Richard Dreyfuss

Glenne Headly

Jay Thomas

Olympia Dukakis

William H. Macy

Alicia Witt

Terrence Howard

Damon Whitaker

Jean Louisa Kelly

Alexandra Boyd

Nicholas John Renner

Joseph Anderson

Anthony Natale

Joanna Gleason

Beth Maitland

Patrick Fong

Benjamin J. Dixon

Kathryn Arnett

Freeman O. Corbin

Moira Feeney

Joshua Minnick

Ashley Hamrick

Janine Shouse

Spencer Riviera

Dan Vhay

Sean Bevington

John Henry Redwood

Ted Roisum

Mark Daniels

Kaili Carlton

Adam Fitzhugh

Eric Michael Cole

Joe Campbell

Tomiko Peirano

Kasey Nelson

Zoe McLellan

Kelly M. Casey

Michael Mendelson

Alex Dudgeon

Rachel Wooley

Jordan Carlton

Aurora Miller

Paul Bernard

Mary Kay O'Mealy

Dieffyd Gilman-Frederick

Tara Eng

Jay Frank

Conan Doherty

Stacey Siegel

Nicolas Sirianni

Jacob Adams

Chris Marth

Brent Archie

Kevin Calaba

Keith Swift

John Boyer

Linda Williams Janke

David Clegg

Don Burns

Dennis Biasi

Alexander Emmert

Cazzey Louis Cereghino

Michael R. Ferraro

Elizabeth Fournier

Balthazar Getty

Forest Whitaker

Robert W. Cort

Michael Kamen

Oliver Wood

Ted Field

Stephen Herek

Michael Nolin

Adrienne Hamalian-Mangine

Jeffrey Downer

David Luckenbach

Sharon Boyle

Patrick Sheane Duncan

Susan V. Kalinowski

William Teitler

Scott Kroopf

Aggie Guerard Rodgers

Dina Lipton

Werner Sherer

William D. Barber

Gemma La Mana

Tim Chau

Steve Boyum

Trudy Ship

Mary L. Pyanowski

Judith James

Ken Chase

Richard C. Franklin

Sharon Bialy

Gerald Quist

Martin 'Vinnie' Hagood

Valerie Mickaelian Kucera

Jan K. Bergstrom

David Nichols

Donald J. Malouf

Earl Sampson

Alan Manzer

Greg McMickle

James B. Crawford

Jeffrey Wetzel

Alan Locke

David Kern

Christopher Brooks

Albert Gasser

Gene Kearney

Nick Papanickolas

Tara Timpone

Nils C. Jensen

Bob Muñoz

Joanna Guzzetta

Bob Riggs

Brian Markey

Chris Jargo

Thomas Whiting

Michael Laws

Linda Henrikson

Bruce McDonald

Stephen McLaughlin

Drama

Music

Mr. Holland's Opus

Hollywood Pictures

Interscope Communications

PolyGram Filmed Entertainment

The Charlie Mopic Company

United States of America

English

high school

husband wife relationship

composer

music teacher

mentor

deaf-mute

portland, oregon

apprentice

marching band

teacher student relationship

high school teacher

disabled

teaching

sign languages

father son relationship

***Taking a bypass from your dreams and finding your true calling***

A composer (Richard Dreyfuss) puts his lofty ambitions on hold to become a high school music teacher in Portland, Oregon, from 1965-1995. Glenne Headly plays his wife, Jay Thomas the coach, Olympia Dukakis the principal and William H. Macy the irritating vice principal.     

"Mr. Holland’s Opus" (1995) is a good school-oriented drama that’s episodic in nature since it spans 30 years. The first 40 minutes were decent, but I was wondering if the film would be able to absorb me into its story, especially considering its considerable length. It did, particularly the episodes concerning Terrence Howard (playing Louis Russ) and angelic Jean Louisa Kelly (Rowena).  

The movie’s kind of a meshing of “Dead Poets Society” (1989) crossed with “Forrest Gump” (1994), although not great like either of those flicks. But it’s a solid drama. A 19 year-old Alicia Witt is on hand as one of the students in the first act.

The film runs 2 hours, 23 minutes and was shot in Portland, Oregon, and nearby Marylhurst.

GRADE: B

Filipe Manuel Neto

**Another good film about an outstanding teacher marking the lives of his students... another one.**

One of the things I like most about a film, in addition to telling a good story and positively entertaining us for an hour or two, is to reflect on different subjects and themes. This exercise of critical questioning, free and reachable to the public, much more attractive than a six-hundred-page book, is one of the most important qualities of cinema. And this film has lots of themes and topics worthy of our reflection.

First, I should say that the film is very good! It is very forgotten today and deserves to be revisited. It is, I think, the best film of Stephen Herek, an average director, more focused on TV, actually. The merit of the film falls, largely, on the great quality of the script by Patrick Sheane Duncan, who created the story of a composer who becomes a music teacher at a high school to earn some income and ends up marking several generations of students, teaching them to love music while trying to protect and support their own son, who was born deaf.

In addition to a deep and moving story, we have good actors working in a very committed way: Richard Dreyfuss may be an actor who is a little far from the spotlight, but he gives us an extraordinary performance in this film and was nominated for the Oscar (he lost to Nick Cage, who shone in “Leaving Las Vegas” in a more psychologically challenging role). Glenne Headly and a young Terrence Howard gave him welcome and very solid support.

The film moves us with its story, highlighting the importance of music and the relevance of artistic education. In a society where, more and more, we are appreciated for the money we earn to our employers (or companies, or countries), the arts and human sciences (history and philosophy, for example) are underappreciated because they are considered to have very few professional opportunities and practical applicability. The situation could not be more unfair: the human sciences teach us to think, to have a critical conscience and a vast general culture, while the arts transmit us an aesthetic sense and a capacity for self-expression that, unlike writing, tends to be universally intelligible. It's a shame that human resources directors often turn out to be such obtuse people, with such short horizons. The film addresses deafness in an interesting way, showing us that even a deaf person can appreciate music and that deafness is no impediment to an active and happy life.

The film has only two major problems: the first problem, and for me the most serious, is falling back on the older clichés about school films involving teachers, and all the impact they have. This was done, much more effectively, in “Dead Poets Society” and “Mona Lisa Smile”. At this point, the most essential of the plot, there is nothing original. The second problem is that unreasonable romantic tension between Holland and one of his young and seductive students. We all know that the relationship between a student and her teacher is one of the most appealing erotic fantasies among middle-aged men, and I can understand why they included that sub-plot, but it's beside the point and should never have been included in the final cut.

Theatrical Trailer #2

Theatrical Trailer #1

Original Trailer

Mr. Holland's Opus( 1995)

Of All the Lives He Changed, the One That Changed the Most Was His Own.

Overview

Top Billed Cast

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A review by Wuchak

Written by Wuchak on Wed May 29 2019

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