Giveaway #591 : Win 3 x The Von Trapp Family: A Life Of Music on dvd - closed - winners Karl Borowy, Jo Carroll, Samantha O' Donnell

I have to admit, I was slightly dubious when I saw that a new movie had been released featuring the Von Trapp family, made famous in the iconic 1965 film, The Sound of Music. As a child of the seventies, I watched the original film innumerable times as it was shown on TV pretty much every year, and, in the hearts and minds of the international viewing audience, Julie Andrews is singing-nun-turned-governess-turned-stepmum Maria, so I wasn't sure who would be able to step into her shoes. While the chirpy, feel-good movie has a special place in people's hearts, it is also incredibly dated, so how would a remake, so to speak, actually work?

Well, the answer is, it's pretty well done. The film starts with a bit of festive schmaltz with the typical all-American family decorating the Christmas tree, but my fears of an overly-saccharine story were totally unfounded - the 20-something daughter has a strop and stomps out of the cinnamon-and-candy-cane-scented living room to go back to her mum's, shattering the image of the perfect family into a million pieces. Kind-hearted granny rips a strip off her insensitive son and heads out into the snow to find her granddaughter at the station and have a heart-to-heart with her.

And so begins a refreshingly honest and less-idealised retelling of the story made famous by The Sound of Music. The benevolent grandmother is Agathe Von Trapp, the eldest daughter of the singing family, immortalised in the "You are sixteen, going on seventeen" song, and, as she reveals to her stunned grandchild, she knows a lot about trying to get on with an unwanted stepmother.

Her trip down memory lane begins with events before the period covered in The Sound of Music, and we discover the children's devoted mother, in her sick bed, then being carted off to hospital never to return. Enter Maria, not portrayed by Julie Andrews but by fresh-faced Yvonne Catterfeld. That's only the first of many readjustments that fans of The Sound of Music will have to face though.

It turns out that life in the Von Trapp home wasn't as happy and carefree as the original movie would have you believe, and there was a lot of tension, jealousy and bitterness between Agathe and Maria, with Agathe feeling pushed out of her role as eldest daughter and stand-in mother by the new arrival.

 The Von Trapp Family: A Life Of Music also offers a much grittier and more realistic representation of life in Nazi Austria, with an oppressive sense of impending doom, menace and horrific violence that was completely lacking in the 1960s version. Maybe it was because I was watching it with the eyes of a child, but I didn't pick up on the very real threat to their lives that the Von Trapp family were facing when they donned their backpacks and lederhosen and ambled off across the mountains.

I was slightly surprised by the end - the new film is based on Agathe's autobiography “Memories Before and After The Sound of Music”, so I was expecting to follow the family as they embarked on a new life in America, but the only nod to their future is a line of text explaining that they emigrated, just after the escape to the mountains scene and before the final credits roll.

Overall, it's an enjoyable and enlightening film that viewers will appreciate whether or not they've seen the original Sound of Music film. Yvonne Catterfeld manages to fill the enormous shoes left behind by Julie Andrews and presents a sassier, more rounded and realistic Maria that modern audiences will empathise with. 

On Digital Download now and DVD 31st October

Starring:

 Matthew MacFadyen (Ripper Street, Pride & Predjudice, Spooks)

Eliza Bennett (Broadchurch, Nanny McPhee)

Rosemary Harris (Spider-man)

THE VON TRAPP FAMILY: A LIFE OF MUSIC Disc Information:

Certificate: 12

Disc: Single disc DVD

Featurettes: About the Family / About the Story

I have three dvd copies of The Von Trapp Family: A Life Of Music to give away to lucky Madhouse Family Reviews readers. Fill in your entries via the rafflecopter widget below.

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UK only. Closing date : 7/11/16

T & C's : Entries close at midnight on the closing date. Winners will be selected with a random number generator and announced on facebook and in the giveaway post subject line. Please note, you will be contacted by email and/or twitter and if I haven't heard from you after 28 days, I'll have to pick another winner. Prizes will be sent out by the companies or their PR directly to winners. Madhouse Family Reviews cannot be held responsible for any prizes that go astray !

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