The Hills Are Alive . . .

I read a few days ago that Agathe Von Trapp passed away.  Who, you ask?  Agathe Von Trapp was the eldest of the Von Trapp family children, the family on which the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "The Sound of Music" was loosely based on.  Now, Agathe Von Trapp passing away is not a huge surprise - I mean, the lady was in her 90's and led a long and productive life.  I really don't know that much about Agathe Von Trapp, to be quite honest with you.  However, the story of her passing coincided with my having watched "The Sound of Music" for the umpteenth time over the Christmas holidays, so it caught my attention.

In one of my earliest memories watching "The Sound of Music", I glanced over at my father who was lying on floor and realized he was crying!  This was during the scene where the old nun sings "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" when she's convincing Maria to go back to the Von Trapps and admit that she's in love with the Captain.  Anyway - that was probably the first time I ever saw my father cry. As a child, I think the only times I ever saw him cry were those times when we were watching movies with beautiful music.  Now that I'm older (and oh so much wiser!) I find myself getting teary eyed when watching a good movie.  Maybe that's what happens once you've reached a certain age.  My kids will glance over at me sometimes when we're watching something and say "Mom, are you CRYING???"  To which I usually reply "Oh, no, my contact lense is just bothering me." 

But now I'm thinking maybe it's ok for them to see me cry.  Fast forward to last week when we were all at my sister's house in Philadelphia for Christmas - my parents and I were on the couch watching  . . . wait for it . . . "The Sound of Music"!  (Starting to see a pattern here?)  We'd started with a room full of people and at the halfway mark the ones left in the room were the three of us and my son Jack.  We were watching the scene where the children are singing to the Baroness, their father's deliciously evil fiancee.  Captain Von Trapp overhears them and is listening to them from the doorway when suddenly the music overtakes him and he finds himself joining in - "I go to the hills, when my heart is lonely . . ." 

Well, right at this point the floodgates burst open - I looked over and saw both my parents sobbing and of course then I lost it too.  I looked over at Jack and he was staring at us in bewilderment, probably thinking to himself, "Are they CRYING???"  But he didn't say anything, mainly because I think he's getting used to us all bursting into tears lately.  He just smiled and we all started laughing and smiling back at him, probably looking slightly deranged with all the tears and snot on our faces.  It was a nice moment.

When I was a kid I LOVED this movie.  I wanted to be one of the Von Trapp children, living in a big fancy house with all those siblings, singing and dancing through the hills.  I knew (and still know) all the words to every single song.  We used to play the record and dance around the living room.  I still play some of the songs on the piano and I am appalled when I meet someone who has never seen the movie in its entirety.  My husband is one of those people.

If you are one of those people, stop reading now if you haven't already.  If you love "The Sound of Music" as much as I do, read on.

Here are some of my favorite highlights of this movie - they constantly change as I go through life:

Opening scene:  Who doesn't love this?  Maria on top of the mountain, spinning joyfully, singing about the hills that are alive with the sound of music.  Even people who have never seen the movie can recognize this opening scene.  Haven't you always wanted to climb a mountain, spin in circles and burst into song when no one else is around?  No?  Oh, okay.  Moving along . . .

Maria mistaking the butler for the Captain:  Love this - it's like one of those faux pas moments everyone has where you mistake someone for someone else.  "Oh, it's so nice to meet you.  You're Leslie's mother, right? Oh, you're her SISTER!  Oh, right . . ."  I never realized how funny this scene was until I grew up and became socially aware.  When I saw it as a kid it went right over my head.

Liesl and Rolf dancing and singing in the gazebo:  Again, another scene I didn't fully appreciate until I got older.  These two are so happy in the moment - nothing else exists.  "I am sixteen, going on 17, I know that I'm naive . . ."  It makes Rolf's betrayal later in the movie that much more terrible.  Although I have to say that the more I watch this scene the more I can see his shady nature lurking behind that pretty boy exterior.

The kids swinging from the trees as the Captain drives by:  Classic scene - the kids are all hanging like monkey from the trees on the side of the road, dressed in outfits that Maria has made out of her bedroom curtains, just as Captain Von Trapp drives by with his lady friend the Baroness and his buddy Max.  He brushes them off, saying "Oh, those are just some neighborhood urchins." But a split second later you can tell he realizes those are his children by a sudden stunned look on his face.  It's so brief you might miss it if you blink, but it's priceless.

The Captain rediscovers his love for music as he joins the children as they sing for the Baroness: I referred to this scene earlier when I was describing the little crying party we had on the couch over Christmas.  This is my new favorite scene - you can see the sudden transformation in the Captain as he listens by the door as the children sing to the Baroness.   It's like something has suddenly awakened inside of him and he's reborn.  It's really beautiful.  I'm going to stop talking about it now because I might start crying again.

Rolf's Betrayal:  We had such high hopes for Rolf when he sang to Liesl "I am seventeen, going on eighteen, I'll take care of you!" in the gazebo.  Too bad he turned out to be a Nazi.  Even though I've seen this movie ten million times, I still hope that when the Captain tries to get Rolf to run away with them that he'll do it.  But no, he blows that darn whistle every time and gives them up.  

The Nuns disconnect the car batteries on the Nazis cars:  Love this too - it's such a simple scene, so comic at the end of so much drama.  The Nazis are trying to chase the Von Trapps and none of their cars will start.  Then you see the nuns say to the head nun "Forgive us, sister, for we have sinned" and they hold up the car batteries.  It makes you see nuns in a whole new light!

The Von Trapp family escapes from Austria by walking over the mountains:  Ah yes, the grand finale.  They walk to freedom as the song "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" plays in the background.  I recently read that the real Von Trapps didn't escape by foot over the mountains but that they just hopped a train and left Austria.  How anti-climactic.

Anyway, those are just a few favorite scenes.  There are so many - but this post is WAY too long as it is so I think I'll stop.  If you're still with me then you are an even bigger fan of "The Sound of Music" than I am.  Either that or you just don't have anything better to do!