I thought this movie was awful. I didn't like Mr. Holland. I didn't like his class. I thought it was all total cheese. Oh, and I hate the song he writes at the end.
But so many people love this movie and think it was a touching story. I don't get it.
This movie is probably my favorite. It's not often that I get choked up during a movie, but this one did it for me. I'm a music education major, and I would kill to have the impact that Mr. Holland had.
Remember kids, dressing up like Hitler in school isn't cool!share
I AM a music teacher and a composer and can relate fairly closely to this film.. I find it profoundly depressing... as I see my own compositions sitting on the side and going unfinished.
I hope I don't end up like him, never completing my life's work.
he did complete his life's work. He got his opus. I loved this movie, I may not be a music teacher but my favorite teachers have always been my music teachers. They inspired me as I'm sure you inspire your students. This movie showed how he did fulfill his life work and it became more than just composing; it became teaching others to love music as much he does too. He became his family, his students, and his music.
shareDon't under estimate yourself. Sometimes, if not often, it takes years before a student realizes the impact a teacher makes on them.
shareNo, I couldn't stand it. I think it was unbelievable, and I never got any real sincerity in Mr. Holland's performance. You want a story about how music changes a person's life? Watch The Piano. That's a film that moved me so much that I couldn't get up out of the theater chair. That's what a love of music is about: destroying the love of your musical life to find love in your real life.
Mr. Holland needs to go to New Zealand. Try to be a pompous educator in knee-deep mud.
:(
If a person gives up music for a person, then they dont really love music that much.
Some people dont get the movie..
Some people dont understand art or culture either.
Go figure: I loved Opus; I hated the Piano. I may have had the wrong approach - like the OP.
shareFor starters, you might want to grow a heart...
sharelove is love.
Be it for music, or for people.
Some people cant understand why others feel love for music (or art, or theatre, or their country, etc)
Giving up love of music for love of a person means the love of music was lower then the love of a person.
For some people, love of music is higher then their love for a (or any) person.
With all respect for the haters.. If you didn´t like this movie either you´re a cyborg with no sentiments, a 12 years old boy or someone who doesn´t appreciate the good cinema. choose one
shareI saw this when I was a 12 year old boy, and frankly I'm offended...
Haha, jk'ing about the offended part, great movie for all ages.
The myriad responses indicate that you are not alone in your dislike for this movie, as with many fine screenplays it is often too deep for those who enjoy car chashes, axes in foreheads, and relentless automatic weapons fire.
This is not a movie about music, the great American symphony,or strained and repaired relationships with family. but a movie involving Mr. Holland's agonizing over his perceived failure. His failure was in not recognizing the positive impact he had upon others.
You have missed the point which was glowingly illustrated in the summary by the lady speaker who told us that success need no be measured by fame and fortune, but by the immortality acheived by reaching out and touching so many lives. The audience was made up of students from all thiry years of Holland's tenure, each of whom had benefited by his presence. He had enhanced thier lives and those of thier progeny (offspring)" We are your notes and melody line Mr. Holland. We,... are your symphony.
So young lady let me suggest this. If you died tomorrow, how would you wish to be remembered? How many lives have you touched with your goodness and for how long will you be missed?
Your question including the word "hate" should be ammended to "didn't understand".
*Very* well stated!
Bravo!
Vette,
Let me first commend you on an articulate comment on the movie--it was a nice change of pace for the IMDB scene.
As you eloquently asserted, the themes with which the movie deals are certainly valid themes--what really matters in life, professional and otherwise? what sort of legacy are we making for ourselves?--and are issues that all but demand exploration, whether in film or in print. However, the validity of those themes doesn't necessarily overcome a film or book's flaws to make it a good movie or book. I, for example, enjoy movies that deal with courage in the face of adversity, and how people deal with the realities of life; as a result, I often enjoy war movies. The fact that Pearl Harbor and Enemy at the Gates touched on those issues, though, does not mean that they explored them well or that they are good movies solely for having dealt with those themes.
