Hi! Almost 10 years ago I was lucky enough to join a tour of
Salzburg and visit the different Sound of Music sites, so as much as I can recall, the tour guide said that one reason Sound of Music wasn't popular was that the costumes were very frumpy whereas the people of Salzburg were very stylish and so of course they didn't like the image that the musical presented of them! There were other reasons but it's been 10 years so it's time to return! Hope this helps you out, bachelordandie.

I hope you are still interested in this topic. First of all, I'm an austrian, so please excuse my bad english ;)
I first heard of TSOM 4 years ago, when I talked to a nice Girl from Nova Scotia whose favorite movie was The sound Of Music! She also wanted to know why so many people in Austria and Germany don't like or even don't know the Musical. Well, there are many reasons.

The main reason is because since this movie came out, everybody in the world has a very stereotypical imagination of Salzburg or Austria and Germany in general. They see austrian as the singing, costume-wearing happy people who live in the mountains and like to eat Strudel.
Well, to be honest, there ARE such people in Austria, but only a few. For example if you walk through the streets in Vienna or Munich or even Salzburg, most of the time you will see no difference to cities in USA or every other Country. Even in 1938, things weren't as rustic and corny as shown in the movie.

Second reason is that the movie came out only 18 years after the war was over, so Austrians and Germans were still very sensitive to everything concerning WW2. For that reason, the German government shortened the movie to that point where Maria marries the captain. Everybody who saw the movie in a cinema thought that this was the wohle movie, and as we all know, at this point TSOM is totally incomplete and the story is not yet finished. The thrilling moments where the Nazis hunt the von Trapps, the great Edelweiss scene and the glorious ending, all that has never been shown to any Austrian or German, until the Movie was puplished on VHS tape! So the movie totally flopped at the box office and nobody was really interested into it.

The third reason is, that many facts in this movie are totally wrong. Simplest example is in the song "My Favorite Things", when Maria sings "Schnitzel with Noodles" and "Crisp Apple strudel". Both combinations are wrong, because austrian Schnitzel is served with potato salad or french fries, and apple strudel is mellow but never crispy. Or in the end, the movie shows that the von Trapps escape direction north over the Alps to Italy, but in reality, Italy is in the exact different direction. If they would have taken the movie-way, they would have run straight into the arms of Adolf Hitler, because he had his private residence in the alps between Salzburg and Germany!

Well, these were just a few things about the strange facts that one of the most popular movies in the world is nearly unknown in the country it represents :P

To be honest, I actually like this movie alot and even ordered the steel box from Amazon. I saw the movie many times and to be fair, it is a great movie if you just forget the facts I mentioned above and simply watch it for fun :D

I hope you liked my short presentation xD

Greetings from Vienna, Austria

Manuel

I can see why. I would feel the same, too. I saw some movies from India where they always portrayed Americans as loud, fat, arrogant, and slutty. SO NOT TRUE!! Not all Americans are the people from the Jerry Springer Show or Friends or Mean Girls! Some are quiet, thin, caring, and modest.

Never knew that people actually eat schnitzel with french fries instead of noodles. Maybe Maria likes to eat weird food combinations? Maybe she is the only one that eats schnitzel with noodles while everybody else eats it with potatoes or french fries. Just like how me and my sister like to eat our eggs with ketchup or jam while everybody else eats eggs with sausages.

I grew up in Germany and have been in Canada for over half my life and I still don't get why North Americans 'get' Sound of Music.

It's SO SO gimmicky, schmaltzy and like a previous poster said, it has created a misrepresentation of Germans.

What most North Americans think of when they think of Germans are actually Bavarians, and though they are great people and Bavaria is unbelievably beautiful, they definitely do not represent what the rest of Germany looks or feels like. And any German and Bavarian will tell you that they set themselves apart from the rest of Germany.

The musical also creates a false sense of nostalgia about a subject that Germans are still very touchy about. I think that people that go through real hardship know that things are a lot less black and white than movies make them out to be: bad guys vs. good guys where the bad guys are purely bad and the good guys are purely good.

There's more to Americans than promiscuity, obesity, junk food and gangsta rap, yet that is what people think when they think American (amongst other things I'm sure ;)

There's more to Canadians than Igloos, lumberjacks, poutine and wilderness.

There's more to Germany and Austria than the Sound of Music.

You sit down and watch a musical about your country's stereotypes and tell me you won't cringe every time you meet someone and that's all they think you're about

When I think of Canadians, I don't think of Igloos (I reserve that for Alaska), lumberjacks, poutine, or wilderness.... I think of maple syrup, ice hockey, Canadian bacon, and the word "eh?". :)

You know, I really don't get it. Many American films present Americans in a very stereotypical and even insulting light, and Americans mostly just laugh along, are good sports and go along with it. As an American, I feel that a lot of Hollywood movies present America in a very stereotypical, negative, and inaccurate way, but I don't take offense to it.

I don't think that anything in The Sound of Music presents Austrians in an insulting way necessarily. Yes, I understand that it was a difficult period in history, but I would think that Austrians would take pride in the fact that one of their own- Georg Von Trapp- did in fact oppose Nazi ideology and didn't support their regime.

So what's the problem? It's a movie, and as intelligent people we know that movies don't necessarily portray reality exactly. So what if they couldn't really walk over the Alps to Switzerland? It's a bit of artistic license that makes the story more romantic. There is a little bit of fantasy in every movie, even or maybe especially the best movies.

I've always felt like The Sound of Music is a nice, romantic story with beautiful scenery and great music. What's not to like? I think it's just about Austrians not wanting to think about how the majority of their country wanted to be part of Nazi Germany, so they're uncomfortable with the movie.