Goofs

As Cole grows up, his eye color changes from blue to brown and back to blue.

In the Gershwin revue audition, Mr. Holland is genuinely surprised and impressed by Rowena's talent, and asks her name. However, in the diner later, Rowena explains that she loved being in his classes, and when Iris sees her name in the program, she had been in the earlier school production of "My Fair Lady". It is highly unlikely, then, that Mr. Holland would not have known her.

The Driver's Ed car loses a hubcap on the way to the hospital. In subsequent scenes, it has all four hubcaps.

Shortly after Mr. Holland's son opens a window, causing papers to fly all over the room, a medium shot shows a young man sitting in a chair. He stands up. When the camera cuts to a long shot, he's back in the chair, and stands up again.

After learning the Hollands will move to a house, Iris hugs Glenn with a sheet of music in her hand, and the sheet ends up behind his head. In the next shot, the sheet is in the middle of his back.

After finding out his son is deaf, Mr. Holland teaches his class about Ludwig van Beethoven's deafness while writing his 7th symphony. Beethoven lost his hearing gradually; he wasn't completely deaf until he wrote his 9th symphony.

Mr. Holland conducts with his baton in his left hand. Traditional conductors conduct with their batons in their right hand, even if they're left-handed, due to centuries of tradition. It's the same reason left-handed violinists don't hold the bow in their left hand.

When Mrs. Holland realizes her son is deaf and her husband jumps up and down behind the child to make noise, their son does not react at all, but jumping up and down on a wood floor would cause a vibration which the child would have felt and reacted to, especially if he is deaf and relied on other senses.

(at around 1h 55 mins) Ray Charles' "I've Got a Woman" was released by Atlantic Records.

In the end credits, there is a credit for Cole at age 28. Cole was born in the summer of 1965. The last part is set in the spring of 1995, when Cole would be 29.

Mr. Holland plays "Lovers Concerto" to his class and asks who wrote It. A student replies, 'The Toys'. Mr. Holland corrects him and says, "That was Minuet in G, by Johann Sebastian Bach." At the time the film was set, this was attributed to Bach, as it was included in a notebook Bach gave to his wife. It was determined in 1979 to be part of a larger piece written by Christian Petzold (1677-1733).

Glenn Holland comes home after school the day following John Lennon's murder in New York City. Lennon was shot and killed at night and was pronounced dead shortly afterward at 11:15pm (8:15 in Portland). The news was announced at the end of the national broadcast of New England Patriots vs. Miami Dolphins (1980), and also on ABC News Nightline (1979) that night; in addition to radio news reports, the news would certainly have been in Portland's morning newspapers, but some people might not have known until later in the day.

As Iris takes a picture of Mr. Holland at the end, the next shot (cutting to Mr. Holland conducting his symphony) shows her sitting quietly in her seat, without her camera even visible.

Over a minute passes from when the camera cuts away from Iris raising her camera to the next time she is in frame. That is plenty of time for her to take the picture and put her camera away, in her purse or under her seat.

(at around 2h 10 mins) All of the signs depicting the orchestra members' class dates have the apostrophe backwards. The thick part should be at the top with the curve bending around to the right and down.

They're not apostrophes; they are typographic single opening quote marks. While their use is not grammatically correct, they are being used for aesthetic purposes.

The orchestra playing "The American Symphony" at the end is composed of current students and various alumni who graduated during the various years of Mr. Holland's tenure. The symphony is a fairly complex composition, which would have required a number of orchestra rehearsals. Assuming that at least some of the various alumni no longer lived in that town (including the Governor), the logistics of gathering all of these people together would have been considerable, posing the question of when and where the required rehearsals could have taken place.

Per IMDb Guidelines, this is an "Unacceptable Goof" due to "Artistic License: Please allow for artistic license on the part of the filmmakers. Most movies and TV shows are not meant to perfectly reflect reality as you experience it."

Throughout the film, it is obvious that the band "musicians" (particularly the horns and woodwinds) aren't really playing their instruments. Beyond the bizarre fingerings, great sound pours out, yet the players' lips, cheeks, and neck muscles show no movement or exertion.

