The Sound of Music: 60 Years On

Julie Andrews still delights in Robert Wise’s epic musical based on the Rodgers-Hammerstein stage show

Credit: 20th Century Fox

Warning: Contains spoilers

Robert Wise was a hugely versatile director; a craftsman capable of creating classics without the need for the auteur stamp associated with household-name filmmakers. Before making this iconic adaptation of the Rodgers-Hammerstein stage musical, Wise’s previous film was monochrome horror gem The Haunting (1963). If you didn’t know he directed both films, you’d have to be psychic to spot a directorial style that linked them.

Nonetheless, Wise had prior form when it came to musicals, having helmed the multiple Oscar-winning adaptation of West Side Story (1961), another film rightly considered a classic. He was a smart choice to bring the true-ish story of the Von Trapp family to the big screen, giving it an epic sweep that made it a box office smash and still, six decades on, a hugely uplifting near-three hours of colourful musical entertainment.