Rowena Sequence

Though I agree that the relationship with the son was an important aspect for the film to tackle, i wouldn't dismiss the Rowena angle so lightly. She represented Mr. Holland's life-dream. She was a seductress urging and coaxing him to follow his dream at a point in his life when he felt his dream was completely lost and abandoned in favor of this sub-par life that he just happened to fall into.

Holland was trapped. trapped by an unwanted career, a mortgage, a family, stuck teaching musical scale to children who don't give a rat's patootie beyond what three chords will get them a passing grade or entrance to a garage band.

Along comes this fresh-faced beauty with life and hope in her eyes with a beautiful voice telling Mr. Holland that his dream is still within reach and that together, they can make each other's dreams come true.

The Rowena sequence is a very important aspect of the story that ties in with the John Lennon line that "life is what happens while you're busy making other plans".

That it didn't go anywhere IS the part that propels the story and puts Mr holland in a very comfortable place in his life, accepting that the dream was just that- a dream. And that his life is what was ready to give him the fulfillment he really desired if he would just simply put down the pen and pick up on everything that was going on around him.

The Rowena sequence took him out of his isolation and regret, getting Mr. Holland involved with his life and the peace of mind in what meaning his life gave him.
And with that, he would be the great teacher and encourage Rowena to follow her dream and do what he could to help her make her dream come true - not to live vicariously through her, but to tell her that her dream is not stupid, not silly and not unachievable.

That moment at the bus stop was Mr. Holland telling himself that his dream was not as important to him as the reality he already possessed. And that Rowena's life was all ahead of her and that her dream could still be her reality.

So the Rowena sequence was, in my opinion, vital to the story for it provided Mr. Holland the epiphany he needed for his peace of mind.

And after all, it is HIS story. His opus.


My "#3" key is broken so I'm putting one here so i can cut & paste with it.

The idea was to show that Rowena was like Mr. Holland in a way that she was a dreamer of making it big. She decides to do that right after the last performance and go to NY. Holland thinks about going with her but realizes that that isn't right. His home is with his family so he decides to help Rowena when she gets to NY by giving her the name of a friend who will help her so she won't be homeless as she starts on her journey.

I get what you're saying from a purely "I like happy endings and this is what I wish had happened" point of view, but I think you're missing the point of the plot.

This is a story of an ordinary man's life. Not an exceptional father or husband or anything else, not successful (by his own reckoning) in life, not talented enough to achieve his dream, not financially well off; just your ordinary working Joe. He has small successes and big failures. He makes mistakes and terrible choices that could, with a less supportive wife, have really hurt his marriage. He's sometimes impatient and condescending with his students, which probably stems from his own personal frustration. He's tempted by an alluring young woman. He's sometimes unresponsive and undemonstrative to his wife, and he hardly seems to notice his son.

He's got just about every fatal flaw in the book ... yet we love him for them, not despite them.

To alter the focus of the plot would have been to write a different story.

Yeah but Rowena was fine.

The fact that the movie focuse at that point on Rowena, ignoring Cole and, to some extent, Mr.holland's wife too, exactly mirrors Mr. Holland's behavior towards his family. You think that's a coincidence?

Well, it shows that Glenn realized his wife and son were more important to him than a fresh young hottie and a chance to write his music.

He COULD have chosen to go with Rowena, but there was no guarantee Rowena was going to make it or that she wouldn't get very tired of Glenn very quickly and dump him, and then Glenn would have thrown his whole life away for a couple of weeks with Rowena Morgan.






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4) You ever seen Superman $#$# his pants? Case closed.

Iris had told Glenn that she had a crush on her music teacher, so when she realizes that "Rowena" - the name on piece Glenn was working on - was, in fact, a cute young flirt with eyes on Mr Holland, his wife remembered herself and handled it quietly.

This sequence IS important since it crystallizes the reality of Glenn's marriage, son and home: facts he hasn't yet come to grips with, especially Cole's deafness. When Rowena offers another, more glamourous path, Glenn finally 'gets' it, and sends Rowena to pursue her own dreams.

Her only purpose of her scenes was to show how she became mr. Hollands Muse that's all. Nothing to it than that.