The saddest parts in the movie to me are:
When Mr. Holland sings to Cole "beautiful boy" at the concert
The part where the Mr. Holland wife was yelling at him because she couldn't speak to her son physcially or didn't know how she can tell him that she loves her son.
Yes, the "beautiful boy" scene was powerful, but to me, the saddest part was when Mr. Holland was telling his class about Beethoven and how he dealt with being deaf. The most chilling part was when, after asked how Beethoven could tell if a "C" note was what he wanted to play, Mr. Holland tearfully said "Well, Beethoven wasn't born deaf." Definitely a clue about a music teacher's son who was born deaf and how difficult it is to deal with that.
shareFor me is when Jacobs gave him the compass. Here was a woman he hated in the beginning but came to respect in the end.
shareYes, that's sad for me too. Even though they're not dying, I think of my now dead former Texas History teacher and how he made an indelible mark on my life--just because our paths also crossed.
shareThat saddest part was that for most of his son's life as a child and adolescent mr. holland was a total jerk/ass to his own son. He did not care about his son's life or what interested him. Mr. Holland was a very selfish man when it came to his wife and family. The way he treated his family his wife would likely have either left him or had an affair. Sure, it is nice that once his son grew up he finally decided to have some interest in him. But for most of the film his son was just an inconvenience. This was the saddest part of the film.
that aside the saddest part for me was when one of his first students died in vietnam.
He cared, it was just that he had grown up in an era when people with disabilities were 'sick' and would not/could not amount to much in life.
Realizing that 'the experts' he had trusted were wrong after all with the diagnosis was frustrating. He let people mislead him about his own family.
That isn't selfish, it's human. People think they're doing the 'right' thing. But they're recieving innacurare or dangerous advice. Mr. Holland was angry with himself for loosing so many years.
What is beyond scary is Audism still runs rampant and doctors still give this same advice to hearing parents of deaf babies and children today. It's a huge problem that gets so little attention outside of the Deaf community. 90% of Deaf children are born to hearing patents. It's extremely rare for there to be a genetic cause so these parents usually have had no exposure to Deaf culture or the importance of sign language. So these doctors spouting that same advice today are the information source for these parents. The saddest part to me is the fight about sending Cole to a Deaf school where Iris declares her desperation to communicate with her son and her anger that anyone would imply he is less than any other child just because he can't hear.
shareFor me, it's the "Beethoven wasn't born deaf" scene, which leads into that montage of great historical events, mingled with the image of Cole learning to speak. You know then that his "opus" is going to be of a different nature.
shareYes I have to agree with blaque108: I always tend to cry right alone with Iris,Mr. Hollands wife. She was protecting her for not being able to grow up and have a sense of normalcy. Poor Cole struggled everyday of his young life ans to know be able to tell his mother what he wanted or needed or how he felt was very usetting to her.
shareAfter reading all the replies, I would say that the scene where Iris breaks down because she cannot communicate with her son was the saddest moment, beating out the "Beethoven not born deaf" scene by a smidge. The compass scene was also very touching.
shareWithout a doubt the Beautiful Boy (Cole) song. I just watched it for about the 20th time today and it still gets me. Dreyfus is brilliant in this film. The actor that played Cole in that scene is also brilliant.
shareThe 'Beautiful Boy' sequence was not sad at all -- it was uplifting.
The saddest scene was the graveyard sequence at the funeral of Louis Russ.
================
4) You ever seen Superman $#$# his pants? Case closed.
To me the part where Cole and his dad talk to each other. Cole tell his dad he knows music and about John Lennon just because he is deaf doesn't mean he doesn't know music. To me the "beautiful boy" song was sad, the song itself was happy/sad.
shareThe part where Cole's parents are fighting in the kitchen no one knows what he wants the beautiful boy scene, the ending always gets me teary.
shareThe kitchen scene is also powerful--it was supposed to symbolize the extreme frustration many families had with their children being denied access to appropriate education/educational services only because they had disabilities.
Public schools traditionally locked children out of the public schools only because they had disabilities. or the services they provided did not match the disabilities/were so inadequate it was not actual education at all.
There was a court case called PARC vs Board of Education which established that public schools could not bar children with disabilities from public schools anymore in 1971--- is a state cause. But it lays the ground for the federal special ed law in 1975.
All of this is occurring approximately when Iris's break down occurs!!
The saddest scene to me was when the kid he taught to play the drum was killed in the war (sorry can't remember the character's name).
shareLou Russ. Yes it is sad. There was a big class/race discrepancy in the draft. Forrest Gump made light of it through Forrest and Bubba....but yes it was these types who got drafted and killed...especially earlier. My dad was able to avoid getting drafted for most of the war only bc he was in college. His number did not get called until he graduated college in 1970 And I don't think that was an error. He had broken his ankle as a kid and had the cast off way too early so he received an honorable discharge after completing basic training,
share1) When Rowena is totally giving, wanting him to go with her and live with her, she'd have allowed him to kiss her. But he's married and have a deaf kid, he can't throw it all away and move with her. He's already too old, if... if...
2) When his boring wife tells him to write HIS music and he gets mad, because he doesn't have time for himself and still everybody is demanding more and more from him.