You Can't Handle My Apple Strudel!

Recently in school, I've done a lesson - or participated in one, at least - about the family classic The Sound of Music. 

I know it to be true that a lot of Americans going to Austria anticipate a Sound Of Music sort of experience - beautiful medieval villages tucked into mountains, schnitzel with noodles and apple strudel, and singing children escaping from the Nazis. The songs are timeless and romantic (though in my opinion a bit cheesy, like most Rogers and Hammerstein stuff), and 99.9% of Austrians hate The Sound of Music with a passion.

Today was the first time in my life I saw the movie all the way through - a friend sat me down and subjected me to it (or, more diplomatically put, highly recommended we watch it together). It was something I wanted to get done before I left the USA, but, well, that didn't happen.

For those of you who thing this is tragic and would like to thus imply that I never really had a childhood without having seen the musical, I will point out two things: 1) plenty of my friends from college have never seen Bambi (I would call that tragic as well - there are so many wonderful lessons in Bambi, and the part where his mother is killed by hunters is not that scary) and 2) a childhood favorite of mine was The King and I which is basically the same story as The Sound of Music but set in a more exotic location. Sorry, but Austria is just not as exotic as Thailand [Siam]. Plus, I saw Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins, where she also plays a nanny.

In any case, I think The Sound of Music is probably not as offensive to Austrians as they'd like to let on. First, ALL musicals are cheesy. Period. Second, the Austrians portrayed in the movie/musical are 1) high-class aristocrats doing high-class things that should make Austrians proud, like wearing Trachten and waltzing and appreciating music and nature and 2) taking an anti-Nazi stance during the war. These are not stereotypes (Austrians really do do [did do] these things), and even if they are, they're good stereotypes. Third, if the musical assaults the sensibilities of Austrians, may I please say that what the Burgtheater considers "high art" (i.e. having one character in a Schiller play sexually molest another for comic effect) assaults my sensibilities?


During the lesson the teacher and the students were equally abrasive on the subject, laughing at the movie scenes we watched (including the Lonely Goatherd and My Favorite Things) and said how offensive it was that Americans don't have any clue what Austria is really like, aside from The Sound of Music. Ahem. I reiterate: what Austrians think America is "really like" based on The Simpsons, the Kardashians, and the cast of Jersey Shore is much worse. How can you romanticize Homer and Marge? Certainly not in the same way you can romanticize the Captain and Maria.