The von Trapp Family: A Life of Music

Since Rosemary Harris is one of my favorite actresses, I knew I would have no trouble making it through this movie. Even if she wasn't the actress portraying Agathe von Trapp in her elder years, I still would have made it to the end, because the story was interesting and the Nazi violence was limited. (I have absolutely had it with watching violent Nazi behavior in movies, and this may be last movie I ever watch with Nazis.)

Agathe's older teenage niece gets angry with her father at a Christmas gathering, and runs off to return to her mother's home. Agathe catches up with her at the train station and tells her niece about her life in Austria. Her mother died when she was 10, and she took over running the family home and taking care of family members, along with the help of multiple servants. She loved doing so and was very resentful when her father later married a nun novice, who was sent from a convent as a temporary governess.

Everyone familiar with "The Sound of Music" will know that nun was named Maria. This movie is a much more realistic view of Maria and Captain Von Trapp, a WWI war hero. He was not some cold disciplinarian, but a warm, loving father. Maria was not a perky person begging the Captain to show his children affection. (If you read her autobiography, she was actually married off to the Captain by her Mother Superior. She had no interest whatsoever in getting married, but intended on returning to the convent to continue her religious life.)

This movie doesn't focus much on Maria, but on Agathe and how she deals with her mother's death and the changing world outside their home. (Talking about homes, their homes are as cute and colorful as can be, and so are their clothes!) With the Nazis trying to take over Austria, life gets more dangerous and Agathe has to deal with another death of someone very close to her.

As the elder Agathe speaks at the train station, her niece realizes others have suffered much more than she has as a child of divorce. If you don't mind some of your "Sound Of Music" images being shattered, certainly watch this film for a more realistic view of the von Trapp family. Not everything in the movie happened as shown, but it's still more realistic than "The Sound of Music".

I know it is not 100% accurate or the best in some eyes. but I have watched it numerous times...good back story, It also lets you feel how they might have felt. It is another perspective. I enoyed it and will show clips to my classroom.

Rogers & Hammerstien created The Sound of Music, and it's a wonderful movie we've all seen many times, but it's not history. Here you see the National Socialists (the Nazis) as they really were-the unemployed, many of them veterans who fought in the First World War, who saw their countries-Germany and Austria-torn apart by the Treaty of Versailles.

Agathe (named Leisel in The Sound of Music) is the protagonist. She's in competition with Maria, the nanny, until Georg, a submarine captain, Catholic, and hero of the war, falls in love with her. This Maria is not the Julie Andrews version.

Their chauffeur becomes head of the Nazi Party in Salzburg. When the German Army is on Austria's border, he's the one who warns, and then threatens Captain von Trapp.

It is all very good.

Disappointing only because it covers the basic story from Austria to the family's escape. Appears to be mostly true, but I question some of the events which may have been enhanced for dramatic effect. Also a bit preachy at times as it tries to explain the political divide between the Nazis and the "Democratic Party" as it is called. The horrible British accents and slang that "creeps into" the dialog. "On the Dole" is a very British phrase and I would not expect an Austrian to use it. The typical British "Drawl" invades the actor's performances, although many players appear to be Austrian (or German). I find it very hard-to-believe that the Nazis broke into the mansion at exactly the same moment that the Von Trapp Family fled. It is somewhat known that in reality the family left the country by train and did not really "hike over the Alps". I was also disappointed that very little is mentioned about their music career after leaving home. Their "summer camps" and touring in America and eventually settling in Vermont, and opening up a concert center and ski lodge there. I have read the other book "My Story" by Maria, and it covers all of this and more. Still an enjoyable biography with excellent sets and very authentic-looking locations. However, where is the American Ski Lodge shown in the film? Certainly not in Montana, as noted in the credits. More realistic to-be-sure than the "sugar-coated fairy tale" known as the Sound of Music. Worth at least a one-time view, but maybe not a "keeper"?

I went into this movie expecting a more historically accurate, if still sweet telling of the von Trapp story. Well, it is more historically accurate in that in keeps the original names of the children and mentions that Maria and the Captain had more children together, but other than that it is basically an abridged version of The Sound of Music.

Granted the story is told from the eldest daughter, Agathe's perspective but I still wanted to see more of their lives in America and not just what I already knew. Not only that, but the acting is so bad in some parts (particularly the scenes in the present with an elderly Agathe and her granddaughter) that I was reminded of a Hallmark movie. However, I liked Eliza Bennet as young Agathe and how she develops a relationship with her new stepmother. But it wasn't enough to save this movie.

After seeing this, I'd rather watch The Sound of Music on a continuous loop than watch this movie again.