Secure Your Copy The Sound Of Music Written By Caryl Flinn Made Available In Publication Copy

loathe The Sound of Music without having seen it but thats okay, Im not alone. Christopher Plummer, the main guy in it, hated it too, He called it

The Sound of Mucus

Thats a bit harsh, I think he was referring to the boohooing audiences,

Well naturally I wanted to read this BFI Film Classics book about a movie that is still the biggest musical of all time and still theth biggest grossing movie of all time, beloved only by The People, derided and dismissed with a shudder by The Critics.


This book is very entertaining, but this movie is as bad as I always suspected it was.
I thought, well, I have seen Satans Tango by Bela Tarrminutes, every one feeling like a lifetime, I have seen The Devils Rejects by Rob Zombie makes the Manson Family look like some people you would invite round for tea and I have seen Synecdoche, New York which redefines the word boring such that everything that used to scorefor soulkilling boredom now only scores, so I can see The Sound of Music, it will be easy.
So I started, and it wasnt too bad when Julie/Maria was frolicking on the lonely mountaintop and it wasnt so bad even when the nuns started up with their serious heartfelt religious stuff but after that they get to chatting as nuns will about their naughty little postulant Maria and we get this simpering song

How do you solve a problem like Maria
How do you catch a cloud and pin it down
How do you find a word that means Maria
A flibbertijibbet! A willo'thewisp! A clown!
Oh, how do you solve a problem like Maria
How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand
Unpredictable as weather, she's as flighty as a feather.

She's a darling! She's a demon! She's a lamb!
She'd out pester any pest, drive a hornet from its nest.

She could throw a whirling dervish out of whirl,
She is gentle, she is wild,
She's a riddle, she's a child,
She's a headache! She's an angel! She's a girl!

At this point I felt my teeth dissolving, I couldnt take any more winsome cutesiness.


This book says that the movie is all about The Songs, so I just skipped to those parts and my God they can be nauseating.
I amgoing on, I know that Im naïve, Doh! A deer! Etc etc,
But these were written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, who were two of the greatest songwriters ever.
Oscar, who wrote the sickly lyrics for this stuff, is the same guy who wrote one of the greatest lyrics ever "Old Man River" :

Don't look up an' don't look down,
You don' dare make the white boss frown
Bend your knees an' bow your head,
An' pull that rope until you're dead

Plus, Oscar wins my prize for including the most recherche word in a popular song.
You may know the opening selfsatirizing lines

I'm as corny as Kansas in August,
High as a flag on the Fourth of July!

But later comes

I'm as trite and as gay as a daisy in May,
A cliché coming true!
I'm bromidic and bright as a moonhappy night
Pouring light on the dew!

Not only tonguetwisting but including the word “bromidic” which turns out to be from the noun “bromide” which means a trite statement that is intended to soothe or placate.


So Oscar was great, and obviously Richard Rodgers was great, This means that the gloop served up in The Sound of Music is a purely calculated affair as indeed, everything they ever wrote may well have been.
TSOM seems more calculated, more piled on with a trowel, more shameless, And as we see, it worked a treat, When they read the reviews, Im sure, as Liberace said, they were crying all the way to the bank.


Anyways, this movie remains the most famous film I havent seen, and I think it will retain that status for some time.
I have seen most of the song sequences though, including this



Further comment is superfluous I think.
Great! Love these BFI film guides and this was pretty interesting, . . Caryl Finn tells the story of one of the world's most famous musicals, Based on the real Von Trapp family, it focuses on their story, through to the stage show, through to the movie which hit cinema screens in.


The author looks at the storyline, focuses on the main characters of both stage show and the movie, the songs and their music, finally having a look at various parodies of the movie.


A short but interesting book, Fifty years after its release, The Sound of Musicremains the most profitable and recognisable film musical ever made.
Quickly consolidating its cultural authority, the Hollywood film soon eclipsed the German film and Broadway musical that preceded it to become one of the

most popular cultural reference points of the twentyfirst century.


In this fresh exploration, Caryl Flinn foregrounds the film's iconic musical numbers, arguing for their central role in the film's longevity and mass appeal.
Stressing the unique emotional bond audiences establish with The Sound of Music, Flinn traces the film's prehistories, its place amongst the tumultuous political, social and cultural events of thes, and its spirited afterlife among fans around the world.
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