1. Mr. Holland is a totally selfish asshole.
a. He is almost angry at the fact that his son is deaf. No, not because he's angry that his son will have to face numerous obstacles in life. Not anger directed toward a higher power when such things occur in life...no. He's angry because he's a musician, and now his son can't hear what is so important in his life...music. But, more importantly...he can't hear his stupid opus, which is horrible, by the way. We'll return to that shortly.
b. He doesn't learn sign language. Um...hello? Your son is deaf. You are stupid.
c. Mr. Holland doesn't think his son cares about John Lennon dying because he can't hear. Oh, that's right...I forgot that John Lennon only wrote music. He didn't ever paint or draw, or...I don't know...fight for peace or love...hmm...I can see why you would think that your deaf son wouldn't care about him. Idiot.
d. Mr. Holland almost, almost has an affair with one of his students. Actually, he does kiss her. She asks him to come to New York and follow his dreams.
We are led to believe that:
(my outline form is now about to be discarded)
1. Mr. Holland could actually make it as a composer/musician in the Big Apple.
2. That girl would actually ever fall for Mr. Holland...uh...it's Richard Dreyfus. Not exactly the type of guy that 18 year-old girls fall in love with and move to NYC with.
3. Mr. Holland has chosen right over wrong by NOT going to NYC.
This is false because of this fact:
Uh...Mr. Holland was about to commit statutory rape, people. He almost had an affair with an underaged student. He kissed her. He is MARRIED. He didn't choose his family. He dodged jail, that's what he did. GOD...I hate this movie so much.
Hmm, what else? Oh, yeah...
Mr. Holland spends years and years of his life not following his dreams and teaching high school students, which he never wanted to do in the first place. HE HATES IT at the beginning of the movie. He makes the clarinet girl cry. The clarinet girl then becomes the Governor of whatever state they're in, and she shows up to help play his Opus. I can't stand that part, either. The way she comes waltzing in and "saves the day"...so annoying.
How is being a gigantic martyr in any way portraying a "heroic" figure? Hey, I've got a great movie idea! It's called:
"Mr. Holland Actually Does What He Wants to Do Instead of Wasting Two Hours of My Life Acting Like a Selfish A-Hole and Then Getting a Huge Party Thrown For Him Because, Really People, He Stayed Sad and Did It For the Kids."
Jesus. So much more to say about this, but my human boy is waking up.
p.s. Electric guitar solo in your Opus, Mr. Holland? Really??
I was seriously on the verge of sending an anger-filled email about no blogs from Cari, and then Whamo! Mr. Holland has pissed you off. Any teacher who made me cry will not be getting any moving surprise appearances by me at their retirements. Just saying.
ReplyDeleteHi. I just wanted to say, this lame shit Baby Boomer pat-on-the-back circle jerk makes me want to fucking stab my eyes out. As a professional musician and composer, I hated every moment of it, from the first scene with him playing the wrong keys on the piano. That fucking weasel snicker of his makes me want to break his ribs and throw him in a lake. I just re-saw this after seeing it when it came out at 16, and I recall how terrible his shit song 30 years in the making was, especially the CB 700 drummer and the product placement guitar solo. The mix was awful on that song, unlistenable and generally unrewarding, and then - roll credits? Jesus, what a long, fat, stupid movie. So sorry about your deaf kid, asshole. What a terrible, smug, arrogant prick. May he and the hippies he pandered to rot. ::catches breath:: I also nominate this as the most hokey, horrible waste of film ever made, in the league of Thankskilling and Rumpelstiltskin, yet at least the latter two are entertaining in someway. I'm just so happy that his little stunt on stage will be the the best day of his life, and he will have to linger for another 25 years, forgotten, the butt of inside jokes, a never-was who hates his family and the walking, waking cautionary tale he has become.
ReplyDeleteThat comment was...AWESOME.
ReplyDeleteHi. I stumbled upon this after my girlfriend and I discovered our mutual hatred of Mr Holland's Opus during a movie conversation. Heartened by the discovery, I got online to see who else in the blog world shared our bile for this crappy flick. Your awesome post cracked me up, as did the anonymous post above. Great stuff!
ReplyDeleteOhhh ha ha ha. I couldn't agree more! At the end of the day it took him 30 years to write that one score of worthless shit? What was it called again, an American Symphony? It this had been me however, I would've waited until the day Ms. Kelly turned 18, boarded a bus and left that haggard old wife and retard son and lived happily ever after with the MOST beautiful girl in the world....Sigh, I love Jean Louisa Kelly
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry but do any of you people have jobs ??
