The Sound of Music

[Dreamsofasundayroast]

Not a terribly deep and meaningful post, but sometimes light moments are to be welcomed.

Watching the Sound of Music whilst DC played beside me. DS (10) was really surprised by Rolf singing to Liesl like she was a baby in You are 16 - "I'll take care of you etc". And then shocked when Liesl joined in. DS's actual words were "She's going along with this rubbish!"

Thankfully the whole relationship set up seemed really alien to him.

We watched this at Christmas and my similar aged DD thought the same

Make him watch Fiddler on the Roof next .
(the father has to marry off his daughters, but they are strong willed and
all choose Unsuitable Husbands)

Lordy, don't go near Seven Brides for Seven Brothers!

We love The Sound of Music here but DD and I make scathing comments all the way through that song. Or we fast forward it

elQuintoConyo

All the old musicals are pretty much the same. Fiddler was a lot later than Rodgers and Hammerstein production.
Others that are a bit ummm are The King and I with slavery, and misogyny.
The song "What's the use of wanderin" from Carousel, basically says it doesn't matter if he hits you, he's your fella and you love him.

An educated lad! Now play him 'you were always on my mind' and see if he can spot the major issues with that

'I just haven't met you yet' is another jolly, supposedly lovely song which is actually hair raising.

Or the James blunt stalkers anthem

I chose to interpret that song as mocking the slightly stupid folly of youth. The idea that 17 is SO much more mature than 16 is obviously ironic. Rolf turns out not to be a good guy.
I think the story arc demonstrates that teenage girls shouldn't place naive faith in daft sexist lads because it doesn't end well.

But then, I love musicals and have quite a hard time with the cognitive dissonance of many of the plots!

Great message in the film though... Do what is right, not what is easy.

(There's also the sexist message of the Captain and chdren needing a woman to look after them)

I remember being utterly enraged by Annie Get Your Gun when I saw it as a teenager.

Annie deliberately loses a shooting contest with Frank, just 'cos his ego can't accept a woman being better than him.

Gah!

Don't get me started on Calamity Jane

The most glaring change in my having watched it as a child and now, is that I wholeheartedly support the Baroness in sending them all away to school .

But, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is the winner on that one.

The nuns singing 'How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria' on her wedding day was also was a choice moment. And also the captain treating her like a baby when he was trying to woo her in the garden. Ok Sound of Music is tres dodgy. And yet I still love it.

I'd love to hear his thoughts on Some Like it Hot.

I watched Annie Get Your Gun this week with my foster children (7 and 5). The eldest was so confused by the ending. She kept saying "but why did she lose on purpose? Because he was in a mood"? I'd forgotten quite how crap the ending was!

In case you’ve never seen it, this is probably the most disturbing - but also hilarious - romantic scene in a famous musical - from Dr Doolittle. Some of the responses to the OP’s tweet of her watching it are funny too .

twitter.com/katiestebbins/status/1173776725177786369?s=21

I like that song because it shows how naive Liesel is and foreshadows what a creep Rolf turns out to be.

I also like that Maria is very much the central character and that her cheerfulness and willingness to go against the grain (the very things the nuns were complaining about in the beginning) turned out to be what saved the day.

Also the songs are brilliant ☺️

I thought that Rolf might have been feigning interest in Liesl in order to find out what the anti-nazi captain was up to.

Rex Harrison has form. How about his 'why can't a woman be more like a man' song from my fair lady!

Oh how funny, I hadn't thought how questionable so many of these old favourite are.

We turned it off half way through, i'm going to enjoy the rest this evening. I love it.

Well let's face it, Henry Higgins is actually having an emotional affair with Colonel Pickering, the writing is clear on the wall in that one.

Shaw's Pygmalion was inspired by the case of Eliza Armstrong, the 13 year old girl purchased by the Journalist WT Stead. (Since Stead paid her mother and not her father, who had the sole rights to flog her off, Stead was found to have committed no crime.)

And how about Gigi while we're about it. There's Maurice Chevailier off to the park to look for more leeetel gurls.

Michelle thank you so much for the first good laugh I've had today!

Oh gosh, yes Gigi is a child.
"The earth and other minor things" is a song for a child. (teen)
Gaston watches her turn from child to lady, it wouldn't be allowed now.

They were of their time though and harmless now if we look at them through modern eyes as a historical perspective.

The thing about Gigi is that it is of two "it's times," 1890s Paris and 1950s Hollywood, both characterised by a superficial glamour underneath which as a very seedy world. What people pretended to believe in and what they really believed in were two sides of a debased coin.

Good prog on BBC4 the other night about Seurat's Les Poseuses, which shows the artist's earlier and lucrative work celebrating le belle epoque whilst lifting the curtain on both its production and the hypocricy of the society it depicts.