Movie Review on Mr.Holland Opus

Mr. Holland’s Opus is a 1995 American drama film directed by Stephen Herek. It stars Richard Dreyfuss in the title role and the cast includes Glenne Headly, Olympia Dukakis, William H. Macy and Jay Thomas. Mr. Holland’s Opus is presented as a video biography of the 30-year career of the eponymous lead character, Glenn Holland, as a music teacher at the fictional John F. Kennedy High School in Portland, Oregon.Glenn Holland (Richard Dreyfuss) is a musician and composer. After playing clubs for a living he decides to accept a job as a music teacher at a high school.

He intends this to be a short term proposition until he puts together enough money to allow him to pursue his first love, composing, full time. Initially he finds it tough going, as the students have no real interest in his classes and the school orchestra, which he conducts, is absolutely awful. The gruff but earnest Principal, Ellen Jacobs (Olympia Dukakis), keeps Mr.

Holland on the right path while the taciturn and puritanical Vice Principal, Gene Wolters (William H. Macy), has a problem with his use of Rock and Roll in teaching music appreciation. Despite the obstacles, Holland succeeds in building a rapport with his students who come to appreciate his unstinting efforts to help them. When his wife, Iris (Glenne Headly), announces that she is pregnant, he is initially taken aback as the realization dawns that this short term teaching gig looks like turning into a career.The arrival of their son, Coltrane (played by Nicholas John Renner as a child, Joseph Anderson as a teenager, and Anthony Natale and as an adult) is a joyful occasion but joy turns to sadness when they learn that their son is profoundly deaf.

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As Holland is unable to effectively communicate with his son, this leads to a rift developing between them and puts Iris in the position of being the go-between, mediator, and translator of their relationship. This is without doubt an extremely involving and moving story which still manages to stay on the right side of being considered overly sentimental.Be warned, though, that it’s unlikely that you are going to be able to sit through this without shedding a tear or two at the very least and it is even possible that you’ll be shedding a whole lot more than that. Without giving any more of the plot away, there are several very touching moments that will be tugging at your heart strings as Holland composes his “Opus”, although not the musical one that he dreams of, but rather the one that is his life.In 1996 Richard Dreyfuss received Best Actor nominations for this role for both the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes. Although he didn’t win, there is absolutely no doubt that he has put in a superb effort in this film. A special mention must be made of  Jean Louisa Kelly, who plays student Rowena Morgan, for her absolutely stunning rendition of  Someone To Watch Over Me. Summary In 1964, Glenn Holland (Richard Dreyfuss) is a talented musician and composer who has been relatively successful in the exhausting life of a professional musical performer.However, in an attempt to enjoy more free time with his young wife, Iris (Glenne Headly), and to enable him to compose a piece of orchestral music, the 30-year-old Holland accepts a teaching position. Unfortunately for Holland, he is soon forced to realize that his position as a music teacher makes him a marginalized figure in the faculty’s hierarchy. He comes face to face with how seriously he is outranked by the high school’s football coach; interestingly, the coach (Jay Thomas) becomes a close friend. Administrators either dislike him, as does assistant principal Gene Wolters (William H.Macy), or push him relentlessly, as does principal Helen Jacobs (Olympia Dukakis). Holland’s lack of quality time with Iris becomes more problematic when their son, Cole, is diagnosed as severely hearing impaired. Glenn reacts with passive-aggressive hostility to the news that he can never teach the joys of music to his own child. Iris willingly learns American Sign Language to communicate with her son but Glenn resists. This causes further estrangement within the family. Through three decades, Mr. Holland is closer to students at John F. Kennedy High School than he is to his own son.He addresses a series of challenges created by people who are either skeptical of — or hostile towards — the idea of musical excellence within the walls of a typical middle-class American high school. He inspires many students and but never has private time for himself or his family, forever delaying the composition of his own orchestral composition. Ultimately, he reaches an age when it is too late to realistically find financial backing or ever have it performed. In 1995, the adversaries of the Kennedy High music program win a decisive institutional victory.Holland’s longtime adversary Wolters, promoted to school principal when Jacobs retires, works with the school board to eliminate music in the name of necessary budget cuts, thereby leading to Mr. Holland’s ignominious dismissal at the age of 60. Glenn is a realist who realizes that his working life is over. He believes that his former students have mostly forgotten him. On his final day as a teacher, the despairing Mr. Holland is led to the school auditorium, where his professional life is surprisingly redeemed.Hearing that