History Fridge / TheSoundOfMusic

* If you know anything about UsefulNotes/NaziGermany and what happens to Austria after the Anschluss, you sort of have to feel sorry for the Baroness, who is demonized for trying not to get into trouble with Germany, and Rolfe, who will likely die a soldier in the war (especially if you subscribe to the idea that he was naive enough to be brainwashed into the Nazi Party, not realizing his actions would lead to the deaths of Leisl and her family). Honestly, every character villainous or otherwise (but presumed villainous for complying with the Nazis rather than escaping Von Trapp-style) is likely to face hardship or outright death in the coming war.

* If you know anything about UsefulNotes/NaziGermany and what happens to Austria after the Anschluss, you sort of have to feel sorry for the Baroness, who is demonized for trying not to get into trouble with Germany, and Rolfe, who will likely die a soldier in the war (especially if you subscribe to the idea that he was naive enough to be brainwashed into the Nazi Party, not realizing his actions would lead to the deaths of Leisl and her family). Honestly, every character villainous or otherwise (but presumed villainous for complying with the Nazis rather than escaping Von Trapp-style) is likely to face hardship or outright death in the coming war.
* They weren't in the play, but what happens to the Jews?! What about them?!]]

* Brawn Hilda's insistence on taking lots of bows, though very funny and seemingly annoying, actually gave the family more time to escape before their names were called as winners. Max plays to the audience for comedy and isn't in a rush to force her off the stage.

* If you know anything about UsefulNotes/NaziGermany and what happens to Austria after the Anschluss, you sort of have to feel sorry for the Baroness, who is demonized for trying not to get into trouble with Germany, and Rolfe, who will likely die a soldier in the war (especially if you subscribe to the idea that he was naive enough to be brainwashed into the Nazi Party, not realizing his actions would lead to the deaths of Leisl and her family). Honestly, every character villainous or otherwise (but presumed villainous for complying with the Nazis rather than escaping Von Trapp-style) is likely to face hardship or outright death in the coming war.

* If you know anything about NaziGermany and what happens to Austria after the Anschluss, you sort of have to feel sorry for the Baroness, who is demonized for trying not to get into trouble with Germany, and Rolfe, who will likely die a soldier in the war (especially if you subscribe to the idea that he was naive enough to be brainwashed into the Nazi Party, not realizing his actions would lead to the deaths of Leisl and her family). Honestly, every character villainous or otherwise (but presumed villainous for complying with the Nazis rather than escaping Von Trapp-style) is likely to face hardship or outright death in the coming war.

* Part of the reason that the Captain's first rendition of "Edelweiss" is such a heartwarming moment is that it's essentially the Captain--the famously patriotic military man--expressing his love for his homeland through song, after spending the entire movie insisting that soldiers have no room for music in their lives. The Captain's defining personality traits (discipline, hardiness, patriotism, etc.) never really change, but he learns a new way to express them.

* If you know anything about NaziGermany and what happens to Austria after the Anschluss, you sort of have to feel sorry for the Baroness, who is demonised for trying not to get into trouble with Germany, and Rolfe, who will likely die a soldier in the war (especially if you subscribe to the idea that he was naive enough to be brainwashed into the Nazi Party, not realising his actions would lead to the deaths of Leisl and her family). Honestly, every character villainous or otherwise (but presumed villainous for complying with the Nazis rather than escaping Von Trapp-style) is likely to face hardship or outright death in the coming war.

** Max's fate is made a bit clearer in the 2013 live version, when two Nazis restrain him after seeing that the Von Trapps have disappeared. We don't see what happens to Max after that, but [[NightmareFuel the poor guy's fate isn't going to be a happy one.]]

* So what happened to Max afterwards? While losing a submarine captain wasn't a massive defeat, the Nazis were infamously petty. At the very least, he probably lost his cushy job, and at worst... well, we've seen the kinds of prison camps the Nazis ran...

* Brawn Hilda's insistence on taking lots of bows, though very funny and seemingly annoying, actually gave the family more time to escape before their names were called as winners. Max plays to the audience for comedy and isn't in a rush to force her off the stage.

* Brawn Hilda's insistence on taking lots of bows, though very funny and seemingly annoying, actually gave the family more time to escape before their names were called as winners. Max plays to the audience for comedy and isn't in a rush to force her off the stage.

