Mr. Holland's Opus

Mr. Holland's Opus (1995) is a drama starring Richard Dreyfuss that you can watch online on iFILM. Glenn Holland dreams of composing one great symphony, and in 1965 he takes a high school music-teaching job just to pay the bills while he writes it.

The stopgap stretches into thirty years. Holland figures out how to make music matter to teenagers who couldn't care less, and somewhere along the line those classes become the purpose he never went looking for. At home comes a harder blow: his son is born deaf and will never hear the thing his father lives by. The film moves through decades — Vietnam, assassinations, wave after wave of students — and watches the dream of a personal opus quietly give way to hundreds of lives he reshaped. Around Dreyfuss stand Glenne Headly, Olympia Dukakis, and a young Terrence Howard.

Director Stephen Herek delivers the rare teacher movie that earns its emotion instead of forcing it, and the ending genuinely lands. Dreyfuss drew an Academy Award nomination for the role. It's for anyone who values stories about a small life that turns out to matter more than the loud dream. Stream Mr. Holland's Opus online on iFILM.