re: Mr. Holland's Opus is one of the great movies of the 90s

quote:

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I’ve always felt Mr. Holland was a bit of an a-hole and that Dick Dreyfus was pretty unlikeable in playing him. Not sure if it was intentional to show that he was flawed, but he treated his son like crap. Angry at him and the world because he was born deaf. Then he almost took advantage of a young, maturing Rowena.

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That's the point though. Even though he's a good music teacher he always has this frustration about the direction his life took. He feels like he loses himself and his passions and doesn't reach his full potential because of his responsibilities to his family and his students. Rowena is finally someone in his life that understand the drive he has to be more than what he is, and running off with her would be a way to escape his dull commitments and go after his old dreams.

Now that I think of it, he's pretty much George Bailey and the movie is a re-imagined It's a Wonderful Life.