The Sound of Music

The Sound of Music (1965) starring Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Eleanor Parker, Richard Haydn. Directed by Robert Wise. Andrews stars as Maria, an aspiring nun who is assigned to be governess to the seven Von Trapp children, and who falls in love with Captain Von Trapp, the children's widowed father. Set in the late 1930s, the film shows the Von Trapp family fleeing from Austria to Switzerland to escape the Nazis. This is a musical, and the songs pretty much make the movie. Andrews practically glows as she befriends the children and teaches them how to sing. The film won five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. Songs include "Do Re Mi," "Climb Every Mountain" and the title tune. (English subtitles for the hearing impaired are available on the disc.) Grade: A

Cabaret

Cabaret (1972) starring Liza Minnelli, Michael York, Helmut Griem, Joel Grey. Minnelli gives Oscar-winning performance as Sally Bowles, young American woman caught up in phony glitter of Berlin in 1931, just as the Nazis were beginning their rise to power. The movie is nicely paced, with romance between Minnelli and York being interspersed with cabaret numbers, concluding with Minnelli's spirited rendition of "Life is a Cabaret." The film won eight Oscars in all, and is very entertaining while at the same time being ominous (those dang Nazis again). (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B+

Saturday Night Fever

Saturday Night Fever (1977) starring John Travolta, Karen Lynn Gorney. The movie that ignited the disco craze and made Travolta a star. Travolta plays Tony Manero, a 19-year-old in a dead-end job whose self-worth is tied up in his weekly performances on the dance floor of a local disco club. He teams up with Stephanie (Gorney) to compete in a dance contest at the club that boasts a $500 prize for the first-place finisher. But there's more to this film than dancing; there's a lot of drama about Tony's family and about the small gang that he hangs out with. It's really a pretty entertaining movie, now that disco is just a distant memory. (Subtitles in English are offered, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B 

Across the Universe (DVD)

Across the Universe (2006) starring Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess. Uninspired, and uninspiring, attempt to weave a narrative around Beatles songs performed by mostly unknowns. I love the Beatles, but these pale reproductions left me cold, and the flimsy plot didn't help. The attempt to tie the Beatles' songs to the antiwar era in the United States just doesn't work. Grade: D