Sunday, January 06, 2008
The hills are still alive
Joe and I watched "The Sound of Music" last night -- he'd never seen it, I've seen it probably a dozen times, and I just feel it's one of those movies everyone should watch at least once. "The Sound of Music" was one of my favorite films as a child. It aired on TV every year, and in that pre-VCR/DVD era, that was the only chance I had to watch it. I also saw it with my grandparents during a theatrical rerelease in the 1970s, which was instructive, since there were parts of the movie that were cut (horrors!) to make it fit in a TV time slot. The things we had to put up with back in those days!

Since my fondness for "TSoM," which has been derided for decades by critics as one of the most saccharine movies ever made, seems contrary to everything I am today -- cynical, disillusioned, etc. -- I was wondering if I could pinpoint its curious appeal. Most importantly, I think, the film is undeniably entertaining. Despite its nearly three-hour running time, every time I see it, I am struck by how quickly the time passes. It's packed with storyline, and the songs are terrific. I still find the ending, where the Von Trapps are hiding from the Nazis in the convent, suspenseful, even though I know exactly what's going to happen.

But if I hadn't encountered the movie until I was an adult, I don't think I would have enjoyed it nearly as much. Because at its heart, "TSoM" is a film about the importance -- indeed, the primacy -- of children. Even though Julie Andrews was almost 30 years of age at the time of the filming, she almost looks like she could be in her late teens or early 20s; with her tomboy-short hair and fresh face, she fits right in with the eldest Von Trapp children. Maria's childishness becomes even more glaringly apparent when Captain Von Trapp brings home his pals from Vienna, Max Detweiler and Baroness Elsa Schraeder. The trio's witty banter seems like it belongs in a different movie. The Captain, we are told, makes frequent, lengthy trips to Vienna, where he has fallen in love with the sophisticated, wealthy Baroness; her trip to Salzburg is her first encounter with Von Trapp's brood of seven kids. To say they don't hit it off is an understatement. She tells Max that as soon as she and the Captain are married, she plans to send them to boarding school (obviously, this woman is a villain!).

Next to the elegant Baroness, Maria, in her simple home-sewn frocks, looks dowdy as well as young. Why, then, does the Captain fall so hard for her? It's possible that perhaps Maria reminds him of his late wife, who was apparently a music lover (her death so traumatized him that he banned all music from his home). His children found him neglectful -- witness those month-long sojourns to Vienna -- so Maria's bonding with the offspring seems not to have been a factor. To my adult eyes, their romance isn't realistic. Indeed, the real-life Georg Von Trapp was reportedly nothing like the character in the film; he was "a gentle, warmhearted parent who enjoyed musical activities with his family," according to this account. Now, that sounds like the kind of man who would have fallen in love with Maria.
posted by 125records @ 7:42 PM  
1 Comments:
  • At 5:39 AM, Blogger jfruh said…

    I recently saw TSoM for the first time in years -- not the movie, but a high school production of the stage version. One of the teens my wife works with was in it -- he had by far the best voice of any of the boys in the show, but he was deemed to short to play the Captain, so was relegated to the role of Rolf the Singin' Nazi. The lead actor had very little going for him except his leading man looks. Ah, theater politics!

    Anyway, I too was most amused by the Max-Baronness-Captain banter. There's a a song that Elsa and Max sing that I don't believe is in the movie, called "How Can Love Survive," about how great love in literature always has to overcome obstacles, so the fact that the Captain and the Baronness are fabulously wealthy and influential means that their romance has to overcome the terrible barrier of having no real barriers. It's very cynical and hilarious.

    Also, the bit where the nuns tell their mother superior "Forgive us for we have sinned" and show her that they've sabotaged the Nazis' car always breaks me up.

    Josh

     
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