#40 (The Sound of Music) & #39 (Dr. Strangelove or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb)

The hills are alive with The Sound of Music? No. They're alive with the sound of the Wehrmacht, the Luftwaffe and your Austrian guilt. Too soon?

The first (and only?) musical on the list. Maybe the most popular on the list too I'd imagine. What is there really to say about this movie, other than if I'm ever at a party and someone has their kids sing "So long, farewell...german german german" on their way to bed, I might auf Wiedersehen their face. These kids can carry a tune in the face of oppression, I'll tell ya that much. Good for them!

One thing can't be ignored, Julie Andrews is awesome. So far, the most talented actress on the list. And Christopher Plummer? Good ole Toronto boy. He's amazing as well, a prick for the first half, but pretty awesome the second half. He's also the oldest living person, actor or otherwise, to win an Oscar. But I just couldn't stop thinking that Michael Fassbender is practically Christopher Plummer's doppelganger. Especially Michael Fassbender circa Inglourious Basterds:

And here's a gratuitous Carrie Underwood pic just because she played Maria in the live show recently:

So I can't really say much else good or bad about this movie, except oddly enough it was the first time I had watched it all the way through. It's also my wife's favorite movie, and she's german so I'm going to pull a Switzerland here and move on.

#39 - Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Love the Bomb

Well this is certainly a change in pace, albeit a few musical numbers oddly enough wouldn't have seemed out of place in this movie.

I'll say it right away, I'm not a big fan of Stanley Kubrick save for bits and pieces of The Shining and all of Full Metal Jacket. His movies are too out there for me which I guess doesn't bode too well for 2001: A Space Odyssey (#15 on this list). Then I saw this movie, and perhaps it's because the cold war era intrigues me in general, or the solid acting of George C Scott and the banality of the whole movie...but I was actually quite entertained by this flick. 

Now, if you don't 'get' satire, or miss the whole intention of this movie then you won't enjoy it.  Some supremely entertaining comedic bits by Peter Sellers as the President talking on the phone to the Russian Prime Minster. I also think that it must've been pretty ballsy to put out there in the mid 60's...literally in the middle of this nuclear arms race. Bravo Kubrick, bravo. 

Then you went and made Eyes Wide Shut. You took 12 years to make a film after Full Metal Jacket....and you make Eyes Wide Shut.

Seriously. Eyes Wide Shut? 

 #yablewit