Mr. Holland's Opus

Rating:
Summary: Great drama, character development
Review: "Mr. Holland's Opus" takes the viewer on a journey through the life of a young musician (played by Dreyfuss) and his family. When pregnancy enters the picture the couple decides that, for the present, life on the road is not a good idea while the baby is on the way. He then accepts a position as a High School music teacher, just to make ends meet, and to give him time to compose. Then real life hits...

In the end it is teaching, not performing, that defines Mr. Holland's life. He is faced with personal and family challenges, motivated and ambivalent students, turbulent social times, and the continuing desire to compose...but there never seems to be enough time to do everything.

This is an excellent movie! The acting is wonderful, and the story is compelling and believable. And the sound track is great.

This movie is a triubute to the human spirit, and to the effect dedicated teachers can have on lives of their students. It deserves nothing less than 5 stars.

If you haven't watched this movie, do yourself a favor and give it a look. If, however, your movie tastes are driven by action, adventure, high-tech special effects, etc., then this movie may not be for you.

To all the teachers out there -- of music and everything else -- THANK YOU!

Alan Holyoak

Rating:
Summary: My Favorite Movie!
Review: I've seen a lot of classic films over my lifetime, but there was something about this movie that made it stand above the rest. Perhaps it was the moving story about a composer who turns to teaching in a high school to pay the bills, but winds up staying there for 30 years through a series of personal tragedies and triumphs. Maybe it was the spectacular cast that includes Richard Dreyfuss in an Oscar nominated turn as the title character, Glenne Headley as his loyal wife, Jay Thomas as his trusted friend, and Olympia Dukakis as the boss he hates and loves. It might have been the realistic way it portrays high school life over thirty years, or the wonderful use of music from different periods to add to the story, or even the way it doesn't stay away from sensitive issues in our world (death, war, the deaf, and the struggles of balancing work and family are all talked about). However, I feel the reason I love this movie so much is because of the realistic way it depicts a man's contributions to the world. The movie shows Glen Holland not as a saint, but as a flawed man who loved music deeply, and managed to pass on his love to some other children. It doesn't seem like much, but as we see in the teary final scene, the small things that Glen Holland did, in their own little way, made the world a better place.

Rating:
Summary: SCHMALTZY AND CLICHED, SAVED ONLY BY DREYFUSS
Review: Most of the reviewers on Amazon seemed to have loved this movie. They've said it made them cry, and think. This movie didn't provoke a tear from me.

I am not sure I'd attend classes that begin with rhetoric like 'What is music?' but Dreyfuss does a decent job of a quasi-inspiring teacher. Although this band master could be a little less mean when returning assignments.

The acting overall in the film is pretty plain though, and the somewhat interesting premise gets old real quick.

Some scenes are even borderline idiotic. First, our supposedly great teacher expects kids who don't know how to play their instruments to be playing Mozart after one day.

Then, there is a scene where he is teaching a girl how to play her clarinet. She has been playing the thing for 3 years but still can't get out a note. He tells her to think of the sunset, and suddenly she can play perfectly.

Corny. Very corny. Dreyfuss is pretty much the only thing going for this one-time rental.

Rating:
Summary: A Great movie for the whole family
Review: Glenn Holland[Richard Dreyfuss] is a man who has a dream of becoming a classical music composer. But it turns out that he teaches a high school music class. He first thinks that he shouldn't be teaching this class and he should be composing music. The story tells how he goes through his life helping his students, his wife and his deaf son Cole. After teaching for 30 years, he then discovers that teaching was really the correct job for him to do. He also discovers that he loved teaching for all those years even though that wasn't his first decision.

I thought that Richard Dreyfus did a great job. I thought that the movie was very well done and I thought that the story was very heartwarming. I also think that if you loved the movie, the soundtrack might also be worth getting. I own the soundtrack and some of the songs I really like.

Director Steven Herek has made a movie with a story that I will never forget.

