The Sound of Music Film Review

Julie Andrews stars in the classic musical movie, The Sound of Music (1965).  Andrews plays Maria, a woman struggling in her attempts to be a nun in an Austrian convent.  When Captain Georg Von Trapp writes to the convent in search of a woman who will be able to handle his 7 children, who have gotten rid of every other governess the Captain has hired.  Maria is given the job and heads to the Von Trapp home to care for the children whose mother has died.  Captain Von Trapp runs his home very strictly, and the children at first attempt to run off Maria as they have with everyone else, but Maria is different from the others.  Her fun personality and ability to relate to the children leads them to love her and embrace her as the governess.  Maria brings the entire family happiness, drawing them together.  Captain Von Trapp, too, becomes closer to his children and a happier man.  A conflict arrises as Captain Von Trapp, who is seeing the Baroness, and Maria, who is still technically a nun, begin to fall in love.  To avoid it, Maria runs back to the convent, and both the Captain and his children miss her dearly.  While she is gone, however, the Captain becomes engaged to the Baroness.  Back at the Convent, the reverend mother tells Maria to return to the Von Trapp home and face her problems.  When Maria returns, the Captain admits to the Baroness that he is in love with Maria, and the engagement is called off.  Maria and Captain Von Trapp are married, but when he is summoned by Nazi's to serve in their navy.  In an attempt to escape the Nazi's, the Von Trapp family is forced to leave Austria and walk to Switzerland.

The Sound of Music is a wonderful movie and story.  The cinematography is fantastic and shows beautiful scenery from the beginning with Maria singing in the hills of the convent.  Additionally, both the acting and singing are incredibly impressive.  The Sound of Music is a movie that can be enjoyed by the entire family.

Napoleon Dynamite Film Review

Napoleon Dynamite is a high school boy with a strange set of talents and goals.  Living in a small town in Idaho, he's even weirder than everyone else.  A participant in the "Happy Hands" club and an avid lover of Ligers, Napoleon lives with his older brother, and online dater, Kip, and his grandmother.  Not to mention his pet llama.  When Napoleon's grandmother is injured while riding ATV's in the sand dunes, Napoleon's stuck-in-the-past uncle, Rico, arrives to take her place.  During Napoleon's high school experience, he meets friends such as the new transfer student, Pedro, and the boondoggle-selling Debb.  Napoleon Dynamite goes through a few awkward months of Napoleon's high school, from his asking the school hottie, Trish to Prom, to helping Pedro in his attempt to win the class president election against the popular Summer.  It also shows the side stories of Kip and his on-line girlfriend, La Fonda, and Uncle Rico's life stuck in the past and his attempts to become successful now.  Napoleon Dynamite may sound like a plot-driven movie:  it is not.  The plot, while hilarious to most, is really not why one might watch Napoleon Dynamite.  One watches it for the creative making of the film.  The opening credits are in various types of food and notebooks, in an incredibly imaginative way.  Additionally, the dialogue and acting of Napoleon Dynamite are hilarious.  Each character has a very unique voice and personality.  After watching the movie, one can immediately recognize the "Napoleon voice", the "Kip", and of course Pedro's famous line of "vote for Pedro".  Napoleon Dynamite is a surprisingly well-made and artistically shot film that will, to this viewer at least, never get old.