Music of the Heart (1999)

Story of a schoolteacher's struggle to teach violin to inner-city Harlem kids.

Director:

Wes Craven

Writer:

Pamela Gray

Stars:

Meryl Streep, Cloris Leachman, Henry Dinhofer

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 5 wins & 9 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Meryl Streep	...	Roberta Guaspari
Cloris Leachman	...	Assunta Guaspari
Henry Dinhofer	...	Lexi at 5
Michael Angarano	...	Nick at 7
Robert Ari	...	Supervisor
Aidan Quinn	...	Brian Turner
Teddy Coluca	...	Taxi Driver
Angela Bassett	...	Principal Janet Williams
Josh Pais	...	Dennis Rausch
Barbara Gonzalez	...	Janet's Secretary
Jade Yorker	...	DeSean at 11
Victoria Gómez	...	Lucy at 10 (as Victoria Gomez)
Justin Pierre Edmund	...	Bongo Kid
Justin 'DJ' Spaulding	...	Naeem Adisa at 9 (as Justin Spaulding)
Zoe Sternbach-Taubman	...	Guadalupe at 9

Storyline

The true story of a young teacher who fights against the board of education in her bid to teach underprivileged kids in a Harlem school the beauty of music through the violin. In her struggle she loses everything as the system comes down on her with all their might but her determination for the kids happiness helps her to battle back with wonderfully inspirational results.

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Plot Keywords:

violin | teacher | school | ghetto | yelling | 

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Taglines:

She gave them a gift they could never imagine. They gave the system a fight it would never forget.

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Genres:

Drama | Music

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for brief mild language and sensuality

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

29 October 1999 (USA)

Also Known As:

50 Violins

Filming Locations:

Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$27,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$3,653,281 (USA) (29 October 1999)

Gross:

$14,849,583 (USA) (14 January 2000)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Craven-Maddalena Films, Miramax Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

124 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Many of the children featured in this film are actual students of Ms. Tvaraz and were actually with her during the events (including the Carnegie Hall Extravaganza) that led to the establishment of the Opus 118 East Harlem Violin Program that helped to support Roberta in the public school system.

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Goofs

At the end of Roberta's first week of teaching, Brian visits her apartment to celebrate. When he enters the room, Roberta has just finished putting three large curlers in her hair on the left side. They disappear after the two of them kiss.

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Quotes

Nick at 17: [after looking at many letters answering a fake singles add they secretly put in the paper for their mom] Come on, Mom, obviously a lot of guys are interested in dating you.
Roberta Guaspari: No, a lot of guys are interested in dating *you*! And Lexi!... What did you say about me, anyways?

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Crazy Credits

Please support arts and music education.

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Connections

Referenced in Film Geek (2005)

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Soundtracks

"One Night With You"
Performed by C NOTE
Written by Diane Warren
By Arrangement with Sony Music Licensing

User Reviews

Wes Craven? Are you kidding me?

I really liked this movie. It's constantly on TV, and I don't get tired of it. Meryl Streep should have won the Academy Award, and I was mad she didn't. She did a fantastic job for the role she was given. Not only did I find her great, but I was very pleasantly surprised to find out it was her playing the violin! The entire cast plays their own violins! That is so cool! It's so surprising as well. What else is surprising is that Wes Craven did this movie. Wes Craven, the director of such crappy movies as Cursed and Dracula 2001. Amazing, Wes Craven can actually do good movies unlike the crappy horror movies that you go to the ticket booths for your money back afterwards. Bravo!