The hills are alive....

I get off work at 1:00 every afternoon. However, I never get to watch television in the afternoon because the kids are usually watching after-school cartoons or playing the Wii. Yesterday, however, when their allotted hour on the Wii was up, they decided to go downstairs to play rather than watch cartoons. So for the first time in a very long time, the television belonged to me. I turned it on just as Oprah was beginning. I used to watch Oprah religiously back in my pre-children days. However, I haven't seen a single episode this season. Imagine my delight when I realized that the topic of the day was a cast reunion of The Sound of Music. I did a little jig of joy right there in my living room for all my neighbors to see.

The Sound of Music is probably my favorite movie of all time. Julie Andrews' voice is (or rather, was, unfortunately) exquisite. The story is all about love and hope and courage and resilience and the beauty of the human spirit. Despite being set in Nazi-era Austria, it is a movie of pure unadulterated joy.

I remember the first time I ever saw the movie. I can't remember how old I was was, but I was a relatively young girl. Maybe nine or ten years old? I was sitting in the living room with my mom. She was folding laundry when The Sound of Music came on TV. My mom suddenly got all weepy and began gushing about how The Sound of Music was the best movie ever made and that I would love and that we needed to sit there and watch it together right then. I thought she had lost her mind. This was probably 1981 or 1982. I was all about big hair and ugly clothes. Menudo was my music of choice. I really had no desire whatsoever to watch some boring Broadway musical set in ancient times.

However, being the good girl I was, I refrained from ridiculing my mom and actually sat and watched the entire movie with her. Initially I did it to appease her and to silence her obnoxious gushing. But as the movie progressed, I was sucked in. I became completely enraptured by it. The costumes...the accents...the scenery. And most importantly, the music. I wanted Julie Andrews to be my governess. I wanted to be Liesl dancing in the gazebo. I wanted to be 16 going on 17 and in love for the first time. I wanted play clothes made out of drapes. I even remember glancing at the hideous brownish-orange drapes hanging in our living room to see what magic my mom might be able to create with them. I wanted to move to Austria and sing at the top of my lungs atop the mountainside. I fell in love that night with a film made decades earlier on the other side of the world. My mother was right, though I hated to admit it. It was the best movie ever made.

To this day, The Sound of Music remains my all-time favorite. I sing the songs constantly. I hear one phrase from any of those iconic songs and my spirit and mood are instantly lifted. My daughter has never seen the movie, but knows every one of the songs. We often sing them in the car together. She'll sing "The hills are alive with the sound of music...ah-ah-ah-ah-ah" with the sweetest little voice. Perhaps it is time to introduce her to the movie.

After watching Oprah yesterday, I immediately added The Sound of Music to my Netflix queue and moved it to the top position. Yes, the movie is saccharine and sweet and overly simplistic and a bit naively optimistic. But those are the exact reasons I love it. It is escapist cinema at its very best. I will be giddily watching it on Monday afternoon...for probably the 100th time since I was a nine year old little girl falling in love for the first time. Perhaps...just maybe...my little girl will fall in love on Monday, as well.