Not How It Seems: The Sound of Music
It’s no secret that the movies of yesteryear don’t exactly look great when a modern progressive light is shed upon them. Sometimes this is for a pretty good reason. But then other times, it’s just because on the surface, the very notion a film is trying to combat appears to be the premise. “Not How It Seems” attempts to support the argument that favorite movie musicals aren’t really the dated anti-feminist films some people perceive them to be. I’m going to start with the one I have the strongest defense for, because it’s also one of my favorites.
The Sound of Music (1965)
In 1965, the film-going world was introduced to a movie that had been a musical for years prior and was originally based on the real life of the von Trapp family. For this edition of NHIS, we’re just going to focus on the film, though. There are two possible subplots involving feminism that could be seen as supporting rigid gender roles and reinforcing negative ideas about women, and I want to refute both of them.
First of all, one could argue that most of the story (a nun leaving the nunnery because she can’t resist Captain von Trapp’s, er, von trap) is an example of a movie trying to reinforce the idea that a woman “needs a man” to survive. But I think that’s a complete misunderstanding of Maria as a whole. Maria didn’t join the nunnery because she was particularly religious or because she had a particular desire to be a nun; Maria joined the convent because she saw the nuns singing as a child and decided that was something to aspire to. She was lost and really hadn’t tried to do anything else. Really, Maria wanted adventure and excitement, but was scared and never felt worthy of anything truly interesting.
The Reverend Mother recognized this in her, and that’s the whole reason she sent Maria out into the world. That Maria happened to fall in love not only with Captain von Trapp, but with the whole family, was just a coincidence, and her love of the children seemed to come first. Maria fell in love with her new life because she finally felt accepted, something she didn’t feel back at the convent. She also transforms not only the Captain, but the family’s entire way of life. More on this topic in just a second.
The next argument is the one that I’ve actually heard argued, and that’s that the Leisl/Rolf storyline is a completely anti-feminist as evidenced by the “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” number.
This interpretation of that number is even worse than assuming that Romeo and Juliet was supposed to be a classic love story. “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” is a joke. We know prior to the song that Rolf is a crazy Hitler youth who is emotionally abusive (the guy works as the telegram boy; are you telling me he didn’t have the money or time to send her an update now and then?). He even tells her she’s a “baby” because she’s a year younger than him. Then the song ensues.
“Sixteen Going on Seventeen” is funny because the duo are a year (maybe even less) apart, yet he acts high and mighty and even suggests he should be the one to tell her what to do. He indicates that he should control her entire life because he’s so much more emotionally mature and experienced. Rogers and Hammerstein were never saying Leisl should do whatever Rolf says. It was a joke; it was ironic. If you watched The Sound of Music and thought Leisl and Rolf were a struggling but adorable couple separated only by an overbearing father and uncertain political times, congratulations on missing the point.
If we take the condescension and Naziism out of the equation, Rolf still has to answer for the completely jerk move he pulls when he runs into Leisl and forces her to deliver the telegram to her father and implies that his new Nazi work is much more important to him than their relationship. Oh, and for the fact that he rats them out to the Nazis that are hunting them in the abbey. Rolf is a classic abuser, and I think we can even guess why Leisl was drawn to this abusive relationship.
Leisl, much like Maria, is a little bit lost. At sixteen, she lost her mother several years before, and she’s been left alone with a distant father and no older siblings for guidance. Leisl wants someone to validate her, someone to tell her how the world is, and she’s getting nothing. The string of neverending governesses is good for a laugh with her siblings, but until Maria, no one is really up for giving advice. And as crazy as Rolf’s advice is, and as sporadic as his affection is, at least he’s giving her some. Luckily, Maria is finally there to understand her problems because (and now we’re back to the previous point) Maria’s struggles are the same. Both women feel lost, insecure, and slightly directionless. But things change for Maria, and she ends up being able to give Leisl the advice found in the reprise of “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” (which was added for the film version of the musical).
Yes, the reprise is mildly sexist. “And you belong to him” doesn’t exactly sound like class-A feminist fare. Yet while the language is antiquated, what we must remember is that that isn’t the focal point of the reprise. Maria is telling Leisl “you can’t hurry love.” She’s also telling her not to fall for someone just because she’s young and impressionable, but to wait until she’s a little older to figure out what she really wants without teen hormones completely controlling her. Leisl finally has a parent figure, an older sister figure, what-have-you, and Maria has finally reached a point in her life in which she feels comfortable and as though she fits in.
And she’s found a place where she can sing freely without having to go out into a field.
This is all much closer to the actual ideal of the movie, which is sung to us by the Reverend Mother in the final scene; “Climb every mountain, ford every stream, follow every rainbow, ’till you find your dream.” Yes, until you find your dream. The message isn’t to “follow your dream,” it’s to find it. Rolf isn’t Leisl’s dream; she’s still looking for it.
So overall, the movie is about people finding out who they are; it’s a coming-of-age story, kind of regardless of age. Pretty much everyone has an arc, and no one’s arc is “do what a man tells you to do.” Except maybe Rolf.
Stay tuned for next week’s installment of Not How It Seems, which will spotlight a different, classic movie musical.
