The Sound of Music

Release Date: March 2, 1965

Watch Date: July 9, 2024

“Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical inspired this story of the convent-trained governess who won the heart of the Von Trapp family and whose courage led them across the Alps in their 1938 flight to freedom.”

---

   Watching this film feels like coming home. I think it feels that way to many people. For many people, this seems to be the only musical they can tolerate, for me, well “my heart wants to sing every song it hears” – but I will actually sing along with this one no matter who else is in the room. I think the characters have become familiar, there’s an epic sense to the narrative. There’s romance, there’s becoming a better parent, there’s Nazis, there’s a kernel of a true story behind it all. And it’s usually, inexplicably, shown on cable during the holiday season, its songs performed at countless holiday recitals in schools. And don’t we all long to come home for the holidays?

   Bob had never sit down to watch this film by personal choice. He’d watched it in school, if he took a music class, usually the two periods before school let out for the holidays. He is one of those people who associates it very strongly with Christmas, and he was excited to watch it for the first time by choice, and all in one sitting. I, on the other hand, had a father who loves romantic movies, and loves old movies, and loves WWII, so this movie was played at Christmas, yes, but it was also played at any other time of the year my father felt like watching it. Without ‘The Sound of Music’ and my father’s overplayed CD of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s greatest hits, I wouldn’t be as obsessed with musicals as I am now. So to both of us, this felt like an event. And we made it one.

   We camped out in bed, BC is going through a heatwave and it’s the coldest room in the house. We had a nice dinner, we ordered a giant cookie. We drank hot chocolate. We paused at certain scenes to laugh or show each other clips it reminded us of. We sang along. We sang to each other. We spent an entire afternoon just experiencing this film. And it was probably one of the best movie watching experiences of my life.

   I’m honestly not going to say anything about ‘The Sound of Music’ that hasn’t already been said. It’s a classic for a reason. Yes, maybe it feels a little long in places, but if you changed anything it wouldn’t be ‘The Sound of Music’ and then I don’t know if it would hit us in the way that it does. All I’m going to say is, the next time you get the opportunity to watch this, be it in December or whenever you notice it on Disney+, take the three hours and watch it. Sing along. Laugh. Reflect on memories. Enjoy. This movie has become so much more than a movie. It’s a touchstone for many in the western culture.

   So watch it, and come home, at least for a few hours.