So much has been written about this Rodgers-Hammerstein classic’s plot and cast, its backstory, production, and legacy, that its beating heart of timeless, even spiritual, values seems lost. Here, the majestic Alpine mountains come close to doubling for the divine, as if reverentially, the film begins high on those mountainous shoulders. It also ends there.
It’s late 1930s Austria, as the thick clouds of Nazism are about to darken the hills. A spirited Maria (Julie Andrews) sings, “the hills are alive,” with songs they have sung “for a thousand years.” This is code for eternity. The hills fill her heart with the sound of music.
