Mr. Holland's Opus

Question: Why can't Glenn understand anything Cole signs, leaving Iris to translate? Glenn knows and uses sign language when talking to Cole so it seems strange that he doesn't know anything that Cole tells him when Cole uses sign language.

Answer: Iris knows and understands sign language much better than her husband. Glen can communicate on a basic level, but when Cole is ready to tell off his father, he wants to make sure Glen understands exactly what he's saying. Remember how Glen didn't know the sign for 'a***hole'.

Brian Katcher

Answer: Glenn was passionate about music and wanted to be a great composer, something relatively few people are able to attain. At least initially, taking a part-time music teacher position was not what he wanted to do or be - but it provided the resources to support himself/his family while giving him enough time to pursue his dream (music composition/opus). Glenn had an on-again/off-again (mostly "off") relationship with his son Cole, perhaps sometimes due to his lack of commitment, time constraints, frustration, sense of failure, and emotional pain over his belief that he could not successfully nurture the love of music in his near-deaf son. (Glenn was aware of the difficulties Beethoven had.) In some ways, Glenn (selfishly) was saying, "I don't have time for this" (communicating in sign language or providing the fatherly devotion and sacrifice necessary to understand and develop a good rapport with his "special needs" son).

KeyZOid

Question: Sometime during the film the show the passing of several years by showing images of what happened during these years. I think it is at the time of the Vietnam War. A song is played in the background. Does anybody know what the name of that song is and whom by?

Answer: Its "Imagine" by John Lennon.

Continuity mistake: Glen Holland owns a Chevy Corvair throughout the film. The car at the beginning of the film is a 1961 model 500 (the base model with bench seats), but at the end of the film it is a 1964 Monza (the top of the line model, with bucket seats).

James Phillips

More mistakes in Mr. Holland's Opus

Mr. Glenn Holland: Let me ask you a question. When you look in the mirror, what do you like best about yourself?
Gertrude Lang: My hair.
Mr. Glenn Holland: Why?
Gertrude Lang: Well, my father always says that it reminds him of the sunset.
Mr. Glenn Holland: Play the sunset. Close your eyes. One, two, three, four.

More quotes from Mr. Holland's Opus

Trivia: 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."

More trivia for Mr. Holland's Opus

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