Film of the Week... The Sound of Music

Who hasn't done the Sound of Music Twirl a
few times?  Come on men, you know you've
done it too.

Whenever I want a little musical/cinematic inspiration, the Sound of Music does it for me.  Maybe it's the inspiring strains of Climb Ev'ry Mountain, the nostalgic hum of Edelweiss or the delightfully endless singing lesson of Do Re Mi, it's a movie that charms and entertain.  Of course it has virtually no historical accuracy, but that's to its credit.  Sometimes, the Hollywood way IS better.

Just like watching Rick Steve's Travels in Europe satisfies my urge to cross the Atlantic (someday - yes...  Now...  dream on!), The Sound of Music at least lets me see the incredible beauty of Austria, the Alps and all of the oompahpah I can manage.  It's also so long that I can skip several bits and still come back to see what the Colonel and Maria are up to.  I can also pause whatever I am doing to enjoy the evenly spaced musical numbers.  Listening is one thing, but watching is another.  You really can't fully appreciate Do Re Mi without seeing the entire von Trapp family dancing through the hills and streets of Salzburg, nor can you miss the amateur (amazingly!) puppet show that accompanies the Billy Goat song.

Perhaps our favorite dancing and singing combination takes place when Liesl and Rolfe spin the night away in the gardens and summer house of the von Trapp estate to I Am Sixteen Going on Seventeen.  Who couldn't want these two star-crossed lovers to get together?

The Sound of Music is one of those rather obvious movie choices, I know.  But, sometimes that's precisely what you want...  An old favorite that you can sing along with!