[QatzelOk]

I had the pleasure of seeing a professional interpretation of La Mélodie de Bonheur recently. This is the French version of the musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein, which recounts the story of a nun who leaves the content to marry a rich man with 7 kids.

Of course, the climax of the story (which takes place in Austria) is the family fleeing over the mountains into Switzerland to escape the Nazis... right after winning a local folk musical festival.



Many talented media critics have taken a stab at the political worldview of the piece:

Cinema’s manipulative power as a tool in the enforcement of ideology came of age in the mid-twentieth century and has never abated.

Perhaps one of the more negative aspects of film’s influence on the world audience is the conveyance of a simplistic good/bad dichotomy. National and international stereotypes ranging from examples of subtle distinction to virulent racism have always been the easy danger of cinema. Here, also, a history written by the victors is undeniable and tends to remain emotional fodder.

He goes on to explain how the musical (and movie) attempted to define an "Austrian" culture and patriotism, with disciplinarian Austrian patriarchs raising lots of kids with humanistic Roman Catholic mothers. All of this, of course, being fake and politically convenient for the Anglo audience (and the writers of the musical).

And what of Austria and the Austrian? Most English-speaking audiences would not know how to respond. If they are wise enough to know that Austrians speak German not Austrian and are found in Central Europe not in the Tasmanian Sea, they would equate Austria with Germany and perhaps be partially correct.

The von Trapp family is threatened by Nazis. The hero of the film, Captain von Trapp, explicitly opposes Nazism. But he doesn’t object to the obvious problems: Antisemitism, militarism, or authoritarianism. His concern is the threat that Nazi Germany poses to Austrian independence. That stance had always struck me as implausible as well as offensive. Austria, after all, was the accidental product of defeat in World War I. It was only a few years old at the time the movie is set (“The Last Golden Years of the Thirties”): a rump, landlocked, German-speaking, Tyrolean republic created very much against the wishes of people like Captain van Trapp, a former officer of the Austro-Hungarian Imperial Navy....

The invented nationalism of the Ständestaat combined several distinctive elements: the Austro-Hungarian military aristocracy, the Catholic church, Tyrolean peasant culture and folk music, patriarchal families, a peaceable and friendly foreign policy, and the Baroque heritage. Once Maria and Georg are married, and the former naval officer is the leader of a large family folk music ensemble from Baroque Salzburg, the Ständestaat ideal is complete.

soundtrack

(my own views in next post)

[QatzelOk]

Here are my political observations of the songs in the musical, which take up more time than the dialogue.

Do-Re-Mi

Maria Rainar, the lovable rascally Nun, teaches rich children to manipulate people using music. This is the contribution of the Roman Catholic church to Western Europe: new ways to construct a fake worldview using entertainment as a weapon.

Maria's weaponizing of music is the key teaching skill through which the children learn to love her.

***

My Favorite Things

Whenever the very rich Van Trapp children feel scared (like when the Austrian IRS is investigating the Van Trapp's various schemes), they just think of their material possessions - stuff - in order to feel good.

Is this how the rich respond to crackdowns on their various rackets? By thinking about all their status symbols? By thinking about how they have more stuff than other people?

***

Sound of Music on wikipedia
Rodgers and Hammerstein on wikipedia

[late]

It's an old movie...

If it doesn't appeal to you, don't watch it. There's a million old movies, and lots of them you would like, and even more you wouldn't.

I occasionally buy one of those box sets, a hundred movies of some genre, like scifi. There are a LOT of bad old movies. Yeow..

[QatzelOk]

If it doesn't appeal to you, don't watch it.

This thread has nothing to do with "what I want to watch." It's not a TV Guide thread at all.

Millions and millions have watched this movie. And movies, because they evoke so many emotions from their captive audiences, have "an effect" on the opinions of masses of people.
What I want to explore is... what values does the storyline of this movie propagate.

There are three important political narratives in a production like this that one can explore:

1. the politics of Rodgers and Hammerstein (the producers)

2. the political situation that is portrayed in the movie (the Nazis annexing Austria)

3. my own political reading of the movie (and yours)

What interests me the most in this thread are numbers 2 and 3. Though (and this is important)... number two is greatly affected by the situated politics of number 1. And number three is the most fun of the three, because we can all contribute to it with our own situated experience with the storyline and the feelings it evokes at strategic moments.

***

I want to return to the song My Favorite Things to look at the values that are being promoted by the movie and play.

This is the song that most people remember from the play. In the play, the children are scared by a lightning storm, so Maria teaches them how to mask their fears by "thinking of amazing stuff."

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

[Verse 2]
Cream-colored ponies and crisp apple strudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things

And while wild Austrian nature does make a cameo appearance in the lyrics, they are mostly about gift ideas that you can wrap in brown paper packages tied up with strings.

