'The Sound of Music' won't be saying 'Auf wiedersehen' any time soon

If you thought the Oscars was the last time you were going to have to hear music from The Sound of Music this year, think again. The musical celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, as it was released on March 2, 1965.

The film singlehandedly saved 20th Century Fox from bankruptcy, following the financial disaster that was Cleopatra. It made an astonishing $158.6 million, according to BoxOfficeMojo and was a smash hit during the waning days of the musical genre’s popularity.

Starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, the film tells the story of Maria and the Von Trapp children, just at the start of World War II. Maria helps the children and later Captain Von Trapp learn the power of music.

When the film was released, critics and even audiences knew that it was a sugar-coated world, populated by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II music that we still can’t get out of our heads. “The hills are alive with the sound of music....” is as much a part of American culture as “I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse” and “May the Force be with you.”

The Sound of Music does fit in a peculiar spot in film history. Even as seemingly every Broadway musical was turning into an outrageous, three-hour movie - a trend that came to an end with 1971’s Fiddler On The Roof - The Sound of Music stood out. It was a rejection of the realistic, artsy direction that musicals had been trending towards and went back to the standards set by the glossy MGM movies. That makes it difficult to believe that West Side Story and Sound were actually directed by the same man - Robert Wise. (Wise co-directed West Side Story with Jerome Robbins, which may explain the differences.)

Wise was the embodiment of the Golden Age-style director. A man who arguably made his first big impression by editing Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, Wise directed every kind of movie imaginable. His resume is littered with noir, powerful dramas and even science fiction. But oddly enough, it was his two musicals that won him his Oscars and cemented his status in film history.

Oddly enough, The Sound of Music was not the last traditional musical to win the Best Picture Oscar. The genre held on long enough to take the Best Picture of 1968 thanks to Oliver!.

Another piece of irony here that may only interest me is that Fox actually tore down all the goodwill it had from the success of The Sound of Music a few years later. Since they didn’t learn from the Cleopatra disaster, they went ahead and made Hello Dolly! with Barbra Streisand. Even though it’s a great musical, the film was a flop in 1969, so Fox - once again - found itself in trouble.

All this talk about The Sound of Music also brings up the fact that the Oscars are so weirdly different today. The Oscars really used to match what was popular at the time. Had the critics of 1965 been as powerful during the awards season as they are today, a little movie like John Schlesinger's Darling could have won Best Picture. But in the ‘60s - and even going into the ‘90s - voters didn’t care what critics said. The Sound of Music wound up winning five Oscars - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Sound, Best Editing and Best Music (Adaptation).

The Sound of Music has become a bulletproof movie. It’s not my favorite musical and it’s nowhere near the best one. But the music has endured. If it can survive Lady Gaga and Carrie Underwood, it can survive the sands of time.