In a video recently shared by the Vatican, Pope Leo revealed that The Sound of Music is one of his favourite films.
The 1965 movie musical follows a young aspiring nun named Maria, played by Julie Andrews, who is sent away from a convent to become a governess for the seven children of a retired naval officer named Capt. Georg Von Trapp, played by Christopher Plummer.
Meanwhile, the rising tide of fascism in Austria becomes too difficult to ignore and the Von Trapp family’s life is changed forever.
Considering its themes of love, hope and compassion, perhaps it should come as little surprise the Hollywood classic resonates with the leader of the Catholic church.
That stamp of approval has come during what has already been a momentous year for fans of the film, as The Sound of Music turned 60 this year.
The anniversary was marked with a limited international theatrical re-release featuring a restored and remastered version in 4K, as well as a 4K Ultra HD version that’s available to buy on digital and Blu-Ray. Later this month, a North American tour of the musical will take the stage in Toronto.
But with time and distance, beloved and nostalgic works of art don’t always hold up for modern audiences. So where does The Sound of Music stand?
According to John Barker, creative managing director for the U.K.-based digital content hub All The Right Movies, the film is still a fixture both on “best of” film lists and in the lives of people around the world.
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“The filmmaking is, I think, up there with anything Hollywood’s produced. And musically … there’s not many musicals out there, if any, which have as many classics on the soundtrack as The Sound of Music,” Barker said. Some of the classic tunes include So Long, Farewell; Climb Ev’ry Mountain and Sixteen Going on Seventeen.
“It is much beloved because, I think, it connects with people. That’s really difficult to do at any point, let alone something that resonates across the kind of decades like this has,” Barker said.
The Sound of Music is a fixture year-round for many around the world. New York Times journalist Jim Tankersley reported that the film brings “millions of dollars in tourism revenue” to Austria annually for tours of the filming locations and events celebrating its legacy.
And with the annual return of “warm woolen mittens” and “brown paper packages tied up with strings,” as referenced in the song My Favourite Things, there are sing-along screenings in theatres internationally. Seemingly endless reruns of the film appear on TV throughout the holiday season.
Barker credits the multifaceted performance of Andrews as Maria with capturing the minds and hearts of audiences for years.
“I think Maria could have been quite insufferable. She is very earnest. She is always positive, always cheerful about everything, but they inject — and largely through Julie Andrews — this feeling of kind of awkwardness into her, and vulnerability and this uncertainty to her as well.
“She’s full of doubt, which I think makes her resonate as a character more, and as the main focal point in the film,” Barker said.
How do you solve a problem like Maria?
Considering she’s not only seen the stage show more than 30 times, but also published a novel this year based around a production of The Sound of Music, it’s safe to say Saskatoon-based author Meredith Hambrock has spent a lot of time thinking about the story.
For her, there are elements that haven’t aged quite so well about the film — and they begin with Maria.
In today’s world, where the term “tradwife” has gained so much traction it was added to the Cambridge dictionary, Hambrock says Maria’s arc lands less triumphantly.
“I think at the time, her character was maybe seen as more transgressive, right? Like, she’s irresponsible and she’s singing and she is running around … and she’s … rebelling against the nunnery and stuff. But I think now when we look at it again, we sort of see it as a woman whose story ends when she gets married, right?
“It’s really kind of icky,” Hambrock said. “The things you love about her — she’s willing to stand up for the kids and she makes them the goofy outfits…. But at the end, she’s this … very prim and proper, serious person. We sort of lose that kind of joie de vivre.”
Hambrock said the film also treats Baroness Elsa von Schraeder, with whom Capt. Von Trapp is romantically entangled before meeting Maria, in a way that feels one-dimensional.
“This is a deeply disappointing story about how a free woman is, you know, kind of a little bit of a threat,” Hambrock said. “Especially a powerful one like Baroness von Schraeder…. The choices that Baroness von Schraeder makes are, like, gross to me, but they’re choices. Whereas Maria is someone who doesn’t get to make choices.”
Barker sees how watching Maria go from living with “independence” to taking on a traditional wife and surrogate mother role might not resonate with younger audiences today. He also agrees that von Schraeder’s character is treated as a bit of a “dated trope.”
However, he said he thinks it’s probably not fair “to judge a film that was made in 1965 on sensibility from 2025, because it wasn’t made by people who had any inkling of what things were going to be like.”
“They were making it for the time they were in,” Barker said.
He also said there are nuances to Maria’s relationship with the captain that maintain her sense of strength and agency and “don’t undermine the main themes and the message of the film.”
At the same time, he suspects “she would probably be written a bit differently now, if it was to come out now.”
‘A really enduring story’
Hambrock agrees that despite the faults that have emerged with age, the film is still “a really enduring story that stands up now.”
“We can look to our world right now and we can say who are the wealthy leaders who are … standing up to fascism instead of, you know, seeing this rise of authoritarianism and seeing it as like a great business opportunity?” Hambrock said.
Likewise, Barker said that the film’s legacy has already been cemented by its influence on the films that came after it — and what it could inspire in future filmmakers.
“I think you can see [the] influence of this still today in things like Lord of the Rings — those sweeping vistas of the mountains and things like that. The earnestness in the tone, I think other filmmakers have definitely tapped into that….
“Hollywood films did become a bit scared of showing their emotions. I’m not saying that they shouldn’t be at times, but I think a lot of modern films … would benefit from, just a little bit, maybe going back towards The Sound of Music a little more in some ways.”