So the annexation of Austria by the Nazis... is interrupted by product placement... thus revealing that the main purpose of this cultural product is to encourage consumerism. And the movie - like many other cultural products - uses the nastiness of Nazi occupation to contrast it with the joys of consumer consumption. In all media, tension of the action of a movie or sports game... is contrasted with the soft-talking and pleasant surroundings of the commercials.

Nazis on their way? No prob. Just do more shopping!

the president of the USA explaining why the war-of-the-moment required us to shop

[late]

This thread has nothing to do with "what I want to watch."

If you say so...

We are supposed to protect children from the harsh realities of the world. The story is also about how the privileged upper class couldn't protect their families, and had to run..

When I got older, I found I disliked the movie.

But then, the movie is not for me, or you. It's for kids.

[QatzelOk]

We are supposed to protect children from the harsh realities of the world. The story is also about how the privileged upper class couldn't protect their families, and had to run...

We are never really told why they have to run. We are supposed to assume that "bad guys" were taking control, and that the Van Trapps were "good guys." But this is never demonstrated.

The way that the directors portray them as "good guys" is by making them the protagonists, and giving them nice clothes to wear to indictate "upper class." But if Van Trapp is guilty of crooked dealings or crimes, this goes unexplored.

But then, the movie is not for me, or you. It's for kids.

Millions of adults see it every year. And if you want to give this to kids, then it is especially important to look at the values it teaches to young minds.

Materialism is one of the values of this production. "Happiness through stuff, and if you have to run away because of the way you accumulated your stuff, you run."

[late]

Materialism is one of the values of this production. "Happiness through stuff, and if you have to run away because of the way you accumulated your stuff, you run."

The real Von Trapp family was fleeing Nazis. Dad hated nazis, and the nazis intended to force him to join their navy.

I don't think it has a thing to do with how they "accumulated stuff".

It's a kids movie...

[Potemkin]

The real Von Trapp family was fleeing Nazis. Dad hated nazis, and the nazis intended to force him to join their navy.

I don't think it has a thing to do with how they "accumulated stuff".

It's a kids movie...

Stop trying to confuse @QatzelOk with the facts, @late!

[Rich]

I'd love it if we could get a serious film / TV series studies thread going. Apologies but I loathed this film as a child and just don't feel the motivation to revisit it. At the very least I would need some convincing that this really was significant film either in the development of cinema or in wider historical cultural context.

[Potemkin]

I'd love it if we could get a serious film / TV series studies thread going. Apologies but I loathed this film as a child and just don't feel the motivation to revisit it. At the very least I would need some convincing that this really was significant film either in the development of cinema or in wider historical cultural context.

Never underestimate the power of kitsch, @Rich. Hollywood was built on Austrian kitsch. Lol.

[QatzelOk]

The real Von Trapp family was fleeing Nazis. Dad hated nazis, and the nazis intended to force him to join their navy.

Yes, but why were they fleeing the Nazis?

Was it because of money-laundering? Unpaid taxes?

And the NAZI navy was the only one that Von Trapp could hope to work for, since Austria (only 2 years old in 1938) didn't have a coast anymore after being split from Hungary.

I don't think it has a thing to do with how they "accumulated stuff".

That's because you're not looking deeper into how the story was transmogrified by the politics of the writers and their sponsors.

Behind the scene, you have lots of rich people who either will, or will not, sponsor this work. That it is very materialistic and promotes gifts... impresses rich people into pulling out their wallets.

So the kids are "represented" as being materialistic, and "favorite things" (as opposed to favorite people, favorite memories, favorite ideas) are what to think of when your depressed.



And what makes the kids scared in the movie? NATURE!
The entire "Favorite Things" scene is provoked by a fear of lightning. And the song includes the lyrics "when the dog barks, when the bee stings...".

So the song's message to children and adults alike is:

Whenever Nature scares you (lightning, dogs, bees), just think of all your amazing stuff!

This is the sickness of European civilization in one song. Kill nature and buy stuff.

[Unthinking Majority]

You should watch Dances with Wolves. A lot of "noble savage" stuff you'd like.

[late]

This is the sickness of European civilization in one song. Kill nature and buy stuff.

If that's the case, wouldn't joining an environmental movement make more sense than movie criticism?

[Potemkin]

If that's the case, wouldn't joining an environmental movement make more sense than movie criticism?

Lesser minds might think that, @late, but @QatzelOk has the genius to recognise that the most important battles to save the planet will be fought in Hollywood, the beating heart of world culture....

Thank God we have @QatzelOk among us, a man who is willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to save the planet from certain doom.... by watching The Sound of Music. Greater love hath no man....

