The Sound of Music
Director: Robert Wise
Average Customer Review:
VHS Tape (26 September, 1991)
list price: $24.98
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Editorial Review

Some people may sneer at this 1965 musical, but the truth is the film has earned its status as a perennially watchable romantic-drama, largely on the strength of a fun story and chemistry between stars Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. Veteran filmmaker Robert Wise (The Day the Earth Stood Still) mostly stays out of the way of the film's appealing elements, which include a based-on-fact tale of Austria's von Trapp family, who fled their Nazi-occupied country in 1938. Andrews is delightful and even fascinating as Maria, who sheds her tomboyish ways as a novice nun to accept the mantle of adulthood, becoming matron of the motherless von Trapp clan. Plummer is matinee-idol handsome and gives a smart performance to boot, and the cast of young people and kids who make up the singing von Trapp children make a strong impression. Based on the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical, the score includes such winners as "Maria" and the future John Coltrane hit "My Favorite Things." --Tom Keogh ... Read more

Features

• Color
• Closed-captioned
• HiFi Sound
• NTSC

Reviews (352)

Oh! How do you solve a problem like Maria?
This movie is simply amazing. It is a very good story. It starts off on the hills of Austria with Maria (Juilie Andrews) singing The sound of music. She realises she is late for church at the abbey and rushes off. Next we here a wonderful performance by the nuns. "How do you solve a problem like Maria"? It was beautiful. Next we have Maria in the Reverand Mothers office. She is told she well become a governess...on her way to Captain Vontraps she sings a song. "I have confidence" A very delightful song that well make you cry. Then she meets the Captain. A mean man. The children pull a prank on her but she covers them. Then there is more songs, a visit from the boareness and more! BUY THIS!

One of The Best Movies I have ever Seen!!
"The Sound of Music" is one of my all time favorite movies. This movie is a great musiacal for the whole family. The movie is about a young woman who is trying to become a nun. The Reverned Mother asks her if she wants to be the goveness for the children of a retired navy officer. The job is easier said than done. The captain runs a very strict household. He uses a whistle when he wants to call one of the children or anyone else in the house. The woman works her charm on the children. She also works her magic and charm on the captain as well and ends up marrying him. This is a great film because there are so many songs and its great for young kids.

"The hills are alive with the sound of music..."
Such golden moments in cinema history include the world-famous helicopter-shot zoom-in on Julie Andrews spinning joyfully around in the middle of an open green field, the orchestral music rising and Julie starting to sing those opening words in a closeup shot! Absolutely timeless! You know it's a classic already after the first 5 minutes with the long very played-out opening of wind-whistling, helicopter shots of mountains, valleys, lush towns below and the sweeping orchestral music. Same goes for the opening credits. Based on a true story, Julie Andrews is Maria, a young postulant that's just not cut out for convent life. She is sent to be the governess of seven children headed by their strict father Captain Von Trapp (Christopher Plummer). She re-introduces music to the Trapp household and brings forth the charm and merriment that they once knew, and works her charm on the Captain, too. As the children learn to sing, Uncle Max (Richard Haydn) finds that this is the great singing group he's been after to exploit to Salzburg, and the children, Maria and the Captain become the Von Trapp Family Singers. This wonderful, lavish story is set against the backdrop of the Nazi invasion of Austria and the Von Trapp's dodging the Nazis and escaping into Switzerland. I have first seen this film back when I was very small and loved every minute of it. Finally, I got this DVD recently and rediscovered all of its breathtaking beauty. It still hasn't grown old. I love the Spanish audio track, too, though no songs are dubbed in Spanish which isn't to speak of for the French audio track. The French female singer dubbing Julie Andrews' songs is actually kind of nice to listen to. There is also a commentary track by Robert Wise, the director with the isolated score; yes, you hear the score by itself with no talking or singing overtop of it. Good for music historians and appreciators. Everybody, no matter who they are, should see this film at least once in their lifetime for it is an all-time essential classic. Highly appealing to children as well as adults, "The Sound of Music" is one film that will always be treasured. ... Read more

Asin: B00000AA6C
Subjects:  1. Musical   

The Story of the Trapp Family Singers
by Maria Augusta Trapp
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (24 December, 2001)
list price: $13.95 -- our price: $11.16
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Reviews (32)

Very Inspiring Book--keep on going when life gets tough
This book was truly an inspiration to read, seeing the hardships the Von Trapps went through after leaving Austria.It reminds us all of what our priorities in life should be.Knowing that this was a true story and not fiction made it all the more inspiring, that a family could go through such hardships and still survive without being bitter.

