Entire Plot and emotional content can be summarized in a 45 second preview

Rating: Null/10 (17 January 2000)

The main value of this film is for baby boomers to go out and see it and get all nostalgic. For a nostalgia film it is not that well done. The music of the various decades when Mr Holland is teaching is painfully shoved into a simplistic plot. The emotional and inspirational interactions between students and teacher are similarly simple.
If you see a preview for this at the beginning of another tape, then you have pretty much seen the movie. The plot is the typical teacher believes in something and spreads his intensity to the students- Oh how sweet. I am just touched by this heartwarming experience. I sat around and mocked this with friends of mine who are heavily into band. OK, so Mr Holland spent thirty years watching the band department fritter away and composing and opus made up of bits of classical music so well known that I, with no musical training could pick them out. I mean gee itÕs not as if there arenÕt thousands of aspiring composers out there who could have provided.
The bottom line is nostalgic gushy liberal people who like to think of themselves as artistic people or patrons of the arts will really like this, and the rest of us will have reactions ranging from vaguely bored to disgust. At any rate a second viewing would be a waste of time, but once is worth a shot if you are a gooshy person. If you are looking for something different this film is not for you.