LUCY BURDETTE: I hadn't paid much attention to the news that THE SOUND OF MUSIC is celebrating its 60th anniversary until my neighbor mentioned she was going to our local theater to see it on the big screen. I'm not lukewarm about this musical--I adore it! So I immediately signed on to the neighbor posse. We got there a half hour ahead in case the place was mobbed (it wasn't) and settled in with popcorn.
https://youtu.be/q0y-CuV1SI4
I love this show so deeply! It was the perfect antidote for the bad news the world keeps throwing at us. I love the way the romance develops--such a great example of show don't tell. The Captain's patriotism is inspiring, the escape is epic, I love those nuns from beginning to end, the depiction of stepfamily dynamics...well, not so realistic:). I do have some lingering questions, such as why oh why did they give Julie Andrews that horrendous haircut? And what is Maria referring to when she sings she might have had a wicked childhood?? Her family of origin is never mentioned--what shaped her into the spunky woman she grows into during the movie? Would the baroness really have bowed out so neatly once Maria returns to the von Trapp household? She strikes me as more of a fighter than that...
I must have seen this not long after it came out in 1965, but I was also cast in our high school rendition as Brigitta. (That probably accounts for a bit of my adoration...)
Here's my pal Joel Silidker (RIP) playing the Captain...
Are you a fan of the show? Have you seen it recently? Is there a different movie you feel even more strongly about?
ps On a different subject, if you might want to listen to the audio version of my first advice column mystery, it's on sale for $7.50 until November 1.
https://www.audiobooks.com/
Oh, I agree with you, Lucy . . . "The Sound of Music" is absolutely amazing. [I hadn't realized it was celebrating its sixtieth anniversary, though . . . .]
ReplyDeleteAlthough I haven't seen it recently, I remember going to the theater with a group of friends from our neighborhood . . . the cast, the story, the music . . . it's all just perfect.
One of my all-time favorites, too. Maria is boilerplate for the plucky, resourceful, cockeyed optimist, isn't she? And everything about the film is stellar: gorgeous scenery, good-looking actors, luscious songs, romance, comedy, heart-stopping dramatic moments. What's not to love?
ReplyDeleteJust don't take it as a completely true story. My best friend's daughter-in-law is a Von Trapp descendant. Her grandmother was one of the kids, although I don't know which one. The film took a lot of liberties with their actual story, which wasn't quite as cinematic, but still a fantastic family history. But every one of the family members I know are incredibly talented and brilliant.
Good point Karen. I was reading about the real Von Trapps while setting up this blog and decided it would color my enjoyment of the movie so I quit. As we as we know it's not the truth, we're ok!
DeleteI adore it. Watch it every Christmas. And she has the haircut because she is entering the convent! No vanity allowed. Story wise the captain says he fell in love with her immediately but we don’t have a single club of that until she sings with the kids
ReplyDeleteDuh, that makes complete sense Rhys! You could have been a perfect Maria:)
DeleteIn 1965 my older sister was 16 and I was 6, my little sister 4. The eldest taught us little ones "Edelweiss" and somewhere we have a reel-to-reel tape recording of the three sisters singing it. Needless to say, I love this movie. The film is entirely unconnected from the real story —— which is available in nonfiction books, starting with Maria's THE SOUND OF MUSIC: The Story of the Trapp Family Singers (1949). For one thing, the music the family made as a choir was religious. I too have a friend who is a granddaughter of one of the original girls. However, the film is delightful and thankfully, my husband enjoys it also. We can always rewatch it.
ReplyDeleteFor a fun few minutes, watch the Sound of Music flash mob dance in the Antwerp train station in 2009. It's terribly grainy but for those of us who adore the film, it's still moving. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EYAUazLI9k (Selden)
I'm going to watch the flash mob! I don't think I could get my husband to watch the movie every year, though we did take the grandkids to the play.
DeleteThat flashmob is fabulous! I love that they were all doing the Macarena moves at one point (yes, I knew/know the dance well, thank you very much...).Thanks, Selden.
DeleteI was in sixth grade when this came out, and would happily sing "Climb Every Mountain" at the top of my voice. I didn't know the movie had had a theatrical re-release. I must rewatch it! What I would like to see again is Annie Get Your Gun with Mary Martin (I think, or maybe that was Peter Pan) - another movie I knew and loved all the songs in.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen Annie...
DeleteI love “Annie Get your Gun”!
