Customer Reviews

Mr. Holland's Opus

5 star:		(139)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

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.

The quality of Mr. Holland's Opus spreads evenly throughout its plot, its message, and its marvelous appreciation of music and the arts. In fact, this movie delivers both definition and demonstration of music appreciation as a whole, absent of selective bias. Devoid of senseless killings, violence, or notable language, Opus is a family movie without the corny overtones. For many it's a tearjerker.

But Mr. Holland's Opus unfolds an issue. It is a simple plea for an increase in music appreciation among society--particularly our young people. Mr. Holland's career is pressured more and more by the gradual, yet perpetual governmental cuts in school funding for the arts amid the US. In sharp contrast, the movie makes it clear that support for the sports programs in public schools remain firm and solid. Careful to avoid cursing this predicament or hurling insults toward society, this message is rather Hollywood's way of calmly saying, "Take a look," using the common life of an otherwise forgotten music teacher.

The central beauty of the movie is in the character of Mr. Holland himself. He is an ardent yet sensible lover of music. The viewer will find no arrogance or snootiness in Mr. Holland. It's not his style. Instead, Holland's concern for the progressive loss of interest in the arts is voiced simply, directly, and peacefully.

The movie delivers a powerful message through ordeals within his family. Struggling with the hardships of common fate (and some not so common), Holland learns new depths of love and companionship from both his wife and son. He is a man of emotions like anyone else. He looses his temper on occasions. But Mr. Holland is always in control of himself. He deals with pressures to the best of his ability as they occur.

Mr. Holland is a believable person. The viewer is free to place him into society with the rest of the world and to walk in his shoes for a spell. A superb job from the entire cast of characters, the journey is emotionally rewarding.

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.

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.

This movie never ceases to amaze me. The plot is unique, the acting is superb, and the conflicts and resolutions are exceptional.
Richard Dreyfuss plays a musician named Glen Holland who becomes a music teacher in 1965 in order to make a decent living for his wife, who becomes pregnant. He goes against his will, and he really hates the job at first because his style is too dry and the students were unresponsive. There was simply no connection between the teacher and the students.

However, Dreyfuss develops a teaching style built around how music can change one's life. And this movie is about how each and every one of his students' lives were touched by Dreyfuss and his passion for music.
However, it is not all peaches and cream. There are some very sad aspects to this movie. Mr. Holland's first and only son is born deaf, which must was disappointing and heartbreaking for such a music fan as Mr. Holland. Mr. Holland is faced with the challenge of teaching music to his deaf son. I'm not going to give away the ending, but one moving part of this movieis the fact that even Mr. Holland's deaf son can understand the power of musicians like John Lennon.
This movie is truly moving and has a powerful message regarding musics profound influence. I recommend this movie to everybody; it is a fine piece of work.

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

This is such a poignant story. The story involves a musician whose greatest dream is to compose, and see performed, a classical work of musical expression. But as with many in life, the demands of reality force him to put aside his dream and take a job as a teacher. He faces frustrations and disappointment in his career, family, and his music and does it with courage. As he struggles for 30 years, with the many conflicts in his life, he is still able to share his appreciation for the art while clinging to his dream. He touches many hearts with music, defining it's significance in our lives. But, this isn't just about a teacher, it's about everyone, and the sacrifices made for the important things in life. Each of us can identify ourselves in some way. We see how one man learns to accomplish it all, while giving back a part of himself. And finally there is the realization of how far his talent can reach, when amazingly it is revealed who he has touched most. It is heroism at it's most fundamental state. This movie is about everyone who holds on to their dreams, never giving up. This movie gives hope to all who chance to dream, and encouragement to those struggling to find a dream to hang on to.

If you've ever once wondered how you might have touched the lives of those around you, you will both laugh and cry at "Mr. Holland's Opus". It's the story of a man who decided to devote his entire life to composing a great opus but practicality interfered and in order to pay the bills, he decided to fall back on his teaching certificate by taking a teaching job at a local high school. For the first five months, he went through the motions and the students were as bored in his class as he was. Furthermore, the student he was tutoring in clarinet was making no progress. He then realized that the boredom and frustration his students were feeling was due to his failing them, rather than the reverse so he began teaching them about classical music through the rock 'n roll that they could relate to. Soon, his students' performance began to improve and they began to appreciate the music that HE could relate to. His clarinet student drastically improved as well. As he gained the love and respect of his students and the faculty at the school, Mr. Holland's duties began to increase. He was in charge of the orchestra, the marching band and later, the school play. All the while, he hadn't given up trying to compose his opus. During that time, his wife gave birth to their son, Cole and soon afterward, it was discovered that Cole was deaf and Holland realized that he couldn't share the music that he loved with his own son. He continued teaching students, dealing with the frustration of not being able to communicate with his son and trying desperately to finish his opus. What was intended to be a short "gig" at the local high school, turned in to a career spanning 30 years. At the age of 60, Mr. Holland found that the school was no longer going to be funding the music department and he was out of a job. When the students whom he taught and whose lives he affected over the years found out the news, they held a farewell gathering for him and assembled an amateur orchestra consisting of the students from the past years, they played for him and the audience, Mr. Holland's Opus. It was then that he realized that his opus wasn't really the music piece that he had spent the last 30 years struggling over. It was the lives of all of those students that he affected by his passion for music and his desire to teach it to them as well. Believe me, I haven't given away everything! There are plenty of details that you will have to see for yourself. It's an incredible film and Richard Dreyfuss, despite being one of my absolute favorite actors, has an Oscar-winning performance in this movie. Buy this movie AND a box of tissues!

I may be biased, being a music student in high school, but this film will strike a chord with anyone in the audience. Perfectly true to life with the crisis of school funding and the pretentious notion that sports and math are more important to education than musical theory, this film pulls you in without hesitation.

There are plenty of critics that interpret the quality of the film, and plenty of buyers who rated their delivery service, but I feel the need to find the middle ground. If you want a powerful movie that you will watch more than once... and something that you can easily enjoy with the whole family, this film is for you.

Incredibly casted and conducted, this movie is perfect for music fanatics and movie-goers alike. One of the best of the decade, and still in my personal top-ten list.

Very few movies can be defined as perfect, this is one of them. None of the acting is over the top, Richard Dreyfus is exceptional in the role and there isn't a blemish on a single of the supporting actors and actresses. Olympia Dukakis, William H. Macy, Glenn Headley all are assets to the production.

A young Terrence Howard shows a hint of his future talent as a poor student who Holland takes under his wing and teaches the bass drum as a trade-off to the PE teacher who agrees to teach Holland's students to march.

Covering 30 years and hundreds of countless lives that he touched, the movie highlights the talent of a young Jean Louisa Kelly who can bring one to tears with her version of "Someone To Watch Over Me".

The movie montages several of the strifeful events of the 60s and 70s which add context to the times with the assassination of John Lennon being the most significant considering it brings Holland and his deaf son Cole to a crossroad in their relationship.

The one aspect that was somewhat disappointing but not at all a judgement on the film is the fact that after all he had done, he was easily cast aside over budget cuts. When we as a society simply can't afford to employ such a man who influenced so many people, it's probably time to reassess our values.