How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from The Sound of Music.
Quote #7
HERR ZELLER: Why should it not go on? Nothing in Austria has changed. Singing and music will show this to the world. Austria is the same. Heil Hitler.
Max has just congratulated Herr Zeller on "allowing" the music festival to go on as planned. For Herr Zeller, it's clearly an opportunity to pretend that everything is the same in Austria after the Nazi takeover. But it's not. Hint: the "Heil Hitler" is the giveaway.
Quote #8
MARTA: Why was he so cross?
MAX: Everybody's cross these days, darling.
MARTA: Maybe the flag with the black spider on it makes people nervous.LIESL: Is Father going to be in trouble?
MAX: He doesn't have to be. The thing to do these days is to get along with everybody.
This is a good example of the film's approach to the war: the children are shielded from thinking about it. Marta is a good example of childhood innocence of war and bloodshed. All they know is that Daddy's in a bad mood when he looks at that "spider," i.e. swastika, flag.
Quote #9
MAX: Georg, this is for Austria.
CAPTAIN VON TRAPP: For Austria? There is no Austria!
MAX: But the Anschluss happened peacefully. Let's at least be grateful for that.
VON TRAPP: Grateful? You know, Max, sometimes I don't believe I know you.
The annexation of Austria was one of the first steps in a world war that tore Europe apart and resulted in the deaths of about sixty million people (source). Is the film suggesting that it was people like Max, who advocated just going along and not making waves, who allowed the situation to snowball into the global catastrophe that it became?
And here's a heretical idea: maybe the captain wasn't so brave, after all. He fled. He could have stayed and joined the Austrian resistance, small as it was. But we'll give him a break. He had seven kids, and he saw the political situation at home as hopeless. The captain knew he'd be arrested and his family threatened.