Rating:
Summary: A Decent Film
Review: This movie set up a pin and knocked it down. It follows a rather predictable path, and the script relies too heavily on coincidences (such as the music-teacher having a deaf son) rather than character depth to make its point. However, it was genuinely entertaining and not too far over the top to watch again.
The back of the DVD case provides an ample summary of the plot:
"(Mr. Holland) accepts a 'day job' as a high school music teacher... In time, however, Mr. Holland realizes that his real passion is teaching..."
Coming myself from Oregon, where the film was set (and filmed), I was able to feel a great deal of empathy for the budget cut issues raised in the latter part of the film. The resulting cut of the art and music programs in the state actually occurred there, during the time when I was a student. It has been mentioned that, perhaps, the ending was not as bright as it could have been. However, it successfully portrayed a real problem in the modern American school system. There's no doubt about the message this is trying to send. Subtlety isn't a part of the film's charm.
I actually felt that most of the scenes have relevance. The scene of the funeral for the boy killed in Vietnam was a stock moment, but at least it was mercifully brief and tasteful, rather than pouring on hokey dialogue. It allowed Mr. Holland to make a tired point to a stoner in his class, and prove his excellent and influential teaching methods by the end of the film.
The encounter Mr. Holland had with a young singer in his school play who fell in love with him did actually add to the story. She makes the point that he could come with her to New York and pursue the dreams he always had (and gave up when he had a child, bought a house, etc). From the expression on Dreyfuss' face, the viewer can see that she has had an impact- that he perhaps hadn't even noticed until then that he had been simply marking time in his life, expecting it to be different "some day". In the very song Mr. Holland sings for his son, there is the line "life is what happens while you're busy making other plans", and the scene with the singer is when he realizes that for himself. In short, it's the character's catharsis scene- when he decides that he's actually pleased with what he has done, and what he is doing.
All this has been done before. There's really nothing original to be found in the script or the characters. "Mr. Holland's Opus" is simply a fairly well-done telling of a common tale. What makes it tolerable and, even, enjoyable, is that it mostly manages to steer clear of silly or unrealistic dialogue, even in its more overly melodramatic scenes.

Rating:
Summary: A Movie About Love and Love For Music
Review: Recent showing of "Music of My Heart" starring Merryl Strepp as a substitute teacher striving to sustain a violin program for low-income kids in New York City reminds me of this all-time favorite classic released back in 1996. The bottom line is love.

Situated in Oregon in the fall of 1964, Glen Holland (Richard Dreyfuss) took up a job as a high school music teacher as his wife became pregant. Holland, now shouldered with added responsibility as a soon-to-be father, a composer, and a teacher, faced the immediate challenge of working with a diverse group of students: the naturally talented, the rebellious, and the physically impaired.

This is a movie about love and love of music. Glenn Holland is the central figure who strives to love his students and family through his devotion to music. Born deaf-toned, the dream of teaching his own son to become an eminent violinist inevitably bursts with much frustration. Glenn Holland is not perfect; in fact, interactions with his students through failures and triumphs gradually refine him to be a loving and well-respected man. Love propels him to reconcile his frustration for his son and breaks the ice in his relationship with his wife.

For over 30 years, this young composer has taught generations of students not only about music, but love, respect, faith, and confidence. The final reunion of his students features orchestration of "American Symphony" to pay the highest tribute to this self-sacrificing teacher.

This is a movie that will move every soul and make everyone's tears roll down the cheek. It's all about love, and love moves. After 4 years since I first watched the premiere, it still touches my heart and brings tears to my eyes when I see it again on my flight to Asia.

Rating:
Summary: A Rare Contemporary Film that will Stand the Test of Time
Review: Hats off to Steven Herek for creating such a beautiful and realistic, life-affirming masterpiece. Unlike so many of today's films that rely on sex, violence, and trends that last all of 15 seconds, here is a movie that is appropriate for anyone who loves music and a thoroughly enjoyable story.

Glen Holland (Richard Dreyfuss)is a musician who hopes one day to compose a piece of music he will be immortalized for, so he takes a job as a high school music teacher believing that he'll have spare time to achieve his goal. He is sadly mistaken after, having had a few rough months reaching his students, he becomes one of the most popular teachers in his school and community. Free time for his own musical pursuits is the last thing he has left as his life becomes a parallel to the line in John Lennon's "Beautiful Boy"--Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans.

This life involves a vice principal who's jealous of him for being more popular than he is, never ending schedules to teach marching bands, individual students how to play their instruments and lessons in life, driver's ed, and school plays.

The most challenging thing for Glen Holland may be that he has to come to terms with the disappointment of being a music teacher whose own son is deaf, and the most touching thing is the closure he finally discovers with him after realizing his own infalibilities when almost tempted to run away with a young student cast in one of the school's low budget musical productions.

