The Hills Are Alive . . .

On Sunday night, one of the network television stations showed the Sound of Music, which is my number one favorite movie. (For those of you who might take this to mean I am some sort of strange Pollyanna of a movie lover, please note that other movies on my top 10 list include Old School and Blow.) I didn't watch it on TV, mostly because I own the deluxe DVD version (with 120 minutes of extras and a sing-along feature!!!!) and I had watched it a few days earlier.

Back when I was a child and there were only three good channels on our bunny-eared television, watching the Sound of Music during the holiday season was the equivalent of going to church on Christmas Eve. I sat right in front of our tiny Sony TV and dreamed of being Maria. I sang along with all of the songs. I danced right along with Liesl and Rolfe singing Sixteen Going on Seventeen and yodeled with the puppets during the puppet show. Every year since I can remember, my family repeated this tradition around Christmas.

My love of the movie extends to the rest of my life too. Members of my extended family routinely sing So Long, Farewell when we leave each other and once all of the cousins in my family acted it out for our grandparents. Do-Re-Mi was the first song I learned to play on the piano and is the only song I can still play. I sing Edelweiss every night to my son before he goes to bed.

However, the movie is long - three or four hours when shown on television with commercials (depending on editing) and I was a little girl who had to go to bed early. So, for many years, I thought the movie ended when the family performs at the Salzburg music festival and waves goodbye. I thought they were leaving to go on their musical tour and live happily ever after.

In high school, a friend and I were discussing our love of the movie. She said, "Oh, I love it so much but I just hate it when the Nazis come!" I sat there for a moment and said, "What Nazis? There aren't any Nazis in the Sound of Music!" She just looked at me and laughed. I was adamant - there were not Nazis in my favorite movie!

I marched home and confronted my parents with this silliness. Nazis in the Sound of Music! Lunacy! Of course, they said, they come at the end to get Captain Von Trapp. I insisted on renting the movie that evening and watching it to the end. Then I demanded an explanation as to why they had never let me watch past the music festival. I mean, these were people who never let me believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy. But they thought it was OK to lie to me about my favorite movie and Nazis??

They explained, "We always turned it off after the music festival because there was always a commercial break and it was time to go to bed. There wasn't anything protective about it, other than protecting your sleep."

To this day, I am somewhat surprised when the Nazis come in the Sound of Music. In my memory of the movie, I can't even picture it. Despite my characteristically grim view on most of the world, I like to convince myself certain parts of movies don't exist. For example, I had an argument with my cousin about Titanic. I refused to believe the old woman Rose died in the end - I insist that she merely went to sleep and was dreaming the part when she fell in the ocean.

I hate the part of Pretty in Pink when she snubs Ducky. Who couldn't love Ducky?? I also can't watch the awkward sex scene in When Harry Met Sally because I can't deal with the reality that I, too, "am going to be 40 . . . ." and am still single. Maybe I still looking for my Captain Von Trapp.