by Isabelle Camoin ’26 on November 20, 2025
A&E - Film & TV
I have been eagerly anticipating writing this article celebrating the 60th anniversary of the iconic film, The Sound of Music (1965). The movie, which was released in the United States on March 2, 1965, was re-released in U.S. theaters Sept. 12–17, celebrating 60 years of the film and reviving its beauty in 4K.
The film stars Julie Andrews as Maria and Christopher Plummer as Captain Georg von Trapp. Maria, a young nun at Nonberg Abbey, is filled with childlike wonder and spirit in a way that lacks the discipline the Abbey runs on. She is sent by Mother Abbess to be the governess for the seven children of retired naval officer, Captain von Trapp. The family is notoriously known for vanquishing governesses in attempts to seek attention from their cold, removed father. In the film, Maria, once arriving at the von Trapp residence, is at tense odds with Capt. von Trapp when she tries to introduce play and music into the children’s lives. Capt. von Trapp’s heart opens to his children and Maria when he bears witness to their musical gift, bringing joy and meaning back into the family’s lives. All while this is taking place, Nazi Germany is on the rise, and the annexation of Austria is a pervasive threat. The film depicts tensions between love of homeland amidst the rise of power. As Maria makes decisions guided by God’s will, she is confronted with a choice between her religious calling to experience the love of God as a nun and finding God’s love in family. We see these tensions face resolution when Maria and Capt. von Trapp decide to marry and leave Austria before facing the consequences of their resistance to the Nazi regime.
Performing at the Salzburg Music Festival in the last 20 minutes of the film, the von Trapp Family singers take to the stage, performing a moving final farewell to Austria. Concluding the performance with “Edelweiss,” a song composed for the musical, Capt. von Trapp bids his country farewell in a patriotic ode to its beauty.
The film was based on the musical Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music, which was a fictional adaptation of the 1949 memoir, The Story of the von Trapp Singers, written by Maria Augusta von Trapp. The film is a dramatized version of the story of the formation of the von Trapp family. In the film, Maria von Trapp is depicted as a woman who restores love, meaning, and music back into the lives of widowed Georg von Trapp and his seven children. The film condenses the timeline of the family’s departure and rejection of the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany. The plot depicts an escape from Austria, meticulously planned through their performance at the Salzburg Music Festival, where the family of seven children, Maria von Trapp, and Georg von Trapp, flee to the Swiss Alps on foot to reject Georg von Trapp’s invitation to lead the Navy for the Nazi army.
In reality, as written in Maria von Trapp’s memoir, the events occurred over a period of two years. The family performed at the Salzburg Music Festival in 1936 and left Austria by train to Italy in 1938, making their way to the U.S. on a performance tour. They traveled with their priest, Reverend Franz Wasner, as a family of nine with one on the way. Georg von Trapp refused to fly the Nazi flag on their property during the annexation of Austria in 1938, and additionally rejected Naval Command and the request to sing at Hitler’s Birthday party.
The film details Maria von Trapp’s call to the von Trapp family to take care of the children because Georg von Trapp was emotionally unavailable to tend to them and was constantly away on business trips. Accounts in Maria von Trapp’s memoir depict that Georg von Trapp was much more gentle and kind-hearted from the start of her time with the family, and that originally she was brought to the family from The Abbey to take care of and tutor young Maria von Trapp, who had scarlet fever. This is when she began to engage with the already musically talented family, teaching the family to sing madrigals. Georg von Trapp fell in love with Maria von Trapp and asked her to marry him and become a second mother to his children. Maria von Trapp agreed to marry because she was in love with the children and liked Georg von Trapp, eventually coming to love him as well. In the movie, the love between Georg von Trapp and Maria von Trapp is accentuated in a way that differs from this account of Maria von Trapp’s experience. However, in both real life and the movie, Maria von Trapp was confronted with abandoning her religious calling of becoming a nun, but was advised “to do God’s will and marry Georg von Trapp.”
After 60 years, though distorted from the true story, the film is still worthy of celebrating. The film’s recognition by five Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, and selection by the Library of Congress as a film to preserve in the National Film Registry reinforces the value of celebrating the film’s timeless themes of love and strength in the arts and in faith. Upon its release, the film received a lot of criticism for being too artificial and corny, and many Austrians did not give the film the time of day. Even though the film dramatizes and romanticizes the depiction of Maria Augusta von Trapp’s involvement with the family, I enjoy the film’s production and composition. Andrews brings to life a playful spirit through music and meaningful engagement.