—2001: A Space Odyssey, Baraka, etc.—The Sound of Music inherently has a tremendous sense of clarity, revealing every detail of the wool and herringbone suits, the ornately gilded interiors of the von Trapp estate, individual blades of grass on a mountaintop meadow, and the fine textures of the actors' faces. Some close-ups do appear softer, but this is only because a diffusion filter was used during filming to give a flattering glow to some of the older performers. Color reproduction is warm and dense as well, with vivid primaries, rich neutrals, perfectly attuned black levels, and skin tones that are natural and consistent. Unlike the artifact-heavy DVD, there are no real compression issues to speak of here. I did spot—briefly—some moiré-like shimmer on the fine lines of Maria's apron at the very beginning of the film, but it's hardly a distraction. I can't imagine The Sound of Music looking any better than it does here, and I have no problems giving it a full 5/5 for picture quality.
Unusual for the mid-1960s, The Sound of Music featured six-track stereo, allowing seamless pans and sweeps and plenty of room for the orchestral score to breath. For the first time, the film's restorers had access to the original six-track print master, which they've digitally restored and expanded into a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround mix. The results—without gushing too much—are flawless. I mean, you'd expect nothing less from a film called The Sound of Music, right? Well, rest assured, the music sounds fantastic—rich, dynamically expressive, and wonderfully clean. The score fills every channel during the musical numbers, and the spacious mix generates a great sense of interplay between the individual instruments. And the singing! As crisp as the alpine air. The same goes for the non-sung dialogue, which is perfectly balanced. Fans couldn't ask for more. Like the restoration of the print, it's clear that a lot of time and effort went into optimizing the audio for this release. (If you're interested, make sure to check out the Restoring a Classic: A Glorious Sound featurette for details on how the audio cleanup was accomplished.)
Disc One
Your Favorite Things - An Interactive Celebration
Like most of Fox's tent pole Blu-ray productions, The Sound of Music comes with an all-new interactive bonus features interface that can be
accessed while watching the film. When you select "Your Favorite Things" from the extras tab, a brief video tutorial plays and you're taken to a menu
where you can customize the experience. There are four options here, and you can select as many or as few of them as you'd like. Making Music:
A Journey in Images is a picture-in-picture mode that displays many never-before-seen storyboards and photographs of the film's production in
the upper right corner of the screen, The Sing-Along Experience provides karaoke-style lyrics across the bottom of the screen, Many a
Thing to Know is a trivia track about the making of the film and the real Maria, and Where Was it Filmed? is an ongoing multiple-choice
quiz. With all four options turned on, I find that the interface obscures too much of the film, but I can see many fans taking advantage of the karaoke
mode.
Music Machine (1080p, 58:02)
From here you can skip directly to your favorite songs from the film or watch them all consecutively.
Sing-Along (1080p, 54:22)
For all intents and purposes, this mode is exactly the same as "Music Machine." In fact, I'm not quite sure what's different about the two, except that
"Sing-Along" seems to trim off some of the music before the singing starts.
Audio Commentaries
The disc includes two commentaries tracks. The first, with Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Charmian Carr, Choreographer Dee Dee Wood, and
Johannes von Trapp, is one of those tracks where all the participants are recorded separately and patched in to comment on certain scenes. Andrews
is the most vocal figure, but there are many long stretches of silence throughout. The second track, with director Robert Wise, is where you'll find
more concentrated making-of information, although fans will eventually want to give both commentaries a go.
BD-Live Exclusive: Laura Benanti on The Sound of Music (720p, 3:33)
Disc Two: Extras
Musical Stages
An "interactive backlot tour," Musical Stages allows you to explore the foyer of the Von Trapp home, which serves as a menu for a host of all-new
special features, including profiles of many of the film's songs and featurettes about The Sound of Music's production and enduring legacy.
It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but you'd have to be a cold-blooded, stonyhearted cynic to actively dislike a film that's so guilelessly joyful, so infectiously optimistic. The Sound of Music is cinematic sunshine—vitamin D in filmic form—and on Blu-ray, it's unadulterated home video happiness, complete with a pristine transfer, lush audio, and seemingly endless hours of bonus features. If the onset of a gloomy winter has got you down, The Sound of Music just might be the perfect remedy. Our highest recommendations!
45th Anniversary Edition | DVD Packaging
1965
Limited Edition Collector's Set
1965
1965
50th Anniversary Edition
1965
50th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition
1965
50th Anniversary Edition | w/ Collectible Packaging
1965
50th Anniversary Edition
1965
50th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition
1965
1965
1965
1971
1956
50th Anniversary Edition | Remastered
1964
1962
20th Anniversary Edition
1992
1944
2008
2005
2003
2007
1967
55th Anniversary Edition
1960
2011
1991
2001
Two-Disc Special Edition
1954
2012
The Signature Collection
1955
1961
2005