[QatzelOk]

If that's the case, wouldn't joining an environmental movement make more sense than movie criticism?

Why does movie criticism bother you?

Are you a lower class person who is afraid of offending the media gods?

State propaganda (commercial productions like this one) have created the modern ideologies that are destroying the planet. To not be able to see this... is a form of blindness, not enlightenment. Rodgers and Hammerstein are connected to the operation of our oligarchic states.

Also, late, you have entered a "Media" forum without having a clue about media. I have only responded to you because... there seems to be no one in this forum that has anything remotely enlightened to say about media.

Has anyone on this board ever studied media theory at a university level?

...a man who is willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to save the planet from certain doom.... by watching The Sound of Music(

Not "by watching" (I've seen it several times in my life). But by "unpacking it" in order to reveal the hideous values it discreetly propagates.

[Potemkin]

Why does movie criticism bother you?

Are you a lower class person who is afraid of offending the media gods?

State propaganda (commercial productions like this one) have created the modern ideologies that are destroying the planet. To not be able to see this... is a form of blindness, not enlightenment.

Movies are a form of propaganda. This is just as true for Hollywood as it was for the Soviet movies of Eisenstein, Pudovkin or Dovzhenko. Even adverts are a form of propaganda, as Edward Bernays proudly pointed out as early as 1927.

Rodgers and Hammerstein are connected to the operation of our oligarchic states.

Sig-worthy quote.

Also, late, you have entered a "Media" forum without having a clue about media. I have only responded to you because... there seems to be no one in this forum that has anything remotely enlightened to say about media.

Has anyone on this board ever studied media theory at a university level?

*raises hand*

Not "by watching" (I've seen it several times in my life). But by "unpacking it" in order to reveal the hideous values it discreetly propagates.

This technically known as “reading against the grain”, @QatzelOk. It’s been a thing in film theory since the 1970s. You get extra bonus points for knowing what ‘Screen Theory’ is (or rather, was).

[QatzelOk]

Movies are a form of propaganda. This is just as true for Hollywood as it was for the Soviet movies of Eisenstein, Pudovkin or Dovzhenko. Even adverts are a form of propaganda, as Edward Bernays proudly pointed out as early as 1927.

And media will always reflect the values of its creators and financiers. Which is why it is critically important that a wide variety of classes get to create media. If only ONE TYPE of person creates your media... you are being manipulated by this ONE TYPE.

This technically known as “reading against the grain”, @QatzelOk. It’s been a thing in film theory since the 1970s. You get extra bonus points for knowing what ‘Screen Theory’ is (or rather, was).

Whatever the name you give it, it's still extremely important to analyze the values that a media product are advertising. Especially if this media product is aimed at extremely trusting children. Sitting kids in front of media products in order to create breaks for parents and guardians... is also a way of handing their impressionable minds to commercial interests.

You know, commercial interests that tie up their brown paper packages with string.

[MistyTiger]

Movies are commercial, no matter what. Every movie is funded by a budget. So guess who gets to influence the movie's message...the people who own lots of money, the producers and investors. So a lot of movies are materialistic. You can see that a lot of money went into the filming of The Sound of Music.

Rodgers & Hammerstein are famous for producing elaborate musicals. They have other musicals that suggest that having material things are good. The song "Wouldn't it be loverly?" from My Fair Lady is a famous number that comes to mind.

If anyone wants to see anything that isn't overly materialistic, go watch an Indy production or a student-created film...anything that is low-budget and not backed by wealthy individuals.

I primarily like The Sound of Music because I enjoyed the melodies.

[late]

Movies are commercial, no matter what. Every movie is funded by a budget. So guess who gets to influence the movie's message...the people who own lots of money, the producers and investors. So a lot of movies are materialistic. You can see that a lot of money went into the filming of The Sound of Music.

Rodgers & Hammerstein are famous for producing elaborate musicals. They have other musicals that suggest that having material things are good. The song "Wouldn't it be loverly?" from My Fair Lady is a famous number that comes to mind.

If anyone wants to see anything that isn't overly materialistic, go watch an Indy production or a student-created film...anything that is low-budget and not backed by wealthy individuals.

I primarily like The Sound of Music because I enjoyed the melodies.

I like My Fair Lady..

Btw, at that time in England, most women did at least a little prostitution, to get by. Dickens is famous for his writing about the dark side of capitalism; but it was a LOT worse than what he was able to talk about.

Keep an eye out for The Half of It. It's a low budget coming of age film, in which a young girl discovers her feelings while doing a Cyrano de Bergerac. I've seen it twice and adore it. It's at Netflix, but it's so good, eventually nearly everyone will pick it up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-yhF7IScUE