Film Review: The Hero’s Journey in The Sound of Music

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Both celebrated as a Hollywood musical classic and despised for its frivolous, sickly-sweet story, Robert Wise’s The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, 1965) initially hit the big screen five decades ago. The following review will attempt to deconstruct this dramatization of the real-life von Trapp family’s memoirs through Joseph Campbell’s theory entitled the Hero’s Journey.

We first meet our naïve, free-spirited Hero, Maria, on top of the hills and mountains where she spontaneously seeks a sense of belonging (see figure 1). Sensible of the fact she is visibly oblivious to her duties as a postulant, the Mother Superior of her convent suggests to the young maid she might be unsuited to monastic life, advising Maria to experience the world outside the abbey prior to committing to the order. The abbess, acting as a Supernatural Aid, sends her off to work as governess to a naval officer’s children: this constitutes the heroin’s Call to Adventure. Maria’s Refusal of the Call is portrayed through her claim that becoming a nun is her true vocation, having known nothing else since she was little girl. Eventually persuaded by Mother Abbess, the next sequence depicts her crossing the Threshold as she leaves for the von Trapp villa, thus entering the Belly of the Whale (see figure 3).

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To her surprise, Maria is greeted by military discipline and made aware of her position as the latest of a long series of governesses. The too recent death of the captain’s wife has seen the latter become a distant and authoritarian father, himself causing his progeny to grow bitter and rebellious. But resourceful, kind-hearted Maria is determined to go against the widower’s strict rules to give back the youth-deprived children their happiness. Maria’s quest to restore the von Trapp home to its former state, notably through her re-introduction of music into the house, represents the heroin’s Road of Trials. Alongside earning the siblings’ trust and affection, the aspiring nun incidentally manages to soften the captain’s grieving heart. This brings Maria, without meaning to do so, to reach the Meeting of the God(dess) step. Captain von Trapp therefore becomes of a figure for the Woman as Temptress, as their mutual, growing feelings conflict with Maria’s desire to take the veil and Georg’s engagement to Baroness Schraeder. Upon witnessing this attraction develop, the latter informs Maria of the wrongness of the situation. The governess then takes the decision to leave the villa at once. Back in the safety of the nunnery, she confesses her love for the captain to Reverend Mother. Sensing her confusion as to how to live her faith, the mentor-like character provides Maria with the Atonement with the Father: loving Captain von Trapp doesn’t mean she would love God any less. Through the song “Climb Ev'ry Mountain”, the heroin undergoes a change of consciousness, the Apotheosis. She comes to the realisation her place is not behind the protecting walls of the cloister but with the children and Georg. By returning to the von Trapp family, Maria gains her Ultimate Boon in finding the rightful way for her to dispense and accept love. She matures, assuming both her position as mother and partner, and her marriage to the captain, after the Baroness recognises their attachment, signs the young woman’s Refusal of Return.

In the closing act, this newly found balance is threatened when Georg von Trapp is pressured into accepting a post in the Third Reich Navy. The family’s suspenseful attempt at fleeing from the Nazis embodies a Magical Flight in hope to save their happiness. But Maria can still count on previous allies’ support whilst faced with this new task, benefitting from a Rescue from Without when the sisters help hiding them in the convent cemetery. The heroin eventually crosses the Return Threshold as the film takes us back to the mountains on which she first appeared to the audience (see figure 4). In the process of rescuing her new family and husband, Maria succeeds into becoming a Master of Two Worlds and obtains the Freedom to Live, the von Trapp clan secretly making its way into Switzerland to freedom.

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Illustrations.

Figure 1. Opening scene Still. (1965) From: The Sound of Music. Directed by: Wise, R. [Film still] United States: 20th Century Fox. At: http://www.onbeing.org/blog/a-sound-of-music-theology/7392 (Accessed on 28/09/15).

Figure 2. The Sound of Music (1965)  [Poster] At: http://www.annhgabhart.com/category/heart-of-hollyhill/ (Accessed on 28/09/15).

Figure 3. Front Gate Still. (1965) From: The Sound of Music. Directed by: Wise, R. [Film still] United States: 20th Century Fox. At: http://www.whereisthenomad.com/sold-out-sound-music-1965/2015/09/29 (Accessed on 28/09/15).

Figure 4. End scene Still. (1965) From: The Sound of Music. Directed by: Wise, R. [Film still] United States: 20th Century Fox. At: http://www.shinyshiny.tv/2015/02/lady-gaga-and-11-other-reasons-you-should-watch-the-sound-of-music-tonight.html (Accessed on 28/09/15).