As for Mr. Holland's Opus, I felt that the character was too unlikeable for me to empathize with, and that, in general, his interactions with his students (those we got to see) were not particularly convincing as evidence of his role as a great teacher who inspired and enriched the lives of the students entrusted to him. I didn't find the students particularly endearing or memorable (perhaps because we see so little of each class before they move on/graduate), and as a result, was left feeling flat and nonplussed at the end of the movie.
By way of comparison, I felt like Dead Poets Society did a better job of creating a character that I could actually believe was changing the lives of his students, and who I could believe would inspire the sort of admiration that the students showed for him at the end of the film.
Also, I think you're a little unjustified in making judgments about Crewgrrl's age ("young lady") level of understanding (in your last line) and intelligence/depth (your first sentence). It is not clear to me if the questions in your penultimate sentence "How many lives have you touched with your goodness and for how long will you be missed?" are meant to be an implication about the worth of Crewgrrl's existence or not, but if they are I find that sentence to be in bad taste and utterly unjustified. I don't know that you have any evidence to support any of those assertions other than the fact that she disliked a movie that you enjoyed. That you make such irrational and apparently groundless assumptions about Crewgrrl personnally really reduces the credibility of your very well articulated comments on the film itself.
You'll note that I didn't much enjoy Mr. Holland's Opus either. I'm not going to make assertions about or insult your intelligence, age, or usefulness to society, in spite of your example (your "touching lives with goodness" line is especially ironic in that context). If, however, you chose to do so in a later response to me, let me give you a hint or two: I'm not young, I'm not shallow, I don't enjoy axes in foreheads, and I am quite capable of understanding mainstream American cinema.
Have you ever read a more self-relevant piece of crap than the response by vette329nh? according to this individual, anyone who doesn't share his/her/its love of this sickly-sweet, maudlin piece of crap,doesn't get it. Spoken like a true 6th grader. There's nothing to get. It's a maudlin piece of sentimental detritus for bourgeois provincials. I'm sure you think that "Beautiful Boy" is the best song John Lennon ever wrote.
If I begin to die, please take this off my head. This is not the way I wish to be remembered.
Excellent response, Vette!
If it walks like a Duck and quacks like a Duck, it must be a Duck.....or is it?
I find it interesting that people seek out movies on IMDB just to tell others how bad they are. I am watching it on TV right now, and it's 4:43 AM here in California. It's a very good story, but requires more though than many people seem to have.
shareSometimes you have to have lived a life to appreciate it.
Watch this movie when you're about 50 and I think you'll see it in a very different light.
Youth is so wasted on the young.
What is that supposed to mean? I'm 49, and, as a musician, I'll say it, again. This is the most maudlin piece of crap there ever was. Maybe some people at 50 are so sentimental and lacking in musical taste as to think that "Beautiful Boy" is a good song, but I ain't one of them.
Once upon a time there was an old woman who would wake up at 7:30 every day. Every day, she would set her kettle to boil, and make her oatmeal. The kettle went off every at precisely 7:36, and she would take it off and drink her tea and eat her oatmeal. At 8:02 every morning she would go downstairs to get her newspaper, and every day she would hold the door open for the mailman. She would go upstairs and let her noisy cats out her window for them to explore. Then she would sit down and read the newspaper until lunch.
One day she woke at 7:30 and suddenly thought, this is terrible. I don't do anything with my life. No one needs me. What's the point in waking up?
So she stayed in bed that day. At almost nine she heard a commotion outside of her door, and she opened the door up, and was surprised to see nearly everyone she knew (and some she didn't know) standing outside her door, including a man who looked like a doctor.
Said the doctor, "Are you ill?"
The old woman said, "No. Why do you ask? What's going on?"
The doctor said, "All these people were worried about you when you didn't get up."
A little girl who lived next door said, "I always wake up when I hear your tea kettle go off and it didn't go off so I didn't wake up and I missed school."