Upon hearing of John Lennon's death, Mr. Holland tells his students that "a young man" has died. Lennon was 40, considered old for a pop musician, and indeed he had been famous for more than 16 years. Mr. Holland would have been 45 in 1980, and thus the comment seems out of place.

The one big roadblock to doing the Gershwin review was saving money. Yet when the show reaches the school stage it's a Broadway level production with immensely expensive staging, sets, costumes, lighting, and orchestra.

If Mr. Holland is 60 in 1995, he would be 30 in 1965, when he tells Iris how he fell in love with John Coltrane's music in 1950, when he was 15. Coltrane's first session as a leader was on 31 May 1957, so he couldn't have had a John Coltrane record then.

During the 1964-1965 school year, Mr. Holland helps his class appreciate Johann Sebastian Bach by showing the connection between a Bach composition and "A Lover's Concerto" by The Toys. The record came out in fall 1965, during the next school year.

When Mr. Holland is starting a marching band for the first time, a saxophonist is using a Rovner ligature on his mouthpiece, instead of a typical metal one. The Grant High School Band from Portland, Oregon was used in the filming, and the student used his personal horn/mouthpiece and ligature, not realizing that it didn't exist in the time period they were filming. Rovner ligatures weren't invented until the mid-'70s, and definitely didn't become well-used by musicians until the late '80s.

In a montage of mid- to late-1970s musical events seen just prior to scenes set in 1980, David Byrne of Talking Heads is seen performing in the over-sized Big Suit designed especially for the 1983 tour promoting their album "Speaking in Tongues", documented in the concert film Stop Making Sense (1984), released in 1984.

The bass drum used for the marching band was made by Yamaha. Yamaha drums did not come into use in the US until the 1980s.

The school band's marching is alternately on and off the beat when the parade begins.

Mr. Holland's piano playing does not match the audio track in several places.

The trumpet players' fingering doesn't match the notes they're playing.

At the end when Mr. Holland conducting the alumni orchestra, there is a close shot of trumpets resting and the cornet player emptying his water key, yet the trumpet section is heard playing.

After Mr. Holland discusses Ludwig van Beethoven with his students, the camera pans over to the record player. The camera is reflected in the shiny surface of the record.

One of the biggest themes in the movie is that Mr. Holland becomes so involved in the time demands of teaching that he seldom gets opportunities to work on his own compositions, namely his "American Symphony". It is heavily implied that it went unwritten his entire life, yet at the end it is complete enough that his wife can secretly make copies for the alumni orchestra to practice with, perfect and perform it in its entirety. This can be, however, a finished part of a much larger, unfinished work, as a 2m30s piece hardly constitutes a symphony.

(at around 37 mins) Mr. Holland is crazily driving the Drivers' Ed car (with his students still in the car), but there is no way he could have known that his wife had given birth. If he had been told before the class started, he would have driven his own car; once the class was in progress, there would have been no way to reach him on the road.

During Louis Russ' funeral, the flag is presented to next of kin incorrectly. The point should be facing away from the recipient.

When young Gertrude Lang shows up late, Mr. Holland mentions that she left her clarinet there the other day. Then he asks her to play for him. She would not be able to just pick up the clarinet and play, as the reed would be dry and hard. To play the clarinet, Gertrude would have needed to get the reed soft and wet.

After the rifle salute at Louis Russ' funeral, the Sergeant-at-Arms orders "Present Arms". After the completion of firing, the proper command should have been "Order Arms".

Note: The "Present Arms" command was meant to go with the following playing of "Taps". But because the two scenes are run together, it is heard as a command to the rifle squad directly after the rifle volley.

The child "playing" the French horn is holding the horn backwards. The bell should be facing to the right.

During Lou's funeral, two of the rifle party (a master sergeant and a buck sergeant) have their unit patches (Sixth Army) on the wrong shoulder. It should be on the left. The right shoulder is where their combat patch would be. (They may have had unit patches on both shoulders.)