their beloved teacher is leaving, hundreds of his pupils have secretly returned to the school to celebrate his life. One of his most musically challenged, Gertrude Lang (Alicia Witt (young) /Joanna Gleason (adult)), has become governor of the state. She sits in with her clarinet. Mr. Holland’s orchestral piece, never before heard in public, has been put before the musicians by his wife and son. Gertrude and the other alumni ask the retiring teacher to serve as their conductor for the premiere performance of Mr. Holland’s Opus (“The American Symphony”).A proud Iris and Cole look on, appreciating the affection and respect that Mr. Holland receives. Plot: Glenn Holland is a musician and composer who takes a teaching job to pay the rent while, in his ‘spare time’, he can strive to achieve his true goal – compose one memorable piece of music to leave his mark on the world. As Holland discovers ‘Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans’ and as the years unfold the joy of sharing his contagious passion for music with his students becomes his new definition of success.Cast
• Richard Dreyfuss Glenn Holland
• Glenne Headly Iris Holland
• Jay Thomas Bill Meister
• Olympia Dukakis Principal Helen Jacobs
• William H. Macy Vice Principal (later Principal) Gene Wolters
• Alicia Witt as Gertrude Lang
• Terrence Howard Louis Russ
• Damon Whitaker Bobby Tidd Jean Louisa Kelly Rowena Morgan
• Alexandra Boyd Sarah Olmstead
• Nicholas John Renner Coltrane “Cole” Holland (age 6)
• Joseph Anderson Coltrane “Cole” Holland (age 15)
• Anthony Natale Coltrane “Cole” Holland (age 28)
• Joanna Gleason Governor Gertrude Lang Reaction: This is a film which will instill hope in your heart if you have ever hoped to make a postive difference in this rather mixed-up world.Through Glenn Holland’s struggles, we come to realize that although it sometimes seems as if we are getting nowhere, our actions and our beliefs do have an effect on the people around us. As a teacher, Holland had the opportunity to shape and influence several generations of young people; they became the notes that comprised his musical symphony. The trials and tribulations that occur to Holland along the way seem quite realistic. Although I am uncertain, it seems likely that his story is someone’s real story–maybe even your story.While at times, it can seem overly sentimental and manipulative, the feelings it evokes within you are not forced; they are a genuine reaction to the passion and the pathos in the movie. This is bound to be a movie which strongly appeals to women, much as did Terms of Endearment as it is definitely a movie of feelings and emotions. I recommend taking lots of tissues; even the men will have trouble controlling themselves towards the end. The soundtrack of the movie spans the ages, from Bach to the Beatles, whatever Holland thought he could use to get through to the adolescents in his classes.In an attempt to get through to his son and his friends through music, Holland demonstrates a way for the deaf too to enjoy the variety of music. [pic] Introduction This magical musical fable begins as a pilot makes a forced landing on the barren Sahara Desert. He is befriended by a “little” prince from the planet Asteroid B-612. In the days that follow, the pilot learns of the small boy’s history and planet-hopping journeys in which he met a King, a businessman, an historian, and a general. It isn’t until he comes to Earth that the Little Prince learns the secrets of the importance of life from a Fox, a Snake, and the pilot.The narrator, an airplane pilot, crashes in the Sahara desert. The crash badly damages his airplane and leaves the narrator with very little food or water. As he is worrying over his predicament, he is approached by the little prince, a very serious little blond boy who asks the narrator to draw him a sheep. The narrator obliges, and the two become friends. The pilot learns that the little prince comes from a small planet that the little prince calls Asteroid 325 but that people on Earth call Asteroid B-612.The little prince took great care of this planet, preventing any bad seeds from growing and making sure it was never overrun by baobab trees. One day, a mysterious rose sprouted on the planet and the little prince fell in love with it. But when he caught the rose in a lie one day, he decided that he could not trust her anymore. He grew lonely and decided to leave. Despite a last-minute reconciliation with the rose, the prince set out to explore other planets and cure his loneliness.While journeying, the narrator tells us, the little prince passes by neighboring asteroids and encounters for the first time the strange, narrow-minded world of grown-ups. On the first six planets the little prince visits, he meets a king, a vain man, a drunkard, a businessman, a lamplighter, and a geographer, all of whom live alone and are overly consumed by their chosen occupations. Such strange behavior both amuses and perturbs the little prince. He does not understand their need to order people around, to be admired, and to own everything.With the exception of the lamplighter, whose dogged faithfulness he admires, the little prince does not think much of the adults he visits, and he does not learn anything useful. However, he learns from the geographer that flowers do not last forever, and he begins to miss the rose he has left behind. At the geographer’s suggestion, the little prince visits