Curiosity satisfied
This book is a personal family history of the Trapp Family Singers.It begins with Maria's days in the convent, traces the migrations of the family during the War years, and finishes in their family home in Vermont.

Ever since seeing The Sound of Music for the first time, I have always been curious about what happened next- -did the entire family manage to safely climb the Alps to freedom?How did they pay for their journey to the US?And what connection do they have to the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont?Maria Trapp answers all of these questions in this book.While the musical version of their life did convey many of the main episodes, the storyline of the musical compressed these episodes so that they seemed to happen one after the other: Maria leaves the convent, teaches the children how to sing, marries their father, and they flee the country at the outbreak of the war, all within 2 hours.Phew!Like the musical, this book also starts with Maria's last day in the convent, but more than a year passed before she and the Baron were married, in 1927.They were marriedsome 12 years and had 2 additional children along the way before leaving Austria.Yes, as unknowns, the family did win a song festival, but that was in 1936, and by the time they fled Austria, they were already quite well-known and had toured Europe as a family singing group.Indeed, one additional reason for leaving the country when they did was that they had been invited to sing at Hitler's birthday.

When driving past the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, I have always thought of it as a ritzy place, and assumed that the money to purchase it and develop it had come from the Baron's family fortune.In reading this book, I found that that was not the case at all.The Baron's fortune was lost before the family left Austria, and they arrived in the US on borrowed money.In their new American lives, they had to restart from the very bottom of the social ladder, digging themselves out of debt before they could even begin to think of buying new clothes or a home.For years they dressed in the same simple clothes they had arrived in, and they built their first house in Vermont from the foundation up with their bare hands.That is, the girls did, since the two boys had been drafted into the US army and were fighting in Europe at the time.

This book relates all of these details and many more, with a considerable sprinkling of humor.Maria comes across as a determined optimist, a young girl barely out of her teens who arrived on the doorstep of a house filled with grief and dissension.Through her personal character and upbringing, she created a family with strong bonds to each other that was able to withstand remarriage, loss of fortune, becoming refugees, and establishing a home and a livelihood in a distant foreign land.The two elements that were her constant guidance and source of inspiration were her faith and the music.This book is peppered with remarks that ring true even today: "The family that sings together, plays together, prays together, and usually stays together.""Our age has become so mechanical that this has also affected our recreation.People have gotten used to sitting down and watching a movie, a ball game, a television set.It may be good once in a while, but it certainly is not good all the time.Our own faculties, our imagination, our memory, the ability to do things with our mind and our hands- -they need to be exercised.If we become too passive, we get dissatisfied."The Sound of Music is a great story, but the story presented in this book is much better.

Ave Maria!
What a wonderful book! I laughed and cried all the way through it. The story of the Trapp family, their adventures, their singing career and their camp were uplifting. And the constant trust in God and the way in which they lived out their Catholic faith were beautifully described. A story full of the joys and sorrows of real life. ... Read more

Isbn: 0060005777
Sales Rank: 7717
Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Composers & Musicians - General    6. Entertainment & Performing Arts - General    7. Folk music    8. Folk singers    9. Genres & Styles - Folk & Traditional    10. Historical - General    11. Religious    12. Singers    13. Trapp Family Singers   

Stargirl
by JERRY SPINELLI
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (08 August, 2000)
list price: $15.95 -- our price: $10.85
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Editorial Review

"She was homeschooling gone amok." "She was an alien." "Her parents werecircus acrobats." These are only a few of the theories concocted to explainStargirl Caraway, a new 10th grader at Arizona's Mica Area High School who wearspioneer dresses and kimonos to school, strums a ukulele in the cafeteria, laughswhen there are no jokes, and dances when there is no music. The whole school, not exactly a"hotbed of nonconformity," is stunned by her, including our 16-year-old narratorLeo Borlock: "She was elusive. She was today. She was tomorrow. She was thefaintest scent of a cactus flower, the flitting shadow of an elf owl."

