MovieChat Forums > Mr. Holland's Opus (1996) Discussion > Sign language questions

Sign language questions

posted 12 years ago by estcst-3
5 replies | jump to latest

First, for those who know sign language, do you think the film really showed realistic use of sign language? Was the signing true to form or was it just nonsense?

Also, there's a scene where Cole and Mr. Holland are discussing the death of John Lennon (Cole is working on the car and has a black eye). There is some signing that goes on there with a bit of dialog and I'm not exactly following what happens late in the conversation. It seems that Cole tells Mr Holland that he got the black eye in a fight and Mr Holland says about John Lennon being killed and there is an exchange that I don't understand what is going on and Mr Holland says "In a minute" and goes into the house. Did Cole ask him for something? What was his reply of "In a minute" in reference to?

Thanks for any insights.

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] estcst-3 12 years ago

Thanks!

[–] shirleysmomma 12 years ago

To answer your first question the ASL in this film is absolutely accurate! It's spot on exactly what you would see when interacting with the Deaf community today. In fact all the Deaf characters in this movie were played by Deaf actors. Now in the scene you asked about. Glenn notices Cole's eye and pointing to his own asks "what happened to your eye?"
Cole signs(not entirely on screen so it's hard to interpret accurately sorry) that he was in a fight the evening before. Glenn doesn't understand so Cole gestures a fist fight. Glenn acknowledges that he understood that time and then Cole asks him to help work on the car. (Again this is implied through gesture not sign) you have to remember at this point Glenn like many hearing parents in real life even still today was resistant to learning ASL so that he could communicate with his own child. He responds to Cole by signing later as he turns away. This is also rude because by not looking at a Deaf person you are cutting off their access to communication with you. Cole responds by slamming a tool down loudly on the car engine. He gets Glen's attention and signs "what". Then Glen attempts to explain that John Lennon was killed that day. And the story continues from there.

[–] estcst-3 12 years ago

Thank you for the insight into this scene.

[–] mrmathexpert 10 years ago

ASL was 100% accurate in the film. I would know.