Earth, but he lands in the middle of the desert and cannot find any humans. Instead, he meets a snake who speaks in riddles and hints darkly that its lethal poison can send the little prince back to the heavens if he so wishes.The little prince ignores the offer and continues his explorations, stopping to talk to a three-petaled flower and to climb the tallest mountain he can find, where he confuses the echo of his voice for conversation. Eventually, the little prince finds a rose garden, which surprises and depresses him—his rose had told him that she was the only one of her kind. The prince befriends a fox, who teaches him that the important things in life are visible only to the heart, that his time away from the rose makes the rose more special to him, and that love makes a person responsible for the beings that one loves.The little prince realizes that, even though there are many roses, his love for his rose makes her unique and that he is therefore responsible for her. Despite this revelation, he still feels very lonely because he is so far away from his rose. The prince ends his story by describing his encounters with two men, a railway switchman and a salesclerk. It is now the narrator’s eighth day in the desert, and at the prince’s suggestion, they set off to find a well. The water feeds their hearts as much as their bodies, and the two share a moment of bliss as they agree that too many people do not see what is truly important in life.The little prince’s mind, however, is fixed on returning to his rose, and he begins making plans with the snake to head back to his planet. The narrator is able to fix his plane on the day before the one-year anniversary of the prince’s arrival on Earth, and he walks sadly with his friend out to the place the prince landed. The snake bites the prince, who falls noiselessly to the sand. The narrator takes comfort when he cannot find the prince’s body the next day and is confident that the prince has returned to his asteroid. The narrator s also comforted by the stars, in which he now hears the tinkling of his friend’s laughter. Often, however, he grows sad and wonders if the sheep he drew has eaten the prince’s rose. The narrator concludes by showing his readers a drawing of the desert landscape and by asking us to stop for a while under the stars if we are ever in the area and to let the narrator know immediately if the little prince has returned. Summary The book starts with the narrator, who is an airplane pilot, recollecting his favorite picture when he was a six-year-old boy. The picture was of a boa constrictor eating a large animal.He recalls how a boa constrictor cannot move after swallowing its prey, and must hibernate for the six months until its food has been digested. Fascinated by this story, he had drawn his first drawing, Drawing Number One, which showed a boa constrictor devouring an elephant. When he showed his picture to the elders he was surprised to see that they couldn’t make out what it was and were not frightened of it either as he had hoped they would be. They couldn’t understand why anyone would be frightened of a hat, which is what they interpreted the drawing to be. But his picture was not a hat but rather, a boa constrictor digesting an elephant.He then drew the inside of the boa constrictor in another picture, Drawing Number Two, where the elephant could be seen clearly. But the grown-ups advised the narrator to give up drawing and pursue geography, arithmetic and grammar. Disheartened by his failure to become a painter, he realizes how difficult it is for children to always be explaining something to grown-ups. So the narrator learned to be a pilot, noting that the geography he learned did prove to be useful but that his opinion of adults did not improve: whenever one would see Drawing Number One, they would think it was a hat.Consequently, he could no longer talk about boa constrictors or stars with anybody. This continued until six years earlier when his plane had crashed in the Sahara desert. He was thousand miles from home and faced with a life or death situation. The narrator was shocked to hear an odd little voice asking him to draw a sheep. He turns to see the little prince, who is examining the narrator, looking nothing like a child lost in the middle of the desert. The narrator doesn’t know how to draw a sheep so he shows Drawing Number One to the little prince instead.The little prince examines the drawing and says that he doesn’t want a picture of an elephant inside a boa constrictor. Finally after a couple of attempts he is able to draw a box with a sheep inside it, and the little prince is very happy. The narrator and the little prince become friends and he tries to find out where the little prince comes from, but the little prince is more concerned with the pilot’s plane, laughing at its broken parts. The little prince is comforted by the fact that the narrator also comes from the sky, asking him what planet he comes from.The pilot is surprised at this question and in turn tries to find out what planet the little prince comes from. The little prince ignores the question and admires the pilot’s drawing of the sheep in a box. The pilot offers to draw a string to tie to the sheep so he won’t get lost, but the little prince laughs. The sheep will not get lost he says, because on the planet where he lives everything is very small. The narrator is surprised to discover that the planet