I guess "Mr. Holland's Opus" was supposed to be about an inspirational music teacher throughout his career to give the audience tears of sentimental joy. As a classical musician, all I can say is "Oh brother". There are some really fine films in this sub-genre about teachers, mentors, or coaches engaging with students, athletes, etc., including "Dead Poet's Society", "Hoosiers", and probably the finest one, "Stand and Deliver". "Stand and Deliver" was based on a real teacher who found creative ways to speak and teach to minority students struggling in East Los Angeles. As far as I know, "Mr. Holland's Opus" wasn't based on a real music teacher, and too many of the incidences shown were clearly written by people who knew next-to-nothing about the music universe.Glenn Holland (Richard Dreyfuss) is an aspiring musician who has dreams of making it big as an established composer. He then takes a position at a high school as their music teacher as a means to compose. Of course, the inevitable "resentment" of the other faculty emerges as he proves to be one of the most popular teachers in the school. Simultaneously, the faculty constantly belittle the value of teaching music in the classroom. As a classical musician myself, I applaud the idea of an inspirational music teacher fighting for the importance of the arts and music public high schools. However, I found the premise so obviously contrived I couldn't help saying to myself "oh dear Lord" in many scenes. I was in high school when there was drastic cutting of arts and music funding, but I never found the faculty dismissive of the music teachers. One of the other terrible aspects of this film is whoever produced it didn't bother to simply hire a bona fide orchestral conductor and show Dreyfuss how to conduct. While I will agree Dreyfuss' performance is relatively good given the material, his conducting is absolutely god-awful. The upbeat cue to begin a piece is completely incorrect. You don't just start slide into it after a couple of little beats. You actually take a virtual "breath" and clearly indicate the cue beat which signals the performers to begin. And he constantly moves his upper body up and down with the beat as he conducts, which is complete no-no as it's distracting to the performers. If the character is supposed to be this amazing musician, why does it seem like he never took conducting in college? While he's teaching during many years, he's writing "An American Symphony" on the side, supposedly his magnum opus. At the end of the film, as a tribute to him, many of his former students, now adults, produce a concert to play his "opus". And then it's really OMG, this is so bad. His final piece is a silly ultra-cliché-ridden little monster masquerading as a "great orchestral work". All the melodies sound like overused tracks from bad films from the 1970's, including an unremarkable string theme, used ad infinitum on many pieces and songs from the mid-20th century. Also the piece is not truly orchestrated in terms of varying the instruments. All the instruments play "tutti" constantly, in other words, all the instruments play during the whole piece. This is not how orchestral works are written. The music should vary with different instruments playing melody and harmony in different passages, otherwise the piece becomes monotonous, which literally means "sounding the same". In great works, only in a few dramatic moments does an orchestra play tutti. And the drum section only makes the whole thing sound pop-oriented; I couldn't take it seriously. The Opus really does sound like a high school student's first stab at writing an orchestral work. It doesn't even sound good enough for the Boston Pops who were always playing very light orchestral music. Unfortunately, Holland's "opus" wasn't even so bad it's good. Even rock songs from the 1980's are more easily tolerated than the "Opus".The good films in this genre have a lot of bite and grit in them, particularly "Stand and Deliver" and "Dead Poet's Society". Both deal with social and societal issues. Some of the best, like "Stand and Deliver" were based on true-life experiences. However, "Opus" is too saccharine and contrived for its own good. While Mr. Holland deals with his student's problems, I never got the sense the story was real but rather artificial and written by people who didn't really know this subject. And the Opus at the end proved that Holland really wasn't that great a composer. He's lucky he received his job in the first place! Of course, there are many fans of this film, and I am sure I've caused many grievances with this review. However I can tell you, no matter how much this film may "move you", this is not what I experienced as a classical musician in school. There's a lot more blood, sweat and tears than what's shown here. Students don't always listen to the teacher, sometimes playing when they shouldn't be. Some teachers berate lesser-skilled players. Playing music in educational institutions is not the easiest of tasks including both student and teacher alike, but I don't believe the makers of "Mr. Holland's Opus" quite understood that.

