Sound of Music stars reunited for 50th anniversary screening

Julie Andrews has said it feels like a “big joke” that The Sound Of Music has celebrated its 50th anniversary. The 79-year-old actress was reunited with her co-star Christopher Plummer for a screening of the 1965 classic in Hollywood. ”It feels like 75 actually,” joked Plummer, 85, when asked if it seemed like a half century had passed. And Andrews couldn’t quite believe it: “No I think it’s a big joke. I think it feels like about 30.”

It could be that it’s a family movie, it could be that it’s a love story, it could be that the music is so great or the scenery is so beautiful but they all came together to make I guess a joyous family film.

Julie Andrews on what has made The Sound Of Music so successful

The musical and movie are a fictionalised account of the life of Maria von Trapp and tell the story of a 1930s governess who teaches her charges to sing and falls in love with her employer, naval captain Georg von Trapp, and the family’s flight before World War II. Plummer, who played Captain von Trapp, has in the past derisively called the film The Sound Of Mucus but through the years that changed as he realised the impact the movie had on millions of people across the globe. He said: “It’s from an innocent time and with the horrific whole world situation right now it’s great for parents to take their children to see something as innocent and pure as this.”

It’s an escape film. I think it’s very important.

Christopher Plummer

Julie Andrews Arts