In time, incredulity gives way to out-and-out adoration as the student bodyfinds itself helpless to resist Stargirl's wide-eyed charm, pure-spiritedfriendliness, and penchant for celebrating the achievements of others. In theultimate high school symbol of acceptance, she is even recruited as acheerleader. Popularity, of course, is a fragile and fleeting state, and bit bybit, Mica sours on their new idol. Why is Stargirl showing up at the funerals ofstrangers? Worse, why does she cheer for the opposing basketball teams? Thegrowing hostility comes to a head when she is verbally flogged by resentfulstudents on Leo's televised Hot Seat show in an episode that is tooterrible to air. While the playful, chin-held-high Stargirl seems impervious tothe shunning that ensues, Leo, who is in the throes of first love (and thereforescornfully deemed "Starboy"), is not made of such strong stuff: "I became angry.I resented having to choose. I refused to choose. I imagined my life without herand without them, and I didn't like it either way."

Jerry Spinelli, author of Newbery Medalist Maniac Magee, Newbery HonorBook Wringer, and manyother excellent books for teens, elegantly and accurately captures thecollective, not-always-pretty emotions of a high school microcosm in whichindividuality is pitted against conformity. Spinelli's Stargirl is asupernatural teen character--absolutely egoless, altruistic, in touch withlife's primitive rhythms, meditative, untouched by popular culture, andsupremely self-confident. It is the sensitive Leo whom readers will relate to ashe grapples with who she is, who he is, who they are together as Stargirl andStarboy, and indeed, what it means to be a human being on a planet that is richwith wonders. (Ages 10 to 14) --Karin Snelson ... Read more

Reviews (588)

One of a Kind
'Stargirl' is an intreguing read, one that is asked to be read over and over again. It is about a girl, the outcast transfer-student, that wants to life her life as independant teenage girl. She doesn't care about what other people think - she doesn't have to. She becomes so popular for what she does, how kin-hearted and independant she is. Then, she meets the love of her life, Leo. They life happy together, having fun at the mall and in the desert, 'Enchanted Places', and then is the big game.She cheers for the other team, and everything goes amok. The school turns against her, don't want to accept her, and she doens't know what to do.Leo, struggling so that her actions don't affect HIS reputation, he asks her to be the one thing that she doesn't know to be - "normal".

She attempts - still, they don't accept her. This story is a whole-hearted novel that should be read by all teenagers. It teaches them to accept all kinds. It hurts more than it seems, to lose all of those, what do you call it, "hallway" friends. The ones that you say hi to in the hall during the same passing period evry day, but aren't close enough with the to hang outside of school with. To lose being said "hi" to every day in the hallways, then it all just, disappears.

Stargirl
Ages 14 and up
Protaganist Leo finds out theres a new girl in school and she is totally crazy, at least to the students of Mica High School. She is very different then everyone, she does get accepted by the student body. She is even recruited on the cheerleading squad, but after showing up at a strangers funeral and even cheering fot the opposing team she loses it all. With all the hatred growing she is verbally punished by recentful students.

Basically Stargirl is a storie about a guy seeing that differences is not always bad. This book is suited for those living in the drama of high school life.

Kelly N.
Stargirl is the kind of student everyone would which to have in their school. On children's birthdays she sings Happy Birthday to them on her ukulele, and brings her pet rat, Cinnamon, to school. Due to the fat that she is not like the children, people get along with her pretty well until Stargirl becomes a cheerleader and cheers for the opposing team. People become pretty upset with this and then do not treat her with the respect she disserves. From then on her high school life is pretty difficult when it comes to her social life. Stargirl is a book for Fourth Grades, because at that stage of their lives they are becoming more social, and more aware of how they should be treating others. This book does a good job at describing children's feelings when they are being picked on by others. This novel is wonderful and even though it is targeted at a fourth grade level, it is still a book for all ages. ... Read more

Isbn: 0679886370
Subjects:  1. Children's 12-Up - Fiction - General    2. Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9)    3. Eccentrics and eccentricities    4. Fiction    5. High schools    6. Individuality    7. Juvenile Fiction    8. Popularity    9. School & Education    10. Social Situations - Adolescence    11. Social Situations - General    12. Social Situations - Peer Pressure    13. Juvenile Fiction / Social Situations / Adolescence    14. Reading Group Guide