The Sound of Music

Released: 1965

Directed by: Robert Wise

Starring: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Eleanor Parker

Last week, we finished The Sound of Music. Alex had actually not seen it before. (I'm glad I can introduce him to musicals & chick-flics). We watched it in two sittings, because at the intermission, Alex said, "What do you mean we're only half way over?!"

The Sound of Music was a movie I grew up watching over and over again. My mother had a knitting bag that kind of looked like Maria's travel bag. My brother & I would swing that around singing "I have confidence." We'd sing "How do you solve a problem like Maria" to my cousin Maria. I'm sure she loved me for that one....


It was a classic, and I can't imagine what the VHS tapes looked like! Amazon had the Bluray box set on sale for $25, and I jumped on it! Yes the 50 year anniversary is coming up soon, but that was a few years away. It was kinda neat not to have to switch tapes (remember if you didn't rewind the second tape, then you were stuck rewinding it before watching it again!)

Anyway...


In the opening scenes where Maria is "high on the hills" singing about "The Sound of Music," you can actually see the blades of grass! The cinematography is beautiful and comes through perfectly on Blu-ray. I think I may start saving for a trip to Salzburg. There are hours and hours of extras on the 4 disc Blu-ray collection. I haven't even begun to look through that!

Besides the iconic music, there's another level to the movie. A level I missed when I was growing up (the last time I watched this I was probably in Middle School). It's the love story and Anschluss. I've seen the play twice, and I still feel that the movie does a better job at the undertones. I feel this is in a large part to the wonderful acting of Julie Andrews & Christopher Plummer.

When Maria & the Captain first meet, you can see something in their eyes. Maria, taken aback at his harshness, but clearly finding him handsome (who wouldn't). The Captain finding her ugly dress and lack of formality disarming. You can actually see their love progress in their facial expressions. He wants to laugh when she falls backward off the boat. You can see Maria warming his heart through his eyes. Yet, he's still a childhood boy when he comes to ask her why she came back. He knew she loved him, but still he danced around and wanted to be sure before he put himself out there.

Something else I missed as a child (unrelated), when Maria gives her speech at the first dinner, I completely missed why the girls were crying. Yep, I thought Maria was beyond naive and just happened to be praying about Liesl when she snuck back in the house. She ended up being much more clever than I thought!

Speaking of Liesl, I was always more interested in Liesl & Rolfe, because they were closer to my age. Turns out, Rolfe isn't too much of a nice guy. If you think about it..he sings a song telling her you're young, you don't know anything, and you need me to tell you what to do. How sweet. From the start he's clearly okay with the Anschluss & Hilter, telling Liesl that her father better watch out if he knows what's good for him. 


Because he was "seventeen going on eighteen," he was definitely brainwashed as a Hitler Youth, or an Austrian equivalent. The scene with the Captain takes his gun away in the abbey, is such a deep scene. You can see the old Rolfe who may care about Liesl is still down there. However, when the Captain comes down too hard on him, his ego takes over and he yells for the Lieutenant.

The rest of the kids don't really show a lot of growth or in a deep character development. Maria is "firm but kind" with them and they grow to love & respect her, actually really quickly. Enough so that they call her "mother" once her & the Captain were married, which always struck me as a bit odd. 

When the crowd sings Edelweiss with the Captain, I think it shows that deep down regardless of if they supported it or not, Austrians wanted Austria to remain Austrian. I could see where the Austrians felt the movie portrayed them in a poor light. I'm in different to this. The movie shows a few sides of the Anschluss, personified in different characters:

The Captain - The resistance to the Anschluss and love of the "old" Austria.

Max - He'll go with whomever is in power, because that's the easiest way to get along

Hans Zeller - Nazi enthusiast

The Baroness - silent on the issue

On one hand, being a history major, knowing the Austrians held parades, and seemed relatively welcoming to Nazi Germany...makes it a little bit hard to fight on their side. I also have a basic understanding of human nature - basically Max, you make more friends with honey so it's best to just get along. But ultimately, it's a movie. If you feel that bad about how one movie portrayed your country, get over it. The movie is about a family being torn up over a war, they don't believe in, for a country that has separated from it's past. 

(Another side note: I didn't really get the Nazi thing when I was little. I thought the Captain didn't answer a telegraph, and thus they wanted to lock him up. As a child I just thought, hmm they're awful funny about their mail...not that Austrian's just let the Nazi's take over their country).

Even though the movie does not portray the "real" story of the Von Trapp family, the movie is on every "Movie you have to see..." list. It was nominated for 10 Academy awards. It won five. It was nominated for four Golden Globes and won two. Everyone should see it at least once.