The man who lived underneath her said, "I didn't hear your feet walking on the floor so I couldn't wake up, and now I've missed my bus."
The mailman said, "There wasn't anyone to hold the door open for me today!"
A woman she didn't recognize said, "I didn't hear your cats yowling this morning so I didn't know it was time to drive my children to school."
The old woman was amazed. Even though she felt she didn't do anything at all she affected so many people's lives in so many different ways.
That's the same message as this movie. That's the point.
That's a really great story, and indeed an apt analogy.
The elderly protagonist of your story was not particularly likeable. She looked out for herself, feeding her cats, drinking tea, and sitting around the house. She was probably correct in assuming that she small, if any, contributions to society. She did open the door for the milkman, which was polite. The moral of your story seems to be that even relatively useless members of society influence the lives of others, even if it's only by way of their obnoxious, yowling cats.
Mr. Holland was, similarly, primarily self interested. He took the teaching job as a fall-back option, resented his lot, and spent a lot of time feeling sorry for himself. He did an adequate enough job of teaching, which I feel is a fair thing to expect from someone who is being paid to teach, and is perhaps the moral equivalent of opening the door for a presumably able-bodied milkman. Under the old lady theory, Mr. Holland's lifetime of mostly self-interested behavior doubltes influenced others (and certainly more significantly than did the old lady).
So if the moral is that you can pretty much do your own thing, and be fairly unremarkable, and still think of yourself as a hero because in spite of your self interest you still had some human contact (and I think you make a strong argument for this), fine. I think, as morals go, that's not an especially laudable one--but I fully respect your opinion, and that of anyone else who enjoyed this movie or found it meaningful/moving.
SOME SPOILERS
Ok I realize I'm replying to this over a year after the fact, but I just saw the movie last night and stumbled upon the thread now.
Anyhow, I don't see how the analogy of the old cat lady relates to Mr. Holland at all, beyond the fact that they both don't realize the impact they have on the people around them. The old lady does nothing to consciously help others, while Mr. Holland clearly does and just doesn't realize how profound his impact is.
He began teaching as a secondary, "fall-back" option, mainly so he'd have free time to work on composing music. He resented his lot when he realized that he was expected to spend a lot of that "free time" being a moral guide (a "compass", as Mrs. Jakobs says). Yet, when he helps the red-headed girl with the clarinet, there's no real self-interest there. He's simply driven to help her to love music and pursue her passions. With Russ (the drummer), there's some self-interest as he's been told that if he can help the kid learn an instrument, the Phys Ed teacher would help with the marching band. But his level of involvement with him seems to me to extent beyond what is really necessary or expected. As is the case later on with Rowena. When she sings for the school musical, the other teachers are all impressed with her voice and think she's perfect, but Holland takes her aside to help her understand the emotional side of music, and that aspect of the character she is playing. It would have been easy to leave things as they were - a beautiful voice and nothing else. And then of course there is the other fellow - the smart, cocky one that he takes to a funeral on a Saturday. How many teachers get that involved with their students? Does he do this for reasons of "self-interest"? Is this really nothing more than holding the door for an "able-bodied milkman"?
His development as a teacher is mirrored by his thoughts on John Coltrane all those years ago, the album he hated so he played again until he couldn't stop listening to it. He says this to his wife when she's pregnant - he was a bit let down by the news initially but is telling her the news gets better with every listening, every thought given to it. And as a teacher, he was initially disappointed with the required investment of his time; it was like his dislike of Coltrane's album upon the first hearing of it. However, the more he played this 'album', the more he got into it, until he got so entrenched in and engrossed with his teaching that he had trouble giving enough time to his family, and to his own work. There's clearly way more than "self-interest" going on there.
My only real beef was with the composition at the end. I really enjoyed Rowena's theme, and thought for sure it would be central in his symphony. I would have liked to hear it at the end there.
I think that the movie was very inspirational and showes the impact on life can have on so many i hope i will have that kind of impact some day
Well, I didn't hate the movie itself but I was shaking my head at the ending. Consider the irony of it.
