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When Mr. Holland is helping Gertrude Lang with the clarinet, her hands are in the wrong spot. The left hand is where the right hand should be, and the right hand is where her left should be. You can not play the clarinet this way. See more...

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All the American Sign Language used in the movie is accurate. When Iris tells Cole to open the window, Cole's response is not translated and she says "don't bust my butt." What he signed was, "Tell him to open the window himself." See more...

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Mr. Holland's Opus (1995) - 7 corrections

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Genres: Drama, Music

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click "edit" under an entry, then choose "correct entry". You can also submit corrections for corrections, if you think a mistake has been unfairly removed.

Corrections

After Mr. Holland performs a concert for his son's school for the deaf, the audience bursts into applause. But deaf people do not clap in applause, they wave their hands (it is more visually energetic). Since most of the audience was deaf students and teachers, there really should have been a lot of waving, and only a few sparse clappers. But I'm sure that would have sounded awkward and anticlimactic for this very emotional scene. Given the research the filmmakers put into ASL, I'm sure they were aware of this, but opted for the clapping to suit the typical (hearing) movie-goer. [Deaf people are aware of what clapping is. Those in the audience know that Mr. Holland is not deaf and that applause would have a greater impact on him than waving. This was their choice, not a movie mistake.]

Edit Corrected by Phixius

Correction Edit text Duplicate X

When Mr. Holland is rushing to the hospital in the car, he turns sharply an the hubcap comes off. In the next scene he turns again, and the hubcap is back on. [Only one hubcap comes off and you can't tell which tire it falls off. When they show that side of the car again, you can only see one tire.]

Edit Corrected by reneefk

Correction Edit text Duplicate X

In the shot where Mr. Holland and Stadler are at Louis Russ's funeral and the 21-gun salute begins, the camera visibly shakes. [Not necessarily a mistake. If you've ever been near a 21 gun salute, or a cannon salute, a person standing near may be shaken by the vibration. Since a camera can be represented as a viewer's eyes, it is not a mistake if it moves as well. If it fell over or something, sure, but not a shake from vibration or percussion.]