Films have been done and redone since its start in the early 1900s. Modern remakes are filling up the theaters and people critique them. However, there are some classic films that are American remakes of foreign films. The most interesting one of them all is The Sound of Music.
Believe it or not but The Sound of Music is an American remake of an old German film about the Von Trapp family. However, the original (I have been told) is the most realistic between the two films. Ironically enough, both films are based on the real story of the Von Trapp family. But the American film made it more dramatic and unrealistic, just the thing that Hollywood loves to do.
The real story of the Von Trapp family is incredible. It’s about an Austrian family in which the mother and her family exile themselves into Italy to escape the oncoming Nazi invasion just before the outbreak of war. They would soon leave for London and then eventually arrive in America. The Captain von Trapp was an anti-Nazi but was offered a commanding position of a Kriegsmarine but turned it down, mostly for his kids and wife. Of course, prior to the oncoming war of the Nazis, Maria and Georg were in fact married for ten years.
The story is a great story but unfortunately, the real story was just a little too bleak for American film, even though the era of WW2 films was in motion during the sixties. Coincidentally, the original film was done in the late fifties in Austria called the Trapp Family and is based off the book of memoirs by Maria von Trapp herself. This incredible musical has made Rogers and Hammerstein incredibly rich.
Rogers and Hammerstein have been a filmmaking duo for a while. While most of their other works focus on comedy and drama, The Sound of Music has been considered by many to be their most successful film. Though Oklahoma is still in the Top 100 films in American History, this duo has made quite a name for them. Of course, South Pacific did have an effect on the men who were fighting in the Pacific during the WW2. Regardless, Rogers and Hammerstein have done well for them.
While The Sound of Music is one of America’s top films, the film’s music has been part of America’s lexicon. At the same time, the song Edelweiss was once believed by American audiences to be Austria’s national anthem. Of course, this misconception did die away soon when they learned that the song was nothing of the sort. The movie’s music, due to Rogers’s incredible musical annotation, has been redone and used in modern talent contests. The popularization of the music will forever be part of America. With songs like “Climb Ev’ry Mountain”, “My Favorite Things”, and “The Sound of Music”, the movie has grossed an incredible amount of adoration from the generations that loved the music so much.
This movie will always be one of the top films in American film history. With its incredible music and incredible vistas of Austria, the movie is visually and musically stunning. The currently three surviving kids will know that their mom is still one of the greatest characters in American film.
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