‘The Sound Of Music’ – The First Critic-Proof Movie Musical?

As beloved as the film was and is, The Sound of Music was not rapturously received by the critics back in 1965: Joan Didion despised “its suggestion that history need not happen to people … Just whistle a happy tune, and leave the Anschluss behind,” and Pauline Kael called it a “sugar-coated lie that … makes a critic feel that maybe it’s all hopeless.” Pamela Hutchinson explores how the critics lost that particular argument, paving the way for everything from Mamma Mia! to The Last Showman.