Mr. Holland's Opus
Movie Review by: Kirra Pilson, Frederick Community College

An inspiring movie for individuals that are not sure of teaching. In the movie Mr. Holland's Opus, we have exactly an individual that is not sure at the beginning, but learns more then what he could ever desire to receive from family and students.

Mr. Glenn Holland (Richard Dreyfuss) finds himself teaching at JFK High School after his wife Mrs. Iris Holland (Glenne Headly) informs him that he is going to be a father. Mr. Holland does know is music for he is a composer himself and is working on his own Opus. He decides to take the music teacher position and work on his music on the side. However, things do not go as he plans. He soon realizes there is much more to teaching then just the book.

During the first days of Mr. Holland's teaching, it is easily noticeable that he does not have the children's attention. He teaches straight form the textbook and learns on his first test that he is doing something wrong when no one passes. He then realizes that he needs to engage with the students through applying music terms and history to present times and not so much on the textbook.

He learns that teaching is not a nine to five job. That a teacher as to put in many hours before and after to help his student succeed, such as he did in working with Gertrude Lang (Alicia Witt) on her clarinet. He taught her to feel the music and that she already new the notes. All she needed to do was to feel it, and then she could play. By his actions he showed her that she was good at something like ever one else in her family.

Another lesson he learns comes from his deaf son name Cole. Mr. Holland believed that since Cole could not hear that he did not understand music. He learns that Cole could feel the music through vibrations on the floor and through different light changing after having a dispute with Cole. With this Mr. Holland puts on a band concert for the deaf school and says sorry to his son for not knowing or realizing that Cole understood the world of music.

We watch Mr. Holland change with the time and come to have a passion for teaching. Teaching is no longer a job for money. It is a job to inspire and motivate students to believe in their selves as even learns about himself and his teaching ability.

At the end we leave with Mr. Holland losing his job for there is not enough money to fund the arts program meaning that the music program is being cut from the curriculum. Nevertheless, Mr. Holland does not leave silently; his students through all the years of his teaching had put on a good buy/Thank you celebration in the auditorium. His clarinet player Gertrude Lang, now Governor shows up, awards him for all his hard work and has him conduct his band of students through his own Opus written by Mr. Holland. An action filling is one dream from the beginning of his career desires.

The one lesson I took home from this movie was that in the end as a teacher that your work does pay off and you do touch your students in ways you might not think that you are inspiring or motivating them.