The Sound of Bullshit: A Warning to Liesl
You can't just "not see" the Nazis in this family friendly musical, or in real life
By T. Bloom
A Buzzfeed listicle went viral last week, in the bad way. Entitled “12 Movies Based On Real-Life Events That Toned Down The Most Disturbing Parts,” the article — likely written in a few hours for under $50 and barely glanced at by an editor — was widely mocked on Twitter because of what it attempted to say about The Sound of Music, one of the most beloved movie musicals of all time.
It started out this way:
And then once everyone began poking fun, the article was edited — still incorrectly, but with a hilariously defensive tone:
As many pointed out, the rise of Nazism is hardly a “blink and you’ll miss it” aspect of the 1965 Rodgers & Hammerstein blockbuster (which, btw, was filmed closer to the end of WWII than we currently are to September 11, 2001). It’s actually a persistent storyline throughout, dominating the film’s final third and serving up its memorable climax.
In fact, it’s the reason why we have this timeless gif:
Some pointed out that the article is reflective of the way cinema discourse has been cheapened online, due to the popularity of TikTok content filmed by young, wannabe film experts with no other media literacy, and also the proliferation of clickbait articles that include keywords like “Ending Explained” even in instances where symbols or plot points aren’t at all mysterious.
And again, not to beat it to death, but no one is paying for writing. In fact, just the previous week someone on Twitter leaked these freelancer rates attributed to the film site ScreenRant:
And that’s why JUDGEMENT exists! But I digress. We were hating on something, what was it?
Oh yes.
So I went ahead and rewatched The Sound of Music following this beatdown, because why not? And you know, I did end up focusing on a detail that’s never sat well with me — something disturbing about these events that the movie does, in fact, tone down. And unsurprisingly, it’s a Maria-based problem.
I’m not the first to suggest that one may as well turn off the movie after the former nun’s marriage to Captain Von Trapp. Granted, it never occurred to me that doing so might contribute to historical Nazi erasure — so just watch the whole thing I guess, especially if you’re going to write about it!
But if you did skip the last bits, you’d miss the part where Maria counsels Liesl on her challenges related to boys, maturity, and finding one’s way in the world. And honestly, luv ya girl, but what a crock of shit. Wake up, Liesl! Ten minutes ago, this woman ghosted you for the convent. Fifteen minutes ago, she couldn’t even keep you upright in a canoe.
The unearned confidence with which Maria dispenses all this life advice ought to trigger alarm bells for anyone watching, and could’ve easily been played for comedy. We are talking, after all, about a woman who was 100% committed to a life in the abbey, despite such notoriously poor performance reviews that her former sisters — finally vindicated in their protests — couldn’t help singing about it as she strode down the aisle. This was a woman who fell in love with her engaged, emotionally unstable employer immediately upon leaving said convent, but of course once she’s enthroned in his household, her advice to young women is “Wait a year or two.”
Until that point Maria’s entire character was defined by her rebellious streak, which is perhaps what made this film so alluring to children: she’s practically a child herself, incapable of following schedules or instructions, allergic to authoritarian leadership, quick to point out absurdities or fire back an innocently inappropriate retort.
Even as a governess she occupies a magical sphere adjacent to authority, appealing to all ages of those in her care. When 16 year-old Liesl haughtily introduces herself, insisting she has no need of a governess, Maria tactfully responds: “Well, I'm glad you told me, Liesl. We'll just be good friends.” There is no punishment in her presence, not even for the physical attacks directed against her — in fact, she becomes fiercely protective of the children’s need to play, make mistakes, and experience life as children.
So when she’s transformed via the holy sacrament of marriage into “Mother” (as the kids hesitantly begin calling her), a lot of changes occur all at once. Even as a child myself, I couldn’t help seeing this as a heel turn. As wife and mother, Maria seems completely drained of that rebellious spirit, deferring to the Captain’s role in the household far more readily — just watch her shrug apologetically at the children when he insists they will NOT be singing in public. As a governess she existed outside of the family structure, in a world of few obligations or reassurances, but there was power here too: power she exercised by leaving.
As “Mother,” Maria has accepted a position she can’t leave, one with established powers and responsibilities, all secondary to those of her husband. Her marriage is presented as a victory, but it constitutes an unmistakable form of surrender, costing us that playmate kindred spirit who ran skipping through the streets of Salzburg.
