The Sound of Music (1965)
For the magic of pure escapism, there isn’t any style extra transportive or joyful than a musical finished proper. The hovering crescendo of a lovely music, carried out exquisitely by attractive expertise, is the stuff of Broadway and Hollywood desires. And also you get all three inside the primary couple of minutes of Robert Clever’s The Sound of Music, the uncommon adaptation of a Broadway present that improves on the stage model. The entire basic Rodgers and Hammerstein songs are right here, however within the film Julie Andrews is belting “the hills are alive” proper there atop the Austrian Alps!
The unforgettable second units the stage for an epic 70mm spectacle that soars as Andrews’ wayward nun, Sister Maria, takes on the duty of tutoring, caring for, and in the end changing into a mom to seven precocious von Trapp kids. The romance between her and the strict Captain von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) is concurrently schmaltzy and swoon-worthy, and her aural classes sweeping. Oh, and this free adaptation of the real-life von Trapp household’s flight from the Nazis after the goose-steppers took over Austria features a third act the place the von Trapps outwit a bunch of fascists and depart one overeager younger brownshirt humiliated. These are just a few of my favourite issues.
The Blues Brothers (1980)
On days like this, it’s good to know people like Jake and Elwood Blues are on the market. Brothers who on the suitable event might be tapped to go on a mission from God. It’s their future to unfold the gospel of fine music, higher vibes, and feel-good cinema across the globe. Ray Charles, James Brown, Cab Calloway, and a showstopping Aretha Franklin (to call however just a few) are likewise readily available to drop some jazz and R&B requirements in between comedy hijinks undertaken by John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd on the top of their cool.
John Landis helms the primary (and nonetheless greatest) movie adaptation of an SNL sketch, which expands the idea of former castmates geeking out in sun shades into an easygoing hangout film the place Aykroyd and Belushi slouch by the larger Chicago space. Alongside the way in which, they get a band collectively, piss off rednecks, and merrily lead native regulation enforcement by one of many best automotive chase sequences of all time. Wacker Drive may as nicely be renamed after them. Additionally, lest we overlook, they occur to destroy a Neo-Nazi demonstration with the Bluesmobile, main a few American fascists to chase them for the remainder of the image till the Blues boys trick the brownshirts into plummeting to their deaths. Good occasions throughout.
Casablanca (1942)
Pound for pound nonetheless the best film made in Hollywood’s Golden Age, Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca is a dizzying assortment of all-time film quotes courtesy of a screenplay by Julius and Philip G. Epstein, and Howard Koch. “Right here’s you, child;” “everyone involves Rick’s;” “we’ll at all times have Paris;” “of all of the gin joints in all of the cities in all of the world, she walks into mine;” “spherical up the standard suspects;” “Louie, I feel that is the start of a lovely friendship;” “play it [again], Sam.” And extra!
However past a witty and wistfully romantic screenplay, Casablanca remains to be a sweeping WWII melodrama in regards to the issues of three little folks, one among whom (Ingrid Bergman) thought her husband was useless in a focus camp when she met Rick (Humphrey Bogart), solely to search out the hubby (Paul Henreid) returned to her once they’re all making an attempt to flee the jackboots in Vichy-controlled Morocco. Additionally launched throughout the struggle, and at a time when the Nazis nonetheless occupied Paris and North Africa, there’s a pang of uncooked, tangible emotion because the forged of largely expat Europeans, together with French actress Madeleine Lebeau, sing the French nationwide anthem, “La Marseillaise,” whereas drowning out the fascists at a nightclub. It’s going to nonetheless put a lump in your throat to listen to Lebeau shout, “Vive la France! Vive la liberté!”
