YourClassical

The Sound of Music: Film versus Fact

Trapp_Family_Singers_1941
Promotional photo of the Trapp Family Singers from 1941.

It’s the 50th anniversary of the release of the beloved musical film, The Sound of Music. It turns out there are significant differences between the actual story of the Trapp family and what is depicted on screen … but not enough to disrupt the Trapps’ — nor anyone else’s — enjoyment of the picture.

On March 2, 1965, 20th Century Fox released the film The Sound of Music. Starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer and featuring music by Rodgers and Hammerstein (and an original score by Irwin Kostal), the film garnered multiple awards, including the 1965 Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Director (Robert Wise) and Best Music - Scoring of Music for Kostal’s adaptation.

The film remains one of the most beloved of all time, and has earned a spot in numerous lists from the American Film Institute. To this day, cinemas often screen sing-along exhibitions of the film; it clearly remains one of countless people’s “favorite things.”

But as gripping as the story is as depicted on film, it actually is quite different from the Trapp Family’s real-life experience. In an interview with Louise Hidalgo for BBC Magazine, here’s what the Trapps' youngest son said about the film version of the family’s story:

"Everyone thinks the Sound of Music was exactly the way things happened, and of course it wasn't because there had to be artistic licence," says Johannes von Trapp. He is the youngest son of Georg and Maria — the decorated naval commander and singing nun turned governess of the film.

"This was the Hollywood version of the Broadway version of the German film version of the book that my mother wrote.

"It's like the parlour game where you whisper a word in your neighbour's ear and he whispers it and it goes around the room — by the time it comes back it's usually changed a bit."

Some of the changes are innocuous; for instance, the family had 10 rather than seven children. Other changes punch up the story; one example is that the Trapp family didn’t escape post-Anschluss Austria by hiking over the Alps to Switzerland. Instead, they took a train to Italy.

There was one particular change the family did not enjoy. In the film, Christopher Plummer’s character is stern and domineering at first. Although his transformation heightens the story, in reality, Georg von Trapp was genial and kind. According to a “Movie vs. Reality” article written by Joan Gearin of the U.S. National Archives, this change “distressed [the] family greatly.”

Other adaptations were welcome, and overall, the Trapps enjoyed the cinematic retelling of their story. In her article for BBC Magazine, Hidalgo relates this reaction from Maria von Trapp:

Maria later recalled, in a BBC interview, that she only learned Hollywood was making a film when she read about it in a newspaper.

"I felt very alarmed," she said. "I didn't know what they are going to do with us … Hollywood being Hollywood, [I thought] they will have me three times divorced and five times married or whatever. And then it turned out so nice — especially the beginning with the mountains and me coming up over the meadow."

You can read more about the comparisons between the true story of the Trapps and the story told in The Sound of Music by reading Hildalgo's complete article in BBC Magazine and by reading Gearin's piece from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration in its entirety.

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