Geekscape Blu-Ray Reviews: The Sound of Music & The Alien Anthology!
Every film critic – I don’t care who they are – has at least one film they haven’t seen, but know they should have. The younger the critic, the more gaps you’re likely to find in their viewing experience. It doesn’t make them bad critics, necessarily – it’s time consuming work, after all, watching all of these movies – but it does mean that every once in a while I have to eat crow and admit that, damn it, I just haven’t seen The Sound of Music.
In my defense, my parents are to blame. My mother hates this damned movie, and my father claims to have seen it only once, in Korea, where they cut out all of the musical numbers. Depending on the day he tells the story, the overall film was anywhere between 15 and 45 minutes long. I believe either of those estimates. After finally watching The Sound of Music on this ridiculously pretty Blu-Ray transfer, I can say without any hesitation that at least the title is accurate. There’s a lot of music in this movie, but there just isn’t a lot of movie in this music. It’s better than my parents said, but I’m not a fan.
The odds are, of course, that you are a fan, since everyone and their Mom (except for me and my Mom) loves this film. If you adjust for inflation, this musical about the nun who became a governess, the governess who became a wife, and the wife who defied an empire made more money than James Cameron’s Avatar. That’s still pretty impressive. The Sound of Music was directed by Robert Wise, who gets a free pass in my book after directing such brilliant films as The Day The Earth Stood Still, The Haunting and West Side Story. It’s gorgeously shot and many of the musical numbers are difficult to get out of your head, be it the incomparably shot gazebo dance number in the middle of a torrential downpour (one of the best gazebo sequences of all time, in my humble opinion) or the horrifying marionette number which I am really trying, and failing, to scrub from my memory altogether.
For those who like myself have yet to see The Sound of Music, either because we’re too damned masculine or because we just haven’t gotten around to it yet, here’s the rundown: Julie Andrews, hot off the success of Mary Poppins, plays Maria, a nun in training. She doesn’t quite belong in the convent, so the Mother Superior decides to solve a problem like Maria by sending her away to be a governess for the war hero Captain Von Trapp (Christopher Plummer, who hates this movie as much as my Mom does). He has a small army of children who are essentially holy terrors, sending many a previous governess running for the hills (which are alive, incidentally, so… you know… yikes). Will Maria manage to bring these children in line, and repair their relationship with their dictatorial – and very much available – father?
Yes. Each problem takes about a day a piece.
Yeah, that part weirds me out. The first 2/3’s of the movie are a relatively plotless affair, as challenges are placed in front of Maria and generally solved promptly by a little good-natured good-naturing, which (naturally) is good, just not particularly compelling. The actual plot of the film, in which Captain Von Trapp flees the country to avoid being drafted into the Nazi war effort, is completely relegated to the last third of the film. It’s a bizarre inconsistency, with a saccharine beginning and a melodramatic end, and it results in two underwhelming films where one spectacular film keeps threatening to emerge. All the character work is done before the Nazis arrive, all the plot takes a backseat until they actually get there.
And most frustrating of all, the musical itself is more-or-less abandoned by the intermission too. There aren’t any original songs to speak of in the last act, which instead is cluttered with reprisals of earlier tunes whether or not they make any sense in context to the current storyline. It holds your attention but it doesn’t captivate you. Or rather, it doesn’t captivate me. There are plenty who find nothing but value in this epic musical movie for the ages, but I’m not sure which Kool-Aid they are drinking, exactly. To my credit, I really, really want a cup.
The astounding transfer of this almost 50 year old film is joined in this set by many special features, including audio commentaries by the likes of Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer and Robert Wise, screen tests, behind the scenes footage, sing-along options and more. If you actually like The Sound of Music you have no reason not to get this set. If you think you’ll hate The Sound of Music sight-unseen, well, after living in fear of this thing for a couple decades now I can honestly say it’s not that bad. If watching this movie is the only thing standing in the way of you and a placated boyfriend or girlfriend then it’s totally worth the effort.
As for the Alien Anthology, well, it’s The Alien Quadrilogy only in high-definition and without the stupid name. I’m actually really pissed that they renamed it. I had just started to embrace the idiotic turn of phrase “Quadrilogy” as some sort of ironic statement about… something or other… when they released this new set. But whatever. That’s literally my only complaint. What the Alien Quadrilogy was to DVD – that is to say, the “Must Buy” box set of them all – the Alien Anthology is to Blu-Ray. The transfers are strong – and the original Alien in particular is one of the most pristine I’ve ever seen – and all the special features are ported over from the original set. New material includes isolated musical scores and “Making Of’s” for the “Making Ofs,” featuring extended interviews and such. Frankly, there’s so much material that it would take weeks just to cover it all, but since it’s such an overwhelming “Thumbs Up” it’s entirely unnecessary. Buy this set for yourself – or someone you love – and just enjoy it. If this set is not for you, well… there’s always The Sound of Music.