the little prince comes from is very small and only the size of a house. In fact, it is an Asteroid called B-612, which is only visible through a telescope.The narrator claims that a Turkish astronomer had sighted the little prince’s asteroid in 1909, but that no one would seriously believe anybody wearing traditional Turkish clothes. After a Turkish dictator ordered all his subjects to change to European clothing, the astronomer successfully presented his report again in 1920. The narrator insists that these details are not a concession to his grown-up readers. He says that grown-ups can only understand facts and figures, without ever wondering about other essential qualities, such as beauty and love.Instead they only care about how old someone is or how much a house costs in order to decide what is beautiful. For example, he notes that a child would accept the little prince’s existence based solely on the fact that he wanted a sheep, while an adult would care only that the little prince came from Asteroid B-612. | The narrator is worried that now he has grown too old to properly remember how the little prince had looked. Instead of relying on | |figures like an adult, he has decided to draw pictures of him.Even though he can no longer see sheep through the walls of boxes, he hopes | |that he can bring the little prince back to life. | |As the days pass in the desert, the pilot learns more about the little prince’s planet. He finds out that the little prince wants the sheep| |to eat the baobabs that grow on his planet. Baobabs are large tree-like weeds whose roots can secretly grow underground and split a planet | |into pieces. They can become so big that even a herd of elephants would not be able to eat all of them.The little prince exclaims that one| |must be very careful to take care of one’s planet just as they would take care of themselves. It is hard to distinguish between good and | |bad seeds, so it is very important to watch out for baobabs. Lazy men often let small bushes grow, not realizing that they are baobabs | |until it is too late. The narrator feels that this is such an important lesson to be learned that he takes extra special care with a | |drawing of baobabs destroying a small planet. | On the fourth day, the pilot learns just how small the little prince’s planet really is.The little prince wants to see a sunset, and is surprised to learn that on Earth he must wait till evening to see one. The narrator notes that on a large planet like the Earth, when it is noon in America, the sun is setting in France, while on a small asteroid, someone can see the end of the day whenever they like. He can hardly believe that the little prince once saw forty-four sunsets in one day. On the fifth day, the pilot had discovered the secret of the little prince’s life. Without any reason in particular, the little prince wonders if his new sheep will eat both bushes and flowers.The pilot tells him that sheep eat anything, but the little prince does not believe him: he says that flowers with thorns can protect themselves. The two get into a heated argument and the pilot asks not to be disturbed from rebuilding his plane, while the little prince reprimands him for behaving like an adult. The little prince exclaims that if someone knows of a rare flower that exists only on his planet out of the millions and millions of others then it is perfectly rational to wonder if a sheep will eat it.Ashamed of his attitude, the pilot tries to comfort the little prince by offering to draw a muzzle for the sheep so that he may not eat the flower. The flower that the little prince mentions turns out to have been one of the most important parts of his life. One day, a seed mysteriously blew onto his planet and produced a flower different from any other the little prince had ever seen. The flower turns out to be a rose, a beautiful but vain creature who constantly demands that the little prince take care of her.He loves her very much and is thus happy to water her, protect her with a screen by day, and cover her with a glass globe by night. But the little prince soon doubts that the rose loves him, believing that her words are not sincere. He grows so unhappy that he decides to leave, later lamenting his failure to judge by deeds and not words. It is only after he leaves that he understands how she expressed affection, realizing that he was too young to know how to love her. The narrator is of the opinion that that the little prince used a flock of migrating birds to escape from his planet.On the day of his departure he put everything in order, cleaned out all of his three volcanoes, including even the extinct one. The rose ignores his good-byes at first but soon asks for forgiveness, admitting that she loves him. But she is too proud to ask the little prince to stay with her and claims that she will get along fine without him. She urges him to leave and turns away so that he will not see her cry. | The little prince reaches the earth by travelling with a flock of migrating birds. Some time later he comes across a king living on a | |neighboring asteroid.The king starts to order the little prince around and even calls him his subject. The little prince is puzzled as to | |why the king feels that he is in control of everything in the universe. He marvels at the king’s supposed power to order sunsets, but soon | |realizes that the king is actually a lonely creature who is only fooling