DeleteI first saw it as a musical in the ______ Theater in Des Moines (yep, the name of the theater is lost to my memory) when it was on the road and didn't like it very much and I definitely thought "Climb Every Mountain" which seemed to be standard for high school graduations was corny. But I fell for the movie when it came out and Julie Andrews is a lovely human being and she got the part in a rebound for not getting to be Eliza Doolittle in that movie.
ReplyDeleteShe seems like a lovely human being!
DeleteI saw the Broadway play in 1961. I was twelve years old, and I was enthralled! I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen the movie. I can happily see it again!
ReplyDeleteDebRo
You were so lucky DebRo! Go see it in the movies, it's amazing.
DeleteI love the movie and the show. Julie Andrews is a treasure. She also has great comic timing and my favorite of her films is Victor, Victoria.
ReplyDeleteI know very little about the real story of the von Trapps, but escaping the Nazis was surely not a romp.
definitely not a romp!
DeleteJudy, you are right about the "not a romp." Francoise von Trapp, a granddaughter, wrote a viral post on FB earlier this year:
Delete"My friends often wonder why I roll my eyes whenever they send me ‘Sound of Music’ references. They tell me - “it’s such a great movie! You’re famous!”
"What they don’t get is that the true story is a far cry from the lighthearted musical, in which my father's family escapes the Nazis by hiding in a convent and then climbing over the mountain into Switzerland.
"In reality, they boarded a train to Italy before the borders closed, each carrying a rucksack and suitcase. My grandfather Georg was very, very lucky to have an Italian passport - as he had been living in what became Italy at the time when the Austro-Hungarian Empire fell, making him an Italian citizen.
"They spent some time in Northern Italy before sailing on the American Farmer out of Southampton, England for the U.S., with a sponsor and a singing contract for a U.S. tour. They had very little money with them.
"Real Nazis were not bumbling fools who could be outsmarted by some clever nuns. They we’re dangerous killers. My family was lucky to get out alive.
"Have you ever been to Dachau, a town near Munich that was the location of a Nazi concentration camp during the time of the holocaust? I have. It’s easily accessible by train and bus. The camp, now a museum, sits right on the edge of a residential community. Only a fence separates it from a street with homes on it. Before I went there, I thought it must be all by itself, way out in the country.
"Inside the compound, the camp is eerily quiet. There are no signs of life. No birdsong. The camp was built to house 6,000 people. By the time it was liberated by U.S. soldiers at the end of WWII, there were 60K people being housed there in squalid conditions. It was a work camp, not a death camp like Auschwitz. But it still had a gas chamber used to kill those who were too weak to work or who had committed some violation, or simply to make room for more prisoners.
"When you walk around Dachau and imagine all the atrocities that took place there and the proximity of the neighborhoods outside the walls, it is impossible to believe that the residents of Dachau did not know what was happening there - despite what the records say. From second floor rooms, you could have seen over the wall. When the crematorium was operating, you could smell the burning flesh. How could they NOT know? They were either in denial or lived in fear for their own lives.
"Don’t be mistaken to think the Nazis were only after Jews. Inmates included homosexuals, Catholics, Roma gypsies, anyone who did not fit the ideal of the Aryan race, as well as intellectuals who dared question the motivation of the Nazis. Physically and mentally disabled people were rounded up and sent to the death camps, as they could not be of service at places like Dachau.
"While walking through the museum and reading all the stories, I realized that Dachau’s proximity to Salzburg made it the location my family would have been shipped to if they had not left on that train to Italy. Make no mistake, they would have been arrested - my grandfather for refusing a position to oversee a Nazi submarine base in the Adriatic, my father for declining an offer to run a department in one of Vienna’s main hospitals, and the family for refusing an invitation to sing at Hitler’s birthday. As my grandmother Maria wrote in her book, quoting my grandfather, “One does not say no three times to Hitler.”
"If they had gone to Dachau, would they have been among the survivors when it was liberated in 1945? Doubtful, as they left in 1938. There would have been no musical career, no Sound of Music, and certainly no me.
"If you think this can’t happen again and, in the USA, think again. ..." She goes on to draw parallels to today. The entire post can be found on FB.
I thought her perspective on the real escape of her father [Rupert, renamed Friedrich in the movie] was useful.
(Selden)
Oops, didn't realize how long that pasted post from FB was! Sorry! (Selden)
DeleteI like the movie. Growing up we used to watch it each year when it would air on NBC. I haven't seen it in a while now but I do like the film.
ReplyDeletego see it at the movies Jay!
DeleteFor whatever reason, I didn't see it as a child, though of course I learned some of the songs over the years. A few years ago, I went to a SoM singalong (maybe the 50th anniversary) with a friend and was absolutely entranced. I do feel like I missed out and am not sure why my parents didn't want to take us to the movie (maybe the trauma from WWII or some complaint about historical accuracy?)
