Continuity mistake: When Glen Holland hears that John Lennon was killed, he is sitting at his piano and outside the window it is sunny and leaves are on the trees. As he walks home, it is overcast, snow is on the ground, and the leaves are off the trees. Since Lennon was killed in December of 1980, the latter "weather" would be correct.
Mr. Holland's Opus (1995)
Ending / spoiler
Directed by: Stephen Herek
Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Olympia Dukakis, Glenne Headly, Jay Thomas
The school board cuts all arts funding to the school, leading Mr. Holland to be unceremoniously fired after thirty years of teaching. On his last day, many of his previous students throw a celebration of his time at the school. In the end, Mr. Holland has the assembled orchestra play his opus.
Mark Ivey
More mistakes in Mr. Holland's Opus
Vice Principal Wolters: Corvair?
Mr. Glenn Holland: Yeah.
Vice Principal Wolters: I take it you didn't read Ralph Nader's book.
Mr. Glenn Holland: Well, unless Ralph is willing to buy me a new car, I'm going to have to stick with this one until the wheels fall off.
Vice Principal Wolters: Well, you might not have to wait that long. Heh, heh. Have a nice day.
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."
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: 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).
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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