[It’s back—the
very popular annual
post-Valentine’s non-favorites series, in which I AmericanStudy some of
those things that just don’t quite do it for me. Leading up to what is always
my most full and fun crowd-sourced
weekend post, so share your own non-favorites in comments, please!]
On the problems
with overly saccharine art, and how it can still help change the world.
My main issue
with the beloved Rodgers
& Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music (1959)
can be summed up in one very funny, semi-raunchy line from the great romantic
comedy The Opposite of Sex
(1998). Lisa Kudrow’s hardened, cynical character Lucia is talking to Martin
Donovan’s Bill about how she feels around him and the many other particularly “nice”
people in her life, and uses the following pitch-perfect analogy: “That’s how I
always felt around you, like the Baroness in The Sound of Music. Everybody’s singing and climbing an Alp, and I just
wanna stuff that guitar up that nun’s ass!” Baroness Elsa Schrader, the initial
love interest for (indeed, the long-waiting fiancée of) the widowed Captain von
Trapp in the musical, is of course the only non-Nazi main character unable to
resist former nun and current governess Maria’s musical charms (charms which,
among many other effects, succeed in winning over the Captain and stealing him
from the Baroness). My main experience with Sound
is the 1965 film version
starring Julie Andrews (although I did get to see a performance of the musical
as part of my job with the Ash
Lawn-Highland Summer Music Festival), and at least based on that film adaptation
I’d have to say I side with the Baroness (and apparently Lucia): let’s just say
that Andrews’ unimaginably chipper performance as Maria is very much not one of
my favorite things.
That’s a matter
of personal preference and response, to be sure; but I also believe that the
problems with the musical’s sugar-sweet tone run deeper, and can be succinctly
illustrated by the song “Sixteen
Going on Seventeen.” As that film clip reflects, the song presents a
youthful moment of courtship and budding romance between the oldest von Trapp
child, 16 year old Liesl, and her suitor, 17 year old Rolf—who, oh yeah, just
happens to be a Nazi courier, and indeed the first Nazi character we meet in
the musical (and really the only one we meet for the entirety of Act I). I’m
not suggesting that Nazi youth weren’t human beings and couldn’t fall in love,
but it’s telling that the principal Nazi character for much of this musical
(set in Austria in 1938, just before the Nazi invasion and annexation
known as the Anschluss) is a handsome and charming young man whose surprise
first kiss with a youthful heroine is a source of delighted giggles. Moreover,
in one of the musical’s final moments Rolf has the chance to turn the von Trapp
family over to his Nazi superiors but, seeing Liesl, chooses instead to let
them escape, meaning that our most prominent Nazi character remains first and
foremost a young lover throughout the story. Night and Fog
(1956) this very much isn’t.
Yet while I thus
very much wouldn’t recommend The Sound of
Music for those looking to learn more about the Nazis or their era, that
doesn’t mean that the musical can’t have an interesting perspective to offer on
such complex and crucial historical subjects. And I would focus in particular
on the moments right before Rolf’s culminating choice, when Maria, the Captain,
and the rest of the von Trapp family have used their musical talents (and the support
of others in their musical community) to engineer an escape from the Nazis (who
have ordered the Captain into service as a military officer and intend him and
his family harm if he resists). Moreover, it’d be entirely possible to argue
that it’s precisely the lovable, family-friendly nature of their performance
which allows it to entertain and thus distract the audience (including those
Nazis) sufficiently for the von Trapps to make their getaway. There’s obviously
an important role for overtly aggressive, activist art to play in resisting and
challenging Nazis and their ilk. But The
Sound of Music makes the case, in its own saccharine and charming way to be
sure, that light-hearted and entertaining art can at the same time likewise
punch Nazis in the face. Not sure I can imagine a more important idea for us to
consider here in 2017 America.
Next
non-favorite tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Takes on this non-favorite or others you’d share?
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