ReplyDeleteI would love to go to a sing-a-long but tried not to sing during the movie:)
DeleteI never saw it as a play but I saw it when it came out as a film and I loved it.
ReplyDeleteI must say it was also my first experience going downtown with a friend to watch on a big screen in a big cinema compared to our neighborhood cinema.
I still love it and watch it every year.
My favourite song is My Favourite Things :)
DeleteSo many good songs, it would be hard to choose!
DeleteI love this movie and watch it when I can. My favorite songs are "do-re-me" and "so long farewell"
ReplyDeleteGreat songs to sing as well as watch!
DeleteMany decades ago now, some friends and I were hiking in the hills above Innsbruck while on vacation. Needless to say several bad renditions of “the hills are alive” were performed (followed by equally silly re-enactments of several Monty Pythons skits).
ReplyDeleteHilarious Debra! I do yearn to go to Salzburg and those mountains now.
DeleteWhen I was in sixth grade, in Massillon, Ohio, our high school’s musical was “The Sound of Music” I saw it 3 times. The music has me hooked. We saw the movie when it came out, and although I missed some of the songs from the play I loved all the new ones. And Christopher Plummer as Captain Von Trapp… “The Sound of Music” is far and away my favourite movie and musical. We just watched it on TV this week - shown in honour of its 60th anniversary and Julie Andrews 90th birthday. I would watch it yearly if I could.
ReplyDeleteChristopher Plummer was a wonderful choice! You were imprinted:)
DeleteI had the privilege of hearing Maria Von Trapp speak at a women's conference when I was young. Yes, she highlighted some of the liberties taken by the makers of the movie. But it was easy to see in this now-frail, tiny old lady the spunky spirit of Maria in the movie. She told some really funny stories, too.
ReplyDeleteThat's so cool Susan!
DeleteI remember the first time I saw this, I think I cried for about three weeks. So long farewell gets me every time. I always wondered, though, why Maria became a nun, and if she was so devoted to it, why was it so easy for her to not be a nun.
ReplyDeleteThe movie, I guess, thinking about it now, does not hold up at all motivationally :-) – – I mean why would Captain von Trapp fall in love with her? But I buy the entire thing, even horrible Rolf, isn’t it? Finally ratting them out in the end.
We saw a bit of it the other day, too, I guess it was the anniversary showing. And I also kept thinking about the ending, they were just going to walk over the Alps? And that was going to work?
But fine fine fine. I’ll sing climb every mountain at the top of my lungs and go along with it happily.
One of the first things Maria said in her talk was. "I have a tip for you. If you are fleeing the Nazis over rough terrain, you will not go singing at the top of your lungs." LOL
DeleteHa ha ha. Very true! Thanks for sharing, Susan. (Selden)
DeleteYes Hank, those are such good questions! And the escape is hard to picture. In our high school, the auditorium sloped down to the stage. So in the last scene, we (the Von Trapps) trooped up the incline to the right of the audience singing:). Talk about suspending disbelief!
DeleteThank you. Thank you so much. Denise Terry
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome!
DeleteLUCY: Can you believe that Julie Andrews is 90 years old? This post about Sound of Music brought back memories of a tv interview on a morning show. I had just gotten my cochlear implants a few yeas before. I am sure it was the 40th anniversary when the interviewer talked to different fans of Sound of Music. The most memorable was a fan who talked about getting cochlear implants so that she could hear the music from the movie. She was about my age.
ReplyDeleteThough we never knew about Maria's background before she became a nun in the movie, I guess that perhaps she was orphaned in the First World War, then found refuge in a nunnery, deciding to become a nun? The story of the young nun deciding to leave the nunnery to become a governess to the von Trapp children is very romantic. Though I have seen the movie, I wonder about the true story - was the true story as romantic as implied in the movie.
that's an interesting theory about Maria's background Diana...
DeleteBig Christopher Plummer fan here! And Hank, I have to say, when the Mother Superior sent Maria out to be a governess, I thought at the time that she must've questioned Maria's true vocation. As mentioned above, we didn't know anything about Maria's backstory. And why wouldn't the Captain fall in love with her? Question, did they have children together? Can't see the Countess (?) producing a child. Anyway, lovely music, wonderful scenery, comedy, drama, tender moments, what's not to love? :-)
ReplyDeleteYes, they did have three children together, bringing the total to 10.
DeleteOMG ten kids...
Delete