Mr. Holland's Opus

Rating:
Summary: A Feel-Good Heart-Warming Tale
Review: The heart-warming tale of a composer-to-be turned High School Music Teacher. With Richard Dreyfuss ("Close Encounters of the Third Kind") in the leading role, the story spans a 30 year time period in the changed life of the teacher. The story is one most of us can relate to as we try to achieve our hopes and dreams. If we only realize the lives we are truly touching. The movie offers some unique transitions between the years including archived film footage and real-life events that changed our nation. While not based on a true story, it certainly could be. The only issue friends had with the movie was the speed with which the non-musical high school became an overnight sensation. Considering the fact the movie covers such an expanse of time, one's imagination must be employed to lay the timeline. Good supporting cast, mostly newcomers with the exception of Olympia Dukakis (the Principal) and that guy that played that Car Salesman in "Fargo".

Rating:
Summary: An absolute masterpiece!
Review: I won't go into a long diatribe about the plot and the climax of this masterpiece. Many others have already done this admirably. You will not want to stop with only one viewing of this film. Once in a great while, something comes along that touches all of us in one way or another. Whether it's a movie, song, book, play, etc. you leave feeling better than you did when you before you experienced it. Anyone who has ever experienced the wide range of emotions associated with children, creating something that you hope will be everlasting, or just life in general, will thoroughly enjoy this movie. I have watched it many times and will more than likely watch it many more. I would agree with a previous reviewer when they state that this will become a classic over time and like fine wine, will get better with age. If you do watch this and don't feel an emotional swing at one part or another, better check your pulse.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful movie
Review: I found this movie to be heartwarming and touching. Richard Dryfus was fantasic as Mr. Holland. To see how he sacrificed his music to teach others. There was a very touching moment when Mr. Holland was signing and singing "Beautiful Boy" to his son Cole. Everytime my husband and I see this scene we both cry. We also loved the scene when his students came back to play his unfinished symphony to honor his retirement.

Rating:
Summary: A One of a Kind Classic
Review:
This movie is an all time classic. Have you ever been inspired by a teacher throughout your time? If so, you will understand and feel like you know how the students are feeling in the movie. Mr. Holland struggles with his students, having no money, trying to compose his first sympony, and the later having a deaf child shows how much strength a person has and what good can come from different situations. I wasn't a big fan of classical music until I saw this movie. It truely changes my perspective one music.

I really enjoy the part in the movie with the red-head girl that can't play the clarinet. She practices everyday and always stays after school to get extra help. Just when she wanted to quit because she couldn't play, Mr. Holland made her try one last thing and it worked. I know that Mr. Holland was a great teacher because a good teacher would stay after to help and maybe change a person life without even knowing it. I also went out and bought the soundtrack for the movie afterwards because the songs that are played are great. I listen to it all the time and just enjoy every song.





Rating:
Summary: Mind numbingly dull!
Review: This movie is just like To Sir With Love except they added an orchestra and took away characters or a story you could care about. It espoused a rather elitist view of the importance of music vis a vis other high school curriculum. A previous reviewer who described it as maudlin got it right on the nose.

Rating:
Summary: Great movie and I was in it!!
Review: I was in high school when I was an extra in the movie. There was a huge delay between when the movie was shot and when it was released like 2 years or so. It was a great experience to be in the movie. and when i saw it. I loved the storyline. I love to see areas in portland that were in the movie. The seen when the girl was leaving for new york(bus stop) is a small corner store shop in the st. johns section of portland oregon. There was also a seen where we were at a prom but that seen never made the cut. I ended up being seen only at the end of the movie. Im the only black guy playing onstage. I was playing a clarinet.

Rating:
Summary: Heartwarming
Review: Shows the triumph of the human spirit and the power of music, and how it can change lives. Good family movie with messages.

