Throughout the movie Mr Holland's Opus, the main character Mr. Holland plays four roles in his everyday life. These roles are musician, teacher, father, and husband. Like anyone, Mr. Holland was both successful and unsuccessful at each of these roles.
To me he was most successful at being a musician, but I am sure others have different opinions. See what you think.
In the beginning of the movie, Mr. Holland's one and only passion is to be a famous musician. He is a very good pianist who can compose good music quickly, a good skill to have to be a famous musician. He also composes songs that really mean something to him. To me I don't believe that he has any very significant unsuccessful qualities for this role, therefore that is why I believe he was most successful at being a musician.
Another role that Mr. Holland had in the movie was being a teacher. In the beginning of the movie he really didn't want to pursue a career as a teacher, but in the end that is the only thing he wanted to do. As a teacher he is very successful overall as he starts the school marching band, directs the school Gershwin play, and really teaches his students to appreciate music. He is somewhat unsuccessful because good teachers generally need to have patience and often he blows up without slowing down and really thinking a problem over. Overall he was probably second best out of all the roles at teaching.
Of course, we couldn't forget his role as a father. To me he is not very successful at all at being a father. Often he chooses his school over spending time with his son and he blows up at Cole when he can't understand what he is signing, therefore unsuccessful. However, when his son addressed him that he wasn't being a good father, he at least tried for a while (for example, dedicating a song at the concert to Cole) to be a better one. Overall this to me would have to be his most unsuccessful role.
Last of all, we have Mr. Holland's role as a husband to his loving wife Iris. He is somewhat successful at the beginning of the movie by being happy for his wife when he finds out she is pregnant and helping prepare for the arrival of Cole. However after Cole is born things seem to go downhill from here, he yells at her a lot and is generally pretty crabby about things. This would probably be his almost worst role.
This is a very changing movie to watch, and you will never look at a deaf person, like Mr. Holland's son, the same way ever again. You can rent it at any local video store, and I encourage you to! You can also recommend it to your Career Planning teacher if you take that course. I watched this movie in my Career class and there was a whole two-week lesson about it. Either way, you should definitely get the chance to see this movie!
