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And it bears lingering for a second on just how ingrained in popular culture this musical is. Short of, perhaps, The Wizard of Oz or Mary Poppins, songs like “Do-Re-Mi,” “The Sound of Music,” and “My Favorite Things” are instantly recognizable by most people, even today. If you don’t, I suggest you pause reading this column and not come back until you’ve seen this movie. Seriously.

Perhaps the best sign of greatness, however, is how often a movie is the basis for a parody or joke - because the joke writer assumes broad familiarity with the underlying material. I have seen references to the Sound of Music far and wide, from Looney Tunes and Simpsons cartoons to the Oscar telecast itself. Not much more need be said about Julie Andrew’s moving performance, or the exquisite on-location setting of the movie across Austria and Germany. Indeed, the Sound of Music tour in Salzburg, Austria, should be on everyone’s bucket list.

If more were needed to convince you that this movie deserves a place on this list, then I have to words for you: Rodgers & Hammerstein. Enough said, I hope.

3. Moulin Rouge!

In 2001, a little-movie-that-could called Moulin Rouge! took Hollywood, and the world, by surprise. The Baz Luhrmann masterpiece was arguably responsible for Nicole Kidman winning Best Actress the following year for The Hours and for Chicago becoming the first musical to win Best Picture since 1968’s Oliver! Indeed, a quick glance through the lists tells me that no musical had even been nominated for the top prize since the 1980s, unless you count Beauty and the Beast in 1992, until Moulin Rouge! put the wind back in the dead sails of musicals in Hollywood up to that point.

The public’s warm reception of the Academy’s embrace of Moulin Rouge! arguably gave them cover to return the top prize to a sing and dance flick. Of course, in the modern times of Hollywood, the times of the graveyard of ideas where whatever makes it big will be emulated endlessly, Moulin Rouge! also unwittingly caused a string of disastrous musicals being produced. - The Phantom of the Opera and The Producers come to mind - and emboldened Luhrmann to make kitschier films, none of which have ever existed in the same galaxy as Moulin Rouge!

But aside from its unappreciated cultural legacy and impact, what makes Moulin Rouge! so great? The answer, essentially, is all of it. The music is incredibly imaginative considering it consists of mashing together old classics (including a riff on The Sound of Music’s title song). The cinematography and set decoration (for which it won an Oscar) are stunning and perfectly fitted to the different moods of the movie and narrative. On top of all this, the flawless performances by Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman as star-struck but ill-fated lovers are unexpected in that the actors convince us that they have a real emotional connection despite their obviously different physical appearances. And despite the derivative nature of some of the numbers, the movie is a wholly original production.

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