Not only is this film moving, but it has several moments of down-to-earth humor: Check out the kids who think they have talent as they try out for the Gershwin review. It may remind you a bit of American Idol. My personal favorite? Just before he reports for his first day of classes, Glen says to wife Iris, "What kind of people like to go to work at 7:30 in the morning?" I can only laugh and think what kind of people like to go to work at ALL?

Normally I don't care for Richard Dreyfuss, but he's so wonderful as a not-so-perfect Glen Holland who you sometimes don't like so well, and he's surrounded by a wonderful cast of characters. Olympia Dukakis as the principal is one of the best characters, and Alicia Witt is endearing as clarinet player Gertrude Lang.

This movie also has a strong message about the dangers of cutting creative programs in favor of turning kids into athletes and business machines. If you love music or any form of the arts in general, this is a movie you should see. Not only that, but it's also a life-affirming look at somebody who hated their position in life and, until he had to think about it years later, realized how much he loved it!

Please give this movie a go, even if you've heard it's corny sometimes. Life itself has corny moments. Beside that, what do you think will be playing on a classic movie channel 50 years from now: Mr. Holland's Opus or Hidalgo?

Rating:
Summary: Overrated.
Review: 'Mr. Holland's Opus' is a really overrated film. It is not as inspirational as everyone says it is. His life blows by way too fast and the movie glorifies 'The Beatles'. How many times can this culture glorify that stupid band over and over again!! Give me a break.

Rating:
Summary: Proud to be sentimental over this treasured memory
Review: I'd like to begin by saying that my rating for Mr. Holland's Opus is a 4.5. With my love for this movie, I chose to round to five. I think the reader deserves an explanation as to how I arrived at this number, because it's a bit unusual. I recognize that some of the other reviewers have valid criticisms about things that were in the plot that perhaps didn't work as well as they could have, and if I graded this on that aspect alone, I'd award a 3.5. What I gave back a full star for was the score done by Michael Kamen. *Especially* in a film that is about music, this is integral to the experience, and I think Mr. Kamen isn't getting nearly enough credit here. In fact, I would *very* much like to see a re-release of the DVD that, in the "Production Notes", will include a vastly expanded section about Michael Kamen and the process of composing the score for this movie. Any footage they have would be much appreciated--as it is, I cannot believe just how little attention was given to him and his work.

As to the plot...I have to say, I say unashamedly that I was and still am moved by it. I'm not going to rehash exactly what happens because many people have already done that job for me; my focus in writing this is elsewhere. I should like to make the point that in addition to the human element of the plot, it does point out a very important problem--the diminishing of music and art programs in our schools. In fact, Richard Dreyfuss and Michael Kamen set up the Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation in an effort to help in this matter, something which I hope readers will take a look at. I can say from my own experience that had I not had the great musical education in school that I was lucky enough to have, I would've missed out on a lot.

I only saw the movie a few times in the years since it was released, and as well as many details of the plot, the *impressions* of the music, even if not the note-for-note particulars, burned themseves indelibly upon my brain. Among my favorites are the powerful "Iris" theme, and the hauntingly beautiful "Rowena". The latter is a tune that, upon seeing the movie a few weeks ago for the first time in years, became instantly familiar the second I heard it again--I felt as if I'd found a tune I'd been seeking for all the intervening time in my own musical meanderings. That, more than anything, ought to serve as a testament to what Michael wrote here.

The "Finale" now has a strange parallel meaning to what it held in the movie. The music program having been cut off suddenly, the students Glenn Holland has had over the years gather to give him a glorious send-off, and to prove to him that his career, even abruptly abbreviated as it was, had a tremendous influence. That influence is the legacy of him that they will carry in their hearts. So it is now with the man who was truly behind that music--Michael Kamen passed away very suddenly on the 18th of November, 2003. But there is no doubt that through this, and many other things, he *will* have a fantastic legacy. I truly hope you will open your hearts to the music and the memory...to know its power and joy.

--Written in memory of Maestro Michael Kamen

Rating:
Summary: Performance of a lifetime for Richard Dreyfus
Review: Yeah, it's a little overblown and melodramatic, but it's also genuine, beautifully acted, and inspiring. Dreyfus is a music teacher at a local high school. He fancies himself a composer, and he is, but circumstances and fate keep him from devoting himself full time to that pursuit: his wife's unexpected pregnancy and the fact that the child born of that pregnancy is deaf. The end is predictably a rousing and emotional tearjerker - but still, it works just fine.