Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Headscratchers / MrHollandsOpus

Go To

1[[WMG: Subterfuge]]
2Don't knock it, the ending is a SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}}, but what bugs me is the FridgeLogic that someone (probably his wife or son), went through Mr. Holland's private papers to find the Opus he had written, photocopied it and had the entire band practice it ''without Mr. Holland's permission or knowledge''. Then they expect him to conduct it cold turkey in front of the auditorium.
3* Yes, that's a leap of faith that the viewer has to make. It helps, I suppose, that the piece is not really a symphony in any traditional sense. It's set to a rock beat and is fairly predictable in its chordal structure (well, it's really the theme music of the film, isn't it?). Had it been a demanding piece with tempo and time changes, the premise would be much harder to accept.
4* And, yes, the other issue is the secrecy with which the whole thing must have been achieved--rehearsals at times and in places where Holland would not have been expected. They could hardly have rehearsed at the school--he seemed to know everything that was going on at the school at the end of his career.
5* Actually, its the opposite. All of his classes have heard him play parts of his opus hundreds of times and its not a secret...its just unfinished and Mr. Holland has refused to let it be played straight through in a vain attempt to "perfect" his work. With the advent of computers and copiers from the 1960s to the 1990s, it has become easier and easier to copy and organize the piece's parts so that it can be distributed and practiced.
6[[WMG: Music Budget]]
7So Mr. Holland is forcibly retired and the music department is cut due to lack of funding. If one of the students he was able to inspire (who knows first hand about the importance of music education, even for those who don't end up going into music) ended up becoming the GOVERNOR OF OREGON, couldn't she have secured more funding for arts and music in her education budget? Or is the Portland school district (or the principal of the school) just ridiculously stingy?
8* Whether she could or couldn't, there's nothing to suggest that he'd even ''tried'' to lobby her on the subject.
9* Or the state government in the movie [[ShownTheirWork resembled Oregon politics at the time the movie was made]], in which the Governor was not from the same party that controlled the State Legislature.

Top