!!FridgeHorror
* The entire ''Sixteen Going to Seventeen'' sequence--is it just me, or is the entire scene not only blatantly sexist, but showing Rolf brainwashing Liesl?!
** If you watch Liesl closely, and Rolf's reactions to her, it could easily be viewed as Liesl playing along in order to get a rather naive Rolf right where she wants him.

* Brawn Hilda's insistence on taking lots of bows, though very funny and seemingly annoying, actually gave the family more time to escape before their names were called as winners.

** If you watch Liesl closely, and Rolf's reactions to her, it could easily be viewed as Liesl playing along in order to get a rather naive Rolf right where she wants him.

!! FridgeLogic
* Liesl sings a duet with Rolf. Before she learns how to sing. Is this willing suspension of disbelief, or oversight?
** Liesl was eleven or twelve when her mother died, and it's mentioned that Maria "brought music ''back'' into the house" (emphasis mine). She may not have known the nuts and bolts of music theory (which is all "Do-Re-Mi" is -- in fact, it's still used in elementary schools for that very purpose), but she almost certainly knew "how to sing" in that she'd sung with her mother and father before, or at least seen them doing it.
* With WhatHappenedToTheMouse rolled in. The nuns who sabotaged the Nazis' cars, as well as Uncle Max who they knew was in on the plot... what do you think the Nazis did to them? Doubtful that it was just a slap on the wrist, making for a possible DownerEnding in retrospect.
** Uncle Max probably had a few tricks up his sleeve. And the nuns didn't tell anyone but Mother Abbess who probably just made them do a few Hail Marys and absolved them.
*** Uncle Max acted very surprised/annoyed when the Von Trapps failed to come out to get their award, as a way of convincing the Nazis that he too had been taken by surprise. It also would be more logical for the Nazis to have assumed that Captain Von Trapp had sabotaged their unguarded cars before hiding in the crypt with his family.
**** Also with regard to the car sabotage, and given the attitudes about women at that time, it probably never occurred to Zeller and the Nazis that that sort of mechanically savvy tampering - at a time when cars weren't exactly that common - could have been done by women, much less by nuns.
*** Herr Zeller experiences some [[FridgeLogic fridge logic]] during the movie when Uncle Max asks him how many people he knows who communicate with their children while on their honeymoon.
* In rewatching the scene where the children are introduced, how did the Captain ever figure that the shrill sound of a whistle is ''any'' better than shouting?
** That's how ship captains summoned their men in the old days. A shrill whistle is [[NoticeThis easy to hear]] through a wide variety of other sounds and noises.
** And in RealLife, the Captain and his children used the whistles because their estate was large and it was hard to call for each other.
* The whole HollywoodGeography thing. Unless the Captain's plan is to [[RefugeInAudacity escape through Germany because nobody would possibly expect it.]]

**** Also with regard to the car sabotage, and given the attitudes about women at that time, it probably never occurred to Zeller and the Nazis that that sort of mechanically savvy tampering could have been done by women, much less by nuns.

** And in RealLife, the Captain and his children used the whistles because their estate was large and it was hard to call for each other.

** That's how ship captains summoned their men in the old days.

** In rewatching the scene where the children are introduced, how did the Captain ever figure that the shrill sound of a whistle is ''any'' better than shouting?
*** That's how ship captains summoned their men in the old days.
*** And in RealLife, the Captain and his children used the whistles because their estate was large and it was hard to call for each other.

** Liesl was eleven or twelve when her mother died, and it's mentioned that Maria "brought music ''back'' into the house" (emphasis mine). She may not have known the nuts and bolts of music theory, but she almost certainly knew "how to sing" in that she'd sung with her mother and father before, or at least seen them doing it.

*** It wouldn't have mattered if the Mother Abbess absolved the nuns. What matters is what the Nazis would have done.

!! FridgeLogic: With WhatHappenedToTheMouse rolled in. The nuns who sabotaged the Nazis' cars, as well as Uncle Max who they knew was in on the plot... what do you think the Nazis did to them? Doubtful that it was just a slap on the wrist, making for a possible DownerEnding in retrospect.

*** That's how ship captains summoned their men in the old days.

* Right before Maria seeks advice from the Mother Abess about her love for the Captain, we see the nuns greet a new candidate for their abbey. Some viewers need repeat viewings to realize that the dress the candidate wore is the same one Maria later wore (earlier, Maria said that each woman who enters the abbey has to give away her "worldly clothes") when she visited the Von Trapps again.