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Topic: Mr. Holland's Opus

Evans A Criswell
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1579
From: Huntsville, AL, USA
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 04-15-2002 03:21 PM

I have a friend who plays symphony. He can play violin and guitar, and who knows what else. He came over to my house and he'd always wanted to see Mr. Holland's Opus. I have the laserdisc (scope, letterboxed, with DD AC3 sound), so we watched it. The only other time I'd seen the movie was on VHS at a party back in 1996 or 1997.

I'd forgotten what a great movie this was. It is long, but both times, I got sucked into it and enjoyed the entire movie tremendously. I noticed on the second viewing of this movie that it is a sequence of individual stories put together in a really good way so that when one issue comes up and is getting resolved, there is something else coming up to grab your interest. It is very appropriate for a movie documenting the career of a school teacher. My father taught school for more than 30 years, and each year you have different students and different situations.

If I had to make a collection of the best more serious movies I've ever seen, this one would definitely go in the collection. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.

I could tell that the movie was filmed with an anamorphic lens. Also, in the credits, the "Filmed in Panavision" logo looked differently than what I usually see. Instead of the black background with white lines and text, the logo was filled in with white and the rest of the lines and text were in black.

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Evans A Criswell
Huntsville-Decatur Movie Theatre Information Site

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David Stambaugh
Film God

Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 04-15-2002 04:12 PM

Although I haven't seen it for years, I also liked this movie a lot. I know people who hate anything Richard Dreyfuss is in, but I thought he did a great job in this role. But the story might be a little too over-the-top in the sentimentality dept. for some Film-Techers to admit to liking it.

Time for me to rent the DVD I guess.

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Steve Kraus
Film God

Posts: 4094
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Registered: May 2000

posted 04-20-2002 06:37 PM

I thought he should have run off with the girl. hehehe

Speaking of which she (Jean Louisa Kelly) was the teen daughter in "Uncle Buck" and also may be remembered from a series of MCI commercials years ago where she was a headset-wearing telemarketer smirking from behind her computer screen, "Don't worry AT&T! It'll be a long time before we can contact all of your customers!" (or similar).

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 05-03-2002 01:10 PM

I still remember standing in the back of the theatre during the "will he kiss her, or won't he?" scene. Every night, you could cut the tension with a knife.

Excellent movie, but anyone who saw the trailer saw the entire story, including the ending....

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John T. Hendrickson, Jr
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 889
From: Freehold, NJ, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 05-03-2002 07:51 PM

Loved that movie, since I was still teaching back then.

What I didn't like was moving that big print from theater to theater.

Seemed like that movie ran forever. Great legs.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 05-04-2002 06:49 PM

I have a trim off one of the reels from "Mr. Holland's Opus" where the girl ("Rowena Morgan" played by Jean Louisa Kelly) is rehearsing up on stage.

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John Hawkinson
Film God

Posts: 2273
From: Cambridge, MA, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 05-04-2002 11:44 PM

Umm.

--jhawk

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Manny Knowles
"What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???"

Posts: 4247
From: Bloomington, IN, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 05-11-2002 12:56 AM

(humming the theme from THE TWILIGHT ZONE...)*

While I liked the movie +a lot+ I can never fully buy the ending of the "Beautiful Boy" song, where he changes the last words to "Beautiful Cole." That one moment makes me wince and grind my teeth.

The rest of it...all 23 hours...are great! A real heartbreaker of a movie.

And, you know what else? I was hoping and praying that his opus would be worth the wait...and I think it was.

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And, hey! Let's be careful out there.

~Manny.

*You wanna see something REALLY scary? Take a look at MY collection of frames someday!

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Manny Knowles
"What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???"

Posts: 4247
From: Bloomington, IN, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 05-11-2002 01:00 AM

Looks like you can see sprockets in part of the image (right-hand side).

Or is that just a low-grade scan?

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And, hey! Let's be careful out there.

~Manny.

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