ReplyDeleteGet over yourselves
Its a movie
Agreed with anonymous, you tards are a bunch of complaining cocksuckers. I wonder what kind of taste you people have in movies and music for that matter.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOK, whenever I watch the movie,I admit I hold my breath every time Mr. Holland kisses Rowena w/that gorgeous music in the bkgrnd, so sweet and not gross at all! But I do feel so let down when she gets on the bus..but it is a romantic bummer & y'all know it cos the movie leads slowly up to it, so it was only us wanting to see them make out or whatever. Whether u admit it or not!
ReplyDeleteBut think about it! (Holland obviously did!) After getting to NYC--then what? That beautiful sweet VERY talentd girl was just not going to stay with her "high school crush" {who was old enough to be her Dad?}forever after they settle there. Probably for a small happy while as she was so sweet, but then Holland would very soon be going thru a nasty divorce during their first months of "bouncy bedtime" & freely writing in their NY appt. {that they....would not have any money to pay for?} And then the divorce would cause stress on Holland, meaning it will be poor Rowena who will be NOW getting the brunt of his angry fits--i.e."the windy windows she forgot to close" etc... OMG! And THEN, every time he gets off the phone with the "hag" {as someone called his wife?--nice. HELLO? Women don't stay young forever and EITHER DO UGLY OLD MEN--BALD on VIAGRA!)
So, back on point, Mr Holland knew he was breaking her heart and kissed her, mostly 4 HER, I am sure. What I saw, was an "apologetic" kiss, and hot too, but mostly based on his own recent awareness of how selfish he had been, trying to subconsciously restart his own "wasted" young life/career by stealing away a bit of HER chance she had now in HER youth, by running away like a "teenager" with her, {and how tempting..}
However, being older and being much more experienced in life's many unexpected "unhappy" endings, not to mention being a father, {yeah, not the best, but it is hard on any father that stays as he should, and he was a teacher to boot. Lastly, he realized this was going to hurt her ALOT, just for a bit as he knew, but she would not, & this was going to be his fault as he has misled her all this time.
However, somewhere in this, he had an idea to bring some good out of all this so that is why he arranged so much for Rowena in NYC (his friends' place there, etc.) as it is dangerous there and at least she wouldn't be on the streets sleeping with no job and no friends, like so many kids that fly away there or L.A. & end up in terrible awful lives. We never do hear what happened to Rowena, but I thought that was appropriate What mattered was that Rowena would be safe, and one of them got to go chase their dreams..she would grown up and realized that Mr. Holland really cared abut her & was not a sleeze-bucket!
So, imo, he did NOT "molest" her as far as I am concerned. PLEASE, give me a break? With all the disgusting sex-rights junk going on TV all day long in front of my kids--{uh,btw, didn't they just have their "happy ending" at last--to be legally married and all that? And what we do in bed or on the potty is not a topic of discussion..PLEASE, gross!)
Mr Holland WAS a grump, but he stayed with his boy and wife, which was right, --and too bad btw that nobody stays together anymore. I am the only one i know who has 4 beautiful kids all from the SAME DADDY, AFTER marriage 9nearly 30 yrs. now)...WE are the FREAKS now.he he he. We are so unusual, it is a inside fam joke!
Mr Holland had his regrets, as we all do, BUT he was SO happy to see his son and wife at the end and obviously, he pretty upbeat at the end even after feeling so sad to leave that classroom. Remember?
Good for you Mr. Holland!
{Hope Luisa Kelly made it in NYC too!}
OK, whenever I watch the movie,I admit I hold my breath every time Mr. Holland kisses Rowena w/that gorgeous music in the bkgrnd, so sweet and not gross at all! But I do feel so let down when she gets on the bus..but it is a romantic bummer & y'all know it cos the movie leads slowly up to it, so it was only us wanting to see them make out or whatever. Whether u admit it or not!
ReplyDeleteBut think about it! (Holland obviously did!) After getting to NYC--then what? That beautiful sweet VERY talentd girl was just not going to stay with her "high school crush" {who was old enough to be her Dad?}forever after they settle there. Probably for a small happy while as she was so sweet, but then Holland would very soon be going thru a nasty divorce during their first months of "bouncy bedtime" & freely writing in their NY appt. {that they....would not have any money to pay for?} And then the divorce would cause stress on Holland, meaning it will be poor Rowena who will be NOW getting the brunt of his angry fits--i.e."the windy windows she forgot to close" etc... OMG! And THEN, every time he gets off the phone with the "hag" {as someone called his wife?--nice. HELLO? Women don't stay young forever and EITHER DO UGLY OLD MEN--BALD on VIAGRA!)