She says as much to Liesl in this grating scene of mother/daughter counseling, singing smugly:
Gone are your old ideas of life
The old ideas grow dim
Lo and behold you're someone's wife
And you belong to him…
As an adult, I can see all kinds of continuity between these sentiments and Maria’s persona at the beginning of the film, that of a young woman who struggles to belong somewhere, who yearns to devote herself to a higher power — and not in the joyous ways she experiences divinity herself, but as others insist it should be experienced. She hungers for the sacrifices to conformity she’s seemingly unable to make, and then later in the film, she finds them… or rather, they find her.
By the time her transformation into Mrs. Von Trapp is complete, any viewer can appreciate that Maria has simply exchanged one set of constraints for another. Today I can fully accept that she never clearly professed to want anything more, but even watching as a child I wanted more for her, just as (on some level) I wanted it for myself.
So pay attention, Liesl! Watch out, girl. The person advising you does not have her story straight, and her path to this ill-fitting position of authority is not one you can relate to. And while we’re at it, please answer honestly, who was more qualified to give seasoned, practical advice to a 16-year-old on these matters: Maria, or the worldly Baroness?
The Baroness is a fascinating Rorschach Test of a character, an obvious villain to any young child who longs to be loved and nurtured, a Mean Girl set loose in cinematic world of annoyingly pleasant people, and also glamour #goals for the ages.
What I love about her most is the elegance of her retreat from the whole Von Trapp mess. As much fun as it is to boo and hiss at her for stealthily sending Maria packing for the abbey in the middle of a dinner party, I’m willing to give her points for exercising a light touch in nipping an obviously inappropriate situation in the bud. Admit it, it’s a boss move! But then when Maria returns (because, it must be underscored, the convent really doesn’t want her) the Baroness immediately recognizes what she’s up against — in both the governess’s charms and her fiance’s fickle heart — and concedes defeat.
She doesn’t raise her voice, she doesn’t lash out at her rival. She doesn’t slap the children like the evil Vicky in The Parent Trap.
She has her own house! And is a baroness of some kind. So she just packs it in and leaves, in what is probably the most civilized and mature engagement breakup in cinematic history.
Also let’s be real: was Maria not going to send these kids to boarding school? It’s always been the popular option for scions of wealthy families, and anyway, it’s not her choice. If the Captain wants boarding school (and he probably does) then they’re going to boarding school.
So yeah, there are times in one’s life — say, when you’re sixteen, going on seventeen — when some extremely savvy advice from an experienced elder can help you quite a bit. Often that person is not your mother, or even your “Mother.” In fact, Maria probably should’ve referred Liesl directly to the Mother Superior for some wisdom and tough love. That was a lady who knew how to lay it down: she managed to kick Maria out of there twice, without any hard feelings.
I’m truly not hating on the character or Julie Andrews’s performance, just articulating something that’s bugged me since I was Gretl’s age. There’s always more to learn about your favorite movies. For example, I learned from this article that an unsettling hedge maze scene was meticulously storyboarded for “Do Re Mi,” but then scrapped before filming.
As for the listicle that kicked off this whole brouhaha (which, as Eric pointed out, could’ve been written by a web-crawling AI for all we know), here’s my take: whether onscreen or in real life, there’s no amount of emphasis on Nazism that will cause people who are convinced of their own goodness to recognize the emerging dangers of fascism, or associate themselves and their own actions (or inactions) with those dangers.
Nazism didn’t just suddenly arise in 1938, it began showing its face years earlier in the passage of numerous smaller laws that slowly reshaped society in the image of an extremely vocal, extremely right-wing contingent. It’s telling that even in the context of a Hollywood ending, there was no real triumph over the Nazis: even the wealthy Von Trapps only barely managed to flee them. Even at that late date, the rest of the world’s nightmare was only beginning.
Speaking of being sixteen going on seventeen, this week Idaho is enacting laws that will make it illegal to help a minor leave the state in order for them access abortion healthcare.
“The law also gives the attorney general the ability to prosecute someone for alleged violations of the law, even if the county prosecutor — who would normally be responsible for filing a criminal case — declines to prosecute.
To sidestep violating a constitutional right to travel between states, Idaho’s law makes illegal only the in-state segment of a trip to an out-of-state abortion provider.”
So what flag am I supposed to rip in half to protest this shit? Hm, if only filmmakers who addressed fascism back in the day hadn’t minimized the imagery, perhaps it would all snap into focus…
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