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Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music is perhaps one of the most popular musicals ever to hit the stage. When director Robert Wise turned the story into a movie in 1965, the production reached an even wider audience and garnered even more fans around the world. The Sound of Music remains one of the most popular musicals ever made, even four decades after its first showing in theaters.

The Sound of Music is based on the true story of the Von Trapp Family Singers. Captain Von Trapp (played by Christopher Plummer) is the widowed father of seven children of varying ages, from 16 on down. The Von Trapp children are a handful, and have run off several governesses from the home. As a result Capt. Von Trapp has to keep trying to find someone new to take care of his children.

One day, a woman named Maria (Julie Andrews) comes to the Von Trapp family by way of a convent. Maria is a nun who is unsure of her calling, and who, on the advice of her Mother Superior, is taking some time to consider her future. Maria doesn't really seem to fit in at the abbey. She is always so bright, cheerful, and full of life and joy that she has trouble obeying the strict rules that the nuns must adhere to. The mother superior thinks it would be a good idea for Maria to spend a bit of time in the outside world to be absolutely certain that the sisterhood is for her.

At first, the Von Trapp children treat Maria the same way they treated all their other governesses. Namely, they disobeyed her, played tricks on her, and generally tried to make her job as difficult as possible. This of course made Maria look bad to the captain, who thought she should have no trouble taking care of the children. That's probably because he was so strict with them himself and they obeyed his every order immediately. In fact, he doesn't even bother addressing the children by name. Instead, they each have been assigned their own whistle signal, so whenever the captain wants a specific child, he just blows the proper signal out on the whistle.

Maria is appalled at the way the captain runs his household and she is determined to do things differently. She believes the children should play and have fun, not be subjected to harsh rules all the time. Thus, she starts to reach out to them through music, teaching them a variety of happy tunes that they sing throughout the day. This eventually wins the children over, but the captain is another matter entirely.

Nevertheless, Maria is such a charming, honest, refreshing woman that Captain Von Trapp falls in love with her in due course. Maria struggles for a bit with the question of whether she should leave the convent or not, but does end up in the captain's arms.

The entire story is set against the backdrop of World War II, with the Nazi invasion of Austria (the Von Trapps' home) imminent. Thus, a subplot involves the family's harrowing escape from Salzburg just prior to the invasion.

Like most people, I've seen The Sound of Music many times. Each time I watch it, I find something new that I like about it. The first time I viewed the movie, the famous songs immediately caught my attention. There are so many that you'll recognize right off the bat, including "The Sound of Music," "Do Re Mi," "My Favorite Things," "Sixteen Going on Seventeen," and the beautiful "Edelweiss."

But with subsequent viewings, I started appreciating different aspects of the movie. I learned to enjoy the love story between the captain and Maria, I learned to sympathize with what the children were going through, and I learned to appreciate the significance of Capt. Von Trapp fleeing his homeland.

Overall, I think The Sound of Music is one of the best family films ever made. Sure, it's cheesy, overly sentimental, and highly predictable. But that doesn't diminish the viewing experience at all, in my opinion. I can understand why this movie wouldn't appeal to everyone, but I definitely side with the majority here when I say this is a film that shouldn't be passed up!