Imagine you were someone who sacrificed your own personal ambitions as a composer to teach music. For years and years, you poured out your heart and soul to your students. And during this experience, your students gave you every impression that they appreciated your efforts on their behalf and considered you to be of value to them. But then, when your students grew up, how did they show their appreciation??? By cutting your music program from the school's budget, denying their OWN children the same experience they had with you ... all for the sake of a tax buck.
If I had been Mr. Holland, the movie would have had a totally different ending. When those former students threw their "going away" party for me, I'd have said this:
"How many of you are willing to help me in a fund-raising effort to save my music program?"
"That's what I thought. If you want to celebrate my unemployment, you'll have to do it without me because I'm leaving now."
We had to watch it at school, and it gave me a headache.
shareTo enjoy this film (and for the most part, I did), I think a person would have to be someone with a "special" teacher ... one who stood out from the rest as a personal role-model or mentor. I think most students are so caught up in their daily lives as students (understandable) that such feelings toward a teacher don't come out until adulthood. A student might be inclined to tell a teacher of their appreciation but wouldn't dwell on it or ponder it as adults might in hindsight.
In my own case, there are three teachers who fall into the "Mr. Holland" category - two of them English teachers and one of them a librarian (who ended up teaching more than she may have known). I'd almost be willing to elevate my music teacher into that category if it wasn't for one thing.
When I was younger, I wanted to learn the guitar. My stepdad, however, had other plans. He was a first-generation American - both parents coming from Scotland - and he played the bagpipes at several functions. And, he wanted me to follow in his footsteps. So, when it came time to choose a musical instrument, he chose the clarinet. In short, he wanted me to "get used" to a wind instrument as a precursor to learning how to play the bagpipes. The problem? I *hated* the clarinet (grin). Still, because of my music teacher, I became quite proficient with it and was selected in competition to play in a special band under the tutelage of Czech conductor and composer, Vaclav Nelhybel - who later became an instructor at the Peabody Conservatory of Music (MD) and University of Scranton (PA) before his death in 1996.
P.S. I never did learn to play the bagpipes (grin). At least once a week, my stepdad would go marching around the house playing his bagpipes. And yes, he'd dress up in a kilt and other regalia. Sometimes, he'd march around playing for an hour or more ... regardless of whether someone else was trying to watch TV or (ahem) do their "homework." And after a few years of this, the whine and howl grated on me so much that, even today, I dislike bagpipe music whenever I hear it. How much do I dislike it???
Hehe, I rented the film "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" one day for the family to watch. At the end and during Spock's funeral, Scotty plays "Amazing Grace" on the bagpipes. I turned to my ex-wife and son and told them, "Whatever you do, DON'T hire a bagpiper to play at my funeral. If you do, I'll make it a point in the afterlife to come back from the dead and haunt you ... and the piper, too." (grin)
It did??
Awww....and they put the car chase in their just to hold your attention.
Sorry it didn't work out for ya :(
You'd really do that huh?
Man, that would have made for a hell of a movie! :-/
Actually, I think it WOULD have made a good ending, hehe. Imagine being one of those "appreciative" students -- handing Holland his walking papers by virtue of their vote to cut his music program -- then trying to make the best of things by scheduling a touchy-feely going away tribute -- only to have Holland return the diss and split ...
... and then the screen fades to black and the credits start rolling with no fanfare or music - leaving the audience stunned. I love it!
...nope, thought about your ending for 3 years now.
Still stinks.
Well, the ending I suggested is just one possible ending. There are other endings I'd have liked. For example, Holland could have used his time in the public spotlight to vociferously defend the music program that was being dumped by the school district ... using the appreciation of his former students FOR the program as a means to get them to "rethink" the decision to cut funding.
Anything would have been better than to have him just waltz off the podium, smiling, knowing that some of his former students voted to cut funding for his program (and for Holland himself).
OK, let me think this one over.
I will get back to you in a few years.