So, back on point, Mr Holland knew he was breaking her heart and kissed her, mostly 4 HER, I am sure. What I saw, was an "apologetic" kiss, and hot too, but mostly based on his own recent awareness of how selfish he had been, trying to subconsciously restart his own "wasted" young life/career by stealing away a bit of HER chance she had now in HER youth, by running away like a "teenager" with her, {and how tempting..}
However, being older and being much more experienced in life's many unexpected "unhappy" endings, not to mention being a father, {yeah, not the best, but it is hard on any father that stays as he should, and he was a teacher to boot. Lastly, he realized this was going to hurt her ALOT, just for a bit as he knew, but she would not, & this was going to be his fault as he has misled her all this time.
However, somewhere in this, he had an idea to bring some good out of all this so that is why he arranged so much for Rowena in NYC (his friends' place there, etc.) as it is dangerous there and at least she wouldn't be on the streets sleeping with no job and no friends, like so many kids that fly away there or L.A. & end up in terrible awful lives. We never do hear what happened to Rowena, but I thought that was appropriate What mattered was that Rowena would be safe, and one of them got to go chase their dreams..she would grown up and realized that Mr. Holland really cared abut her & was not a sleeze-bucket!
So, imo, he did NOT "molest" her as far as I am concerned. PLEASE, give me a break? With all the disgusting sex-rights junk going on TV all day long in front of my kids--{uh,btw, didn't they just have their "happy ending" at last--to be legally married and all that? And what we do in bed or on the potty is not a topic of discussion..PLEASE, gross!)
Mr Holland WAS a grump, but he stayed with his boy and wife, which was right, --and too bad btw that nobody stays together anymore. I am the only one i know who has 4 beautiful kids all from the SAME DADDY, AFTER marriage 9nearly 30 yrs. now)...WE are the FREAKS now.he he he. We are so unusual, it is a inside fam joke!
Mr Holland had his regrets, as we all do, BUT he was SO happy to see his son and wife at the end and obviously, he pretty upbeat at the end even after feeling so sad to leave that classroom. Remember?
Good for you Mr. Holland!
{Hope Luisa Kelly made it in NYC too!}
I liked his character up until the point when Rowena came in the picture and those slow drawn out scenes where they admired each other and flirted and then led up to him kissing her
ReplyDeleteGoodbye really? He shouldn't have even gone there wtf??
Are we supposed to pat him on the back for not leaving his wife and son but playing with the idea of having an affair with a minor? And leading her on?
No hell no. I seriously can't stand this double standard in movies where the men can toy and flirt, cheat on their wife, or almost cheat and it's okay. This is totally accepted as normal for a man to cheat or want to in movies/tv.
A messed up move on the writers part.
The movie could have been alright if it weren't for a whole third of the movie about that.
Hi. Just wanted to let you know I still stand by my comment (Baby Boomer circle jerk) above. I was 29 when I wrote that and now I'm 36 and MHO was on at someone's house and I flipped my kid over it and they all said, "Wait, you don't like Mr. Holland's Opus? It's one of the greatest movies of all time!" Yeah, I'd put it right up there with The Zookeeper with Kevin James. But I wanted to let you know I saw Valerian, and that movie is even worse than MHO. I'm glad this post is still up. It brought back wonderful/horrible memories.
ReplyDeleteFlipped my lid*
Deleteit's been a while. do you still stand by these words?
ReplyDeleteIt's a very easy on the eyes which makes it much more enjoyable for me to come here and visit more often. Did you hire out a designer to create your theme? Fantastic work!
ReplyDeleteflirting cheating
Omg this is fucking hilarious. I was just watching it for the first time on day time tv since I was a kid. When I saw that he was about to have an affair with A FUCKING HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT!!! (Fucking YUCK!) I punched in to Google "Did Mr Holland kiss a teenager?" and this post came up. So glad it did! I was loling all over the place. On a more serious note, it's just so incredibly fucked up. It should be called Mr Holland's Almost Statutory Rape-us. Fucking gross.
ReplyDeleteIt was almost the end of her senior year. She would have been 18 years old. That isn't statutory rape. I think his kiss was on her cheek, not lips. It was more of a goodbye kiss on the cheek. I don't think they flirted at all. I don't think he considered going with her to NYC even for a split second. I think he was just shocked that she wanted him to go with her, and he was worried about her. I thought it was very touching. As far as him making the red head cry, he accidentally made her cry by telling her "give it up". She thought he meant forever. He quickly corrected her and proceeded to teach her a better way of learning to play music.
ReplyDelete