Rating:
Summary: Great but gotta go four...
Review: I just saw Mr. Holland's Opus, via BlockBuster for the FIRST TIME!, ...and I myself a musician (pianist), and raised by a dad who was in fact a "Mr. Holland" dad, ...the whole nine yards... My dad also a frustrated composer/high school teacher... but Dad finally got published... two of his vocal works, and before his demise his choral works had a primier performance where he was recognized locally, anyway, similarily.This movie is just "that" short of great.I've read several other reviews, and like them all. But the point that Glenn Holland was a New York gigging lounge pianist BEFORE the high school gig is always skipped in the bios, and it's an important part of the plot. _THIS_ high school teacher has just stepped down from an exiting high paced life entertaining in New York City, ...short of making it or being discovered, but nonetheless thick in the middle of the lifestyle. THIS FACT explains WHY, when he began to make progress with his students he was so capable of using pop styles effectively, to the horror of the prinçiple. He was a professional entertainer! The typical high school music teacher is rarely so capable in this area of music! I do agree with the negative reviews that mention, "One more time glorifying the Beatles," etc. and I do agree. The Beatles in my mind (as a musician if I may say) are highly overrated. Decent composers but not great. Entertainers and stylists that found a market, USA, begging for more, yes, but absolutely not... musicians on the level of Lehner and Lowe, Hammerstein, Cole Porter... Going back to Bach or Mozart? Not in a million years. Same for Elvis, hate to tell you folks. But nonetheless, The Beatles were more about the hippie movement, the long hair, the beads, the drugs. The music is rather palid, though some of the melodies a little cute. Nothing much more. It was more their "aura", less musical content. Nothing new. I found it a little strange for the writers to have Holland emotionally struck about John Lennon's assasination, it doesn't really fit. For a one time screaming teenage girl, yes. For a seasoned, educated, working musician who knows Mozart, Beethoven---to John Coltrane??? A news item, yeah, but not an emotional loss. Uhh,,, I say unlikely. I agree, the orchestra sounding like the London Symphony after two practices, (which it probably was), is this Hollywood REALLY condescending to moviegoer, USA or what??? They must really think none of us know anything. THey are always dumming down. But these observations of mine take about 2% off of a 100% 5 star movie. It's about 4.8. There is so much good in this movie it's incredible. The matter of the deaf son--- not an impossibility, and obviously the authors are deliberately bringing to public attention the issues of the deaf. This part was so engaging, and tearjerking. The youngest version of Cole, in the scene where he couldn't describe what he wanted out of the cupboard to helpless mom. If you could watch that without welling up in tears, there's something wrong with you! Oh that was so touching, and made a wonderful, heartwarming appeal to public awareness of the issues the deaf deal with. So marvelously presented. Another great part of this film. Our hero Holland did NOT take the devil's bait! FOR ONCE! HURRAY HOLLYWOOD! CAN'T BELIEVE IT! He was true to his wife, came home. Kissed her on the cheek and said goodbye. The girl, certainly only his young teen student to start, but also certainly, growing into womanhood, and at that point the inuendo was by all means present. Their teacher student relationship was 100 % wholesome, to the last minute. She was not a temptress, directly, ..not at all. She was ambitious, another young Billy Holiday. GOin to New York City. She dissappears from the plot right there. Did she make it?? Who knows? This film is overall, terrific. Just "that" short of really really great, but still great. Yes. Good for the whole family.THe social issues of music and arts programs in schools being at/

Rating:
Summary: As a professional violinist...
Review: ...this movie has recently had a profound impact on me. I saw it in the theatre in 1996, when I was a senior in high school. While I enjoyed it then, it is more poignant, tear-jerking and soul-enobling 8 years later as a 25-year-old. My compliments to Hollywood for putting out a major flick whose message is that only human folly is responsible for not funding quality education of the arts for our children.

The only forgivable believability gap is that once Mr. Holland turns his teaching attitude around after his first five months, the orchestra gets TOO good, TOO quickly. Up to January, the orchestra sounds as bad as humanly possible. By the end of that same school year the orchestra sounds about as good as, say, the Cincinnati Youth Symphony, of which I was a member when I first saw this movie in 1996. The Cincinnati Youth Symphony (or any Major American City, USA Youth Symphony) consists of the area's most advanced high-school-aged musicians. These are the ones who are most likely the best player on their instrument at their local high school, regularly practice multiple hours a day and perhaps give up a certain degree of normal high-school life in order to excel on their instrument. Regardless of how much of a "genius" Mr. Holland might have been at teaching, it is impossible to believe that ANY orchestra can get THAT good, THAT soon. And in a later scene in the movie, right before Mr. Holland sings Lennon's "Beautiful Boy," the school orchestra is shown playing the final coda of Beethoven's "Eroica" Symphony, and they sound as good as a major professional orchestra, and I myself have played that piece with PROFESSIONAL ensembles that don't sound as good as the students of JFK High! :) Nonetheless, this criticism does not get in the way of the main messages of the film and does not warrant the docking of any stars.

At the end, when Mr. Holland tells principal Walters that "Cut the arts and... pretty soon these kids won't have anything to read and write about," it reminds me of a Winston Churchill quote: "If we're not fighting for the arts and culture, what are we fighting for?"