himself about his powers. He pleads with the little prince not to | |leave but the little prince does so because he is only used to taking orders from himself and not from others. Then he comes across two | |men, one who is very conceited and the other who is drunk.The conceited man orders the little prince to first salute him and then to | |admire him. The little prince is amused at first, but doesn’t quite understand what the word admire means. The conceited man wants the | |little prince to continually praise him all the time but the prince gets bored very soon and leaves. Next he meets a drunk who tells the | |little prince that he drinks so that he might forget. | The little prince is confused by this sort of behavior and inquires what it is that the drunk is trying to forget. The drunk replies that he is trying to forget the fact that he is ashamed of drinking.The little prince carries on with his journey but is confused by what the drunk has told him. Then, on yet another fourth planet the little prince meets a businessman, who is very engrossed in all his numerical calculations and hardly even notices that the little prince is around. He informs the little prince that he is very busy in counting all the stars in the sky as this is a matter of great consequence to him. The little prince is even more confused when the businessman claims that he owns all the stars. He does not see how it is possible to own an object when one is of no use to that object.He remarks that by taking care of his rose and his three volcanoes, his ownership of them was at least useful. From this he realizes that things which are of consequence to him are different from the things which the businessman thinks are of great importance. With this newly acquired knowledge, he carries on with his journey. Next the little prince meets a lamplighter and is even more confused because he lights a lamp and then puts it out the very next minute. He feels sorry for someone doing such an absurd job, but realizes that, unlike the previous adults he has met, the lamplighter is doing something useful.Hoping to  become his friend he tries to help the lamplighter, but the planet is too small to accommodate two people. He is quite sad to leave a planet, which has a 1440 sunsets. On the sixth planet he meets a geographer. The little prince is thrilled to at last meet someone who has a real profession, and even more so when the geographer asks him to describe his planet. The little prince tells him about his dear rose but the geographer refuses to record this saying that he cannot record things which don’t last forever.The little prince is surprised to learn that his rose will not last forever and feels regretful about leaving her. Even though he is still thinking about his flower he soon takes courage as the geographer advises him to visit the planet Earth. Upon arriving on Earth, the little prince is surprised to find such a large planet. The narrator marks that there are a great number of kings, geographers, businessmen, and a whole army of international lamplighters who are required to work around the clock on this planet. However, he does admit that humanity is neither as important nor as large as it shows itself to be.The little prince wonders why he still hasn’t met any humans though the planet is so big. He meets a snake, who tells him that he is in the Sahara Desert and there are hardly any humans there. He finds that the snake is a curious creature who is not as dangerous as he appears. Before parting, the snake promises that he will help the little prince return to his planet if he grows too homesick. The little prince continues searching for human beings, but only encounters a few roses and desolation. The roses tell him that only seven humans exist on the planet and are very difficult to find as they have no roots.The prince climbs to the top of a mountain and calls out to someone to be his friend but all he hears is the echo of his own question. But he believes that his echo is a reply from another human and concludes that human beings are most unimaginative since they can only repeat what they are asked. He begins to think about his rose upon discovering a large rose garden. When he realizes that his flower was not unique, but just a common rose, he begins to cry. | |Next he meets a fox, who asks the little prince to tame him. The prince does not understand what the word tame means.The fox says the | | |word tame means to establish ties with each other. He explains that by themselves, neither of them are very important, but if the little | | |prince tames the fox, they shall both need each other. The little prince is hesitant in the beginning, saying that he does not have much | | |time since he is looking for friends. But the fox says that the only way he will he will find a friend is if he tames someone saying that | | |the reason men don’t have friends is because they try to buy them in shops.Since the little prince still understands very little in | | |the ways of the world, the fox must teach him how to properly tame a fox. | Soon it is time for the little prince to leave and he is sad to see the fox cry. When the fox says that he is happy because the little prince is now unique in all the world to him, the little prince then realizes that even though his flower is a common rose, it is his rose and thus unique in all the world. Before parting, the fox tells him a secret. He says