My heart will be blessed with the sound of music...

I didn't post anything last night because I was too busy watching The Sound of Music which my roommate just got as a present. It's been at least 15 years since I last saw it; back when my attention span was too short for the whole 3-hour movie, and I knew that Nazis were bad guys but didn't know about the Anschluss or the importance of the Captain's Austrian patriotism, and I had to have my mom explain to me the dynamic between Maria and the Baroness but I still didn't get what happened between them. I liked the songs, found the love scenes boring, and thought that the family walking over the mountains was alternately the saddest and stupidest ending ever.

But whoa. I would like to recant everything I've ever said about that movie, and simply say that it is The. Best. Ever. Christopher Plummer and Julie Andrews are incredible actors! A subtle movement or a certain look on their face speaks volumes (yes, I realize that's ungrammatical). The various plot elements were surprising to me since I was basically seeing them for the first time. The history that is playing out in the background as well, now that I know all about the war, adds a whole new dimension to the movie as I remembered it. I loved the way the nuns were portrayed, too: it's so easy to caricature nuns, but these women were devout, strong, realistic, valued God's plan above their own, saw married life as a beautiful and worthy vocation, had personalities, and managed to foil the Nazis by, of all things, removing parts of their cars' engines. I love it! But most of all, besides the music and the scenery and the history and the acting, I loved above all else...

Maria's wedding dress.

Just look at the picture! What else can be said? It's elegant, simple, modest, stunning. I want it.

My mom is encouraging me to visit Salzburg in December, when I have a couple of weeks free after my term in Ireland to do some travelling before I fly home. My original plan was to trek around Spain and go to the beach, but after watching this movie again, I might have to rethink my little plan.