Could it have made the transition to TV like 'Friday Night Lights'? I'm hoping in a number of years, the answer to that question would no longer be a mystery!I'm currently in the process of re-watching it, and like most of the films in the same decade (the 90's) – it has that recognisable sweeping score. I think what makes it watchable decades later (like 'Good Will Hunting), is the cast and the writing. Though there are a lot of supporting characters that play teens --- there isn't a constant hum of that annoying teen angst that compels me to stay close to the remote and hit stop…and delete on the DVR.Being a musician, it does get a bit personal sometimes --- and I considered not watching this with anyone else. Though I am comfortable pitching my music to perspective listeners --- sharing my connection with music…feels like letting someone have a peek in a diary that only contained those times when I come across a track that connects with me. Or even, despite the things I'd change…the feeling I get of humility (I'm so blessed to have been in the right place, time and frame of mind --- to be able to create this) and satisfaction (because it could have gone a thousand different ways…and I was able to pick this way…and I'm happy with how it turned out!).Some magic moments for me:(1) Recognising Terrence Howard (He's the guy who joined the band to get extra credit --- so he could make a stronger case to return to the football team), during his first scene with Glenn. Based on the year the film came out, he would have been in his mid 20's during filming. (2) For a moment thinking that Forest Whitaker was there, then before fully dismissing it --- he was (He played the Adult version of the actor who I thought was him). (3) The End --- I was fighting back tears (knowing already what would happen)!

This movie receives an awful lot of praise and I find that I quite enjoy it as well. It chronicles the life of a music teacher at John F. Kennedy Highschool (arriving after the name was changed from Ulysses Grant Highschool). He came into the school reluctantly because he wanted some time to compose some music but ended getting caught up within the school.Mr Holland's Opus is a movie about shattered dreams and about how what we look to do is not what we end up doing. Holland's dream is to write a symphony but he finds that he is doing too much to get any time to actually dedicate to it. He becomes a teacher and almost immediately after he has a child forcing him to buy a house. To pay off the house he decides to take up summer work which drains even more of his time. Each of these things are unplanned and he finds himself caught up in the affairs of the school for thirty years.He is overjoyed at having a child and dreams of raising this child as a great musician, but once again his dream is shattered when he learns that the child is deaf. As such he begins to isolate himself from his son and embrace his students. He feels that he can not relate to his son because he believes that he cannot appreciate that which he loves. This causes dissension between Holland and his son because of this.Mr Holland's Opus tries to create a real person with dreams, desires, and heartaches and it is a movie about how he confronts these heartaches. Though he finds that he cannot write his own music, he is drawn further into the school wanting to work with the students there. Another shattered dream comes when the jock who he teaches to play the drum is killed in Vietnam. He saw a lot of potential for the boy, especially how he struggled with his incapability to learn only to be killed in a war that nobody wanted. This is contrasted at the time with another student who is so intelligent that he ends up wasting Holland's time. Holland drags him along to a funeral to point out to him a real student who struggled to learn only to have his life struck away from him.In the end Holland feels that he has gained nothing. He is dumped in a budget cut and even though he fought, there was nothing he could do. He walks out of the school thinking that he had done nothing only to walk into the auditorium to be confronted by all of the people that had been through his classes in thirty years and what they had become. It is interesting to see the first girl he worked with, the one who struggled with the oboe walk up as governor of the state. Holland believed that he was a failure but when he looked upon all of the people who he had influenced it struck him that he was not going to be forgotten.This movie shows us that even though we may not have made a huge impact on the world nor have got where we have wanted to, all we need to do is look around at the people we have interacted with to realise that we have made an impact in our own way. Even though we may not have risen to the heights, our close friends will remember us and what we have done for them.

This is a lovely film about a teacher's career and dreams that never get fulfilled. In the beginning he has to take a teaching job in a high school, with hopes to earn enough to later concentrate on his true love in life, composing.This dream never comes true as the four years that he's planning to teach become thirty years. The magnificent classical piece heard during the opening credits, the grand opus he's dreaming one day to compose, never becomes reality; instead, at the end of the film we hear a considerably different, "inferior" piece as a deliberate contrast, but in the end it doesn't matter to him - he has found his true fulfillment in life in inspiring his students to love music, within the confines of the high school world.One point off for the length, but otherwise highly recommended and heartwarming, tastefully directed movie.