Sound of Music released in 1965, became an Academy Award winning icon in American movie musicals. As an historical account of the singing von Trapp family, the film is highly inaccurate and has several other strongly negative characteristics. However, the film's positive characteristics, chiefly its music and scenery/cinematography, override the negatives to make film a well-loved classic.
The Sound of Music: What the Movie is about; Which Parts are Historically Accurate and Inaccurate; a Review
"The Sound of Music" is about the singing von Trapp Family of Austria, who escaped Nazi control during Hitler's rule. The movie is historically accurate in some respects. Maria, an Austrian postulant with a religious order of nuns, was sent to the Salzburg home of widower Georg von Trapp, a military officer, and his 7 children. Maria and Georg eventually married. Also, the family was singing family and did win an Austrian musical competition. Finally, Maria, Georg and the 7 children did leave Austria during Hitler's reign. These bare bone facts pale in comparison to the many misrepresentations in the movie.
The movie is historically inaccurate in a number of respects. In the first place, Maria should have thanked her lucky stars and the casting department for her portrayal by the far better looking Julie Andrews, as these photographs of Maria and Julie Andrews show:
In addition, the von Trapp home was not the near-palace portrayed in the movie; rather, it was a much smaller country villa. Furthermore, the movie shows a flighty Maria being sent to the von Trapp home to be governess of all 7 children, though she was actually not-a-bit flighty and was...
The movie is also inaccurate in that the children's names, genders and ages were changed for the movie. In the movie, the children are young and remain young through the time the von Trapps leave Austria. In the movie, they are: Liesl, the oldest at 16 years; Louisa, age undetermined; Friedrich, age undetermined; Kurt, age undetermined; Brigitta, age undetermined; Marta, age undetermined; Gretl, age undetermined. However, the real Maria went to the von Trapp home in 1926, when the children were: Rupert, 15; Agathe, 13; Maria, 12; Werner, 11; Hedwig, 9; Johanna, 7; and Martina, 5. When the von Trapps left Austria in 1938, the original 7 children were the ages of 27, 25, 24, 23, 21, 19 and 17, nearly all adults. In addition, the movie shows Maria introducing the children to music, though the real von Trapp family was actually already musical and was introduced only to madrigal singing by the Maria. Furthermore, according to the actual children, Maria and Georg were both quite different from their movie portrayals: Maria was not as sweet as she was portrayed and was actually a bossy, tough woman with a very bad temper; Georg was not the stern taskmaster who disapproved of music as portrayed in the film but was actually gentle, warmhearted and musically inclined along with the rest of his family before Maria's arrival. Furthermore, the movie shows Maria and Georg marrying shortly before they escaped to Austria; however, they actually married 11 years before leaving Austria, performed professionally in Austria and did not have to sneak out of the country and into Switzerland by climbing over hills. The family began singing professionally out of financial necessity when the von Trapps, including Maria, lost most of their
money through a bank failure in the 1930s. When the von Trapps left Austria, they had 3 additional children to whom Maria gave birth (totaling 10 children), already had a United States…