only the heart can see clearly what seems invisible to the eye.He also tells him that it is because of the time he has spent on the rose that it has become so important to him. He warns the little prince that one is responsible for what they have tamed. The prince continues his journey and he meets a railway switchman and a merchant, each of who try to advise the prince to save time by taking the train and buying a pill that quenches thirst. He remembers the fox’s advice and declines their respective offers, declaring that wasted time is the most important kind of time. The narrative returns to eight days after the pilot’s accident in the desert.He is worried that he will die of thirst and refuses to find comfort in the little prince’s story about the fox. He continues to tell the pilot that it is good to have a friend, even if one is about to die of thirst, and soon admits that he is thirsty as well. He suggests that they search for a well and despite the futility of such an endeavor, the pilot agrees. They begin to look for beauty within the desert: not what they can actually see, but what they can feel. Deeply moved, the pilot carries the little prince, realizing the most important part of his fragile little body is the part, which is invisible.At daybreak they finally find a well. While they remove water from the well they agree that men have lost sight of what is important in life. A little water can also be appreciated like a Christmas present, just as a single rose out of a whole garden is all that is really needed. This conversation makes the little prince homesick and he tells the narrator that it is the anniversary of his descent to the Earth and that he has returned to the place he landed. The pilot is afraid for the little prince but can’t find out what the little prince plans to do next.On returning the next day, the pilot returns to find the little prince talking to the same poisonous snake which he had met on his first day on Earth. The little prince is asking the snake to bite him later that night so that he can finally return home. The pilot has finished repairing his plane but is very sad to see the little prince looking so upset. He begs him to stay on but the little prince comforts him with a present. He tells the pilot that whenever he looks up at the stars he will hear the little prince’s laughter, like five hundred million bells.Just as the little prince’s rose is unique for him, he tells the pilot that the stars will also now be unique to him. He says that time heals all wounds and that soon he will look up to the stars and laugh with the little prince. The pilot insists on accompanying him to his meeting with the snake. The little prince insists that there is no reason to be sad because his body is nothing but an empty shell and that only the invisible part of his body is what is important. He also reminds the pilot that he feels responsible for his rose. The snake bites him quickly and the little prince falls softly in the sand.Although six years have passed, the pilot still misses his friend. He does hear the bells at night but worries that the sheep he drew might somehow find a way to eat the rose. The narrator remarks that it is a shame that adults cannot realize that this question of the sheep eating the rose is a matter of great importance. The little prince’s body actually did disappear, so the narrator tells the reader to watch out for a particular landscape in the Sahara Desert. If they should meet a little man with golden hair who laughs, the narrator wants them to send him word that the little prince has finally returned. ReactionWhen a mystery is too overpowering, one dare not disobey. ” That is the mystery of The Little Prince, a novel that represents and emphasizes some of the many roles of aspects in life – such as honesty, loneliness, hate, success, love, compassion, fear, regret – and has a strange power to portray them with extreme precision. I have learned so much about life from this richly-themed novel that since reading it, I have been seeing and understanding the world differently. The first main principle I learned from The Little Prince is simply to see with your heart and imagination rather than with eyes, facts, and figures.With the author’s depiction of adults, lonely people who have lost their ability to understand and make their surroundings into beyond what they are on the surface, the little prince and the narrator alike understand this loneliness as inability to perceive beyond. The adults he meets are so lost and alone without even knowing so because they rely only figures to prove something, whereas in the children’s world, emotions and ‘matters of consequence’ are viewed upon with imagination and a relative understanding (something you don’t need to see to know that it exists).To be able to think like the children do is a trait much worth seeking, though. When the little prince was about to depart from a fox he met that had wished to be tamed by him, he was left with this: “‘And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. ‘” A fox, that has spent its days observing men and their habits, surely would have derived the morals that govern the people that can see life for more than wealth and status.Unlike the children and people who know what their goals are, the adults depicted are always wistful of other things – money, power, material, and mundane objects. The second important theme I have lear