One of the most well-produced musical dramas in history!

Rating: Null/10 (21 March 2002)

Warning: potential spoilers
I have to admit that I simply cannot understand anyone bagging this movie, or saying it is poor. This movie is my all-time favourite, I have watched it countless times. Despite the fact that perhaps some of the musical facts may have been incorrect, I feel that point is so trivial and unimportant as to even feature as a point against it. If you pick on the musical facts, then you have most definitely missed the meaning of this movie.
This movie shows how a teacher can endear himself to the students, help to shape their lives, and in turn, gain fulfillment himself. That, is the point of the movie, anything else is irrelevant. This movie is outstanding in many ways. Firstly, it has a lot of history, for those of you who enjoy their history, like me. It spans 30 years. It shows the impact of the Vietnam War, how Mr Holland taught a student who in turn ended up dying defending his country. We see one of his former students who started out as shy and untalented, rise to be the Governor of the state. Whilst all this is going on, in the background we see his family growing, and the impact his deaf son has on him, and his heartache that his own son will never truly be able to hear music. As previously mentioned, right through this, is the history of 1965-1995 and how society, beliefs and cultures change. If the ending is not enough to move you to tears, you are simply not human - simple.
We all have experienced a teacher who believed in us, made us believe in ourselves, and shaped our lives. That is what this movie is about. The intricacies are unimportant, it is the moral of the story which is the focal point. The movie certainly brings to life a sentence in John Lennon's song - Beautiful Boy: "life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans". Ever since seeing this movie, I have adopted this as my motto. Never has a truer sentence been uttered. This movie deserves nothing short of 10, and I believe will go down in history as one of the best movies, and will be classed among the famous classics.
If you don't see this movie, you are missing out on something very, very special.
10 out of 10