Why It's a Favorite
The Sound of Music has been a favorite movie since childhood for me; I was swept up in it from the first time I saw it. Actually, I sat down and watched the whole thing when it came on TV--which is saying something for the hyperactive nine-year-old that I was then! I remember just being blown away that people could SING and DANCE to tell an entire story. And, as I've grown up watching it over and over, I've learned to appreciate the message of the film and its fairly faithful presentation of both the brighter and darker sides of people's natures and life itself.
It's not just a love story.
The film's plot is not just about a future nun accidentally falling in love with the father of the children she's looking after. True, this is a large part of the tale, but it takes place on the historical backdrop of Austria in the 1930s--a country riven with political strife, on the brink of Nazi takeover. The family's story is thus much more dramatic given that the geopolitical world is literally changing around them.
Captain von Trapp especially has strong nationalist views, with an admirable pride in his country (seen when he sings "Edelweiss", both times); he most certainly does not like the Nazi regime nor its threat to his homeland. Maria, though likely sheltered from most of this threat before now, comes to understand that the German takeover is a frightening threat to Austrian families, including the one she has come to love so dearly. This is why they choose to escape Austria at the end of the film--they both understand that to protect their family, they must leave this land they love until it is safe to return.
This brings across the message of the film: that love, beauty, and innocence still have a place in our lives even when the world turns dark, even when fear reigns. Love, beauty, and innocence give us strength and bravery to make it through the bad times, enable us to sacrifice time and effort to make things right again. This is such an important lesson, and it's one I think humans will never stop needing to hear.
Okay, yeah, it's a love story, too.
The romance of the film is so sweetly built (and based in reality) that it's always enchanted me. Like many of my other favorite films/books, like Beauty and the Beast, Jane Eyre, and even Dirty Dancing, The Sound of Music has the romantic storyline of "cheerful bright girl meets brooding, semi-melancholy man, and the two are wonderful for each other." The relationship begins in conflict, which becomes grudging admiration, then trust, and then--FINALLY--love. ♥♥♥ I adore this type of slow buildup in a fictionalized relationship, and it admittedly was the first thing that drew me into the story.
The music itself!
I have always been a very musical person, and from the first time I saw this film at nine years old, I fell in love with the music as well as the story. As a child, I danced around to "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" and "So Long, Farewell," and sang happily along with "My Favorite Things" and "Do, a Deer." And, as I've grown older and watched the film over and over, I've wept with Captain von Trapp as he sang "Edelweiss" (both times! Agh, I'm tearing up even now), and enjoyed the slowly blossoming love captured in "Something Good". (Indeed, that's my favorite song from the film, and I will use it in my wedding or bust. xD)
I also like how reprises of songs are used for dramatic effect. I've already mentioned how "Edelweiss" is used twice in the film, once to symbolize music coming back into Captain von Trapp's heart, and again to speak of his great love for his country. "So Long, Farewell" is also heard twice, once as a cheerful children's song, and reprised as the von Trapp family's "encore" piece at the folk music festival, subtly telling their audience (and the listening Nazis) goodbye without letting on that they're going to escape right out from under the Nazis' gaze. And "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" occurs early on as a coy courting song between Liesl and Rolfe, and later as a song of asking and giving advice between Liesl and Maria. This structures the tale very well without having to write more songs for it, and ties the narrative threads together...as well as showing that the same tune can have a VERY different meaning!