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The Sound of Music is full of music, accolades, and inaccuracies. Being a film based on an event from history, the last one doesn't come as a surprise. Gladiator sequel had them too, but The Sound of Music received an 88% score on Rotten Tomatoes. It had its share of criticism too, but that's mainly due to inaccuracies.
It's about the von Trapp family, more specifically, about Maria von Trapp (Julie Andrews), who marries a naval officer, Captain Georg von Trapp (Christopher Plummer), after she has provided proper care for his children as a governess, which is usually a hard nut to crack for the ones who came before her and ran. Now, everything is going well; they are a family. But they are about to get in trouble soon.
Maria is enlightening Liesl von Trapp (Charmian Carr) about love and is interrupted by Georg, who is ordered to report to a German naval base to accept a commission in Nazi Germany's navy at that time, the Kriegsmarine, following the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany. He has opposed Nazi ideology, so the family plans to escape by using a concert as a cover that night to their freedom. Though it was a daunting journey.
Disclaimer: This article is strictly the author's opinion. Reader discretion is advised.
The Von Trapp family used the concert to cover their tracks from the Brownshirts in The Sound of Music
The escape in The Sound of Music begins on a silent night as they push a car silently out of their villa. Children are confused; are they actually going to push the car all the way to Switzerland? Innocence is at its peak here. The men keep pushing it, unbeknownst to some Brownshirts standing outside, as Georg didn't answer that order to accept the commission. Bummer!
They are going to have some changes of plans now, and they trick the Brownshirts into believing they are off to a singing concert. Georg, who earlier opposed his children entering a concert like this, is now taking advantage of the same. Thanks to Max Detweiler (Richard Haydn), his friend has already given the children's names to the Salzburg Festival. He favors the talent.
Brownshirts accompany them to the concert but they are in for a surprise. But a bigger surprise is, Georg can sing! What? And that too beautifully, as he performs Edelweiss at the concert (his children already know this talent), and the rest of his family joins him on the stage.
Interestingly, they win the prize but are not available to collect it. Surprise! And the Brownshirts realized this was nothing but a distraction. The family decides to take a walk (over the Swiss Alps as borders are closed) to their freedom.
Maria von Trapp wasn't exactly fascinated with The Sound of Music's ending
That was one happy ending, certainly. But wait, the real Maria von Trapp has some questions about the geography. As History.com mentions in their story (and Tom Santopietro notes in his book, The Sound of Music Story), Maria complained that,
"Don’t they know geography in Hollywood? Salzburg does not border on Switzerland!"
Notably, the Swiss Alps stretch to like 200 miles. But then the director, Robert Wise, responded,
"In Hollywood you make your own geography."
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Nonetheless, The Sound of Music was nominated for ten Academy Awards and took home five of them.
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