Dead Poets SocietyThe best teachers do more than shuffle their students along the treadmill of conformity--they set the fire of individuality in the souls of their pupils with the spark of inspiration. Dead Poets Society is a drama about an unorthodox English professor, John Keating (Robin Williams), who exposes a group of young men at the prestigious yet stern Welton Academy preparatory school to the joys of language and literature. Keating does more than just pass off education by reading from a book; he encourages his students to understand who they really are--not just would-be power elites, but human beings.
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When Dead Poets Society released in 1989, it was a massive critical and commercial success. It is a stirring drama about something which hopefully everyone could relate to on some level--having that special teacher who influenced your learning--and even your life--in a way that changed your perception of the world. This is really what education is designed to do: delivering the "light of knowledge" to students, so that they may make their own independent decisions, and so that the human race may evolve and flourish. Dead Poets Society opens with a ritual of passing a candle, meant to symbolize the passing of knowledge; ironically, it is a ritual which is meaningless to the young boys at Welton--who call the institute "Hellton". It is devoid of purpose and instead becomes the embodiment of the strangling of the soul. What Mr. Keating represents is the proverbial breath of fresh air, the students' spirits long since stifled under the tyranny of an archaic institution and unfeeling parents that care only for the advancement of their own legacies manifested in their children at the expense of all else. John Keating is a former alumni of Welton, and voluntarily returned to his alma mater to teach young men like he was when he was a student. Keating truly empathizes with these students' problems in a way that the other, preternaturally decrepit teachers can not (or will not) understand. Dead Poets Society shares a common theme with Picnic at Hanging Rock, also directed by Peter Weir; both stories are a coming-of-age story, of crossing the threshold of maturity, and the perils and pains that come with it. Keating recalls from one of his favorite poets, Henry David Thoreau, that most people live life in a kind of "quiet desperation"...that they never make the leap to actually live their lives as they should, out of fear, a need for acceptance, or worst of all, because they've never been given permission to be individuals. This is the desperate lesson which Keating shares, something sorely lacking at the adamantly rigid academy. Even on day one, Keating leads them out into the foyer of the academy, and speaks lines of poetry which underscores the common theme: "carpe diem"...to seize the day. He makes fresh something that was overlooked, and gives context to the portraits of the silent sentinels of long-past students. Keating shares a lesson on life with each excursion and interaction with his students. When he stands on his desk, it is not a mere prank; Keating talks of how important it is to have a unique or different perspective, real life lessons often swept aside in the interests of sterile conformity. Although Keating's background is only hinted at in parts--like his membership in the recently revived "Dead Poets Society"--it is clear that what Keating understands is that new perspective leads to independent thought, and with it, real progress in society; without it, there can be no joy, no invention, no success with meaning.
While Keating stands out as the charismatic renegade who dares to stir thoughts of individuality in the minds of his students, Dead Poets Society mostly follows the young boys who are motivated by his revelation, notably two roommates, Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard) and Todd Anderson (Ethan Hawke). Neil is a straight-A student, but is stifled under the authoritarian dominion and bullying recalcitrance of his father (Kurtwood Smith), who refuses him any diversion that could potentially compromise the future he has lined up for his son. Todd lives in the shadow of his brother, also a former alumni, and is taciturn, shy, and desperately unsure about himself and his place in the world. While many of the students in Keating's class are inspired by his wisdom--sometimes to outrageous ends, like the irreverent troublemaker, Charlie Dalton (Gale Hansen), or the lovestruck Knox Overstreet (Josh Charles)--Neil and Todd are the two who appear to be the most affected in their souls by Keating's revolutionary proposition of freedom and independence; this "barbaric yawp" is a novelty in this upper-crust microcosm. Although Neil is the most impassioned about his desire to act in the theater and his longing to tell off his old man, it is Todd who undergoes the most quiet of revolutions. One of the most exciting scenes in Dead Poets Society comes after Keating had previously assigned his students to write and deliver a poem in front of the class. Todd, in his frustration and fear of expressing himself, claims he didn't do the assignment. Keating doesn't chastise Todd as one of his colleagues might have done in ignorance, but brings him to the front of the class, and helps him to realize his inner poet through a kind of free association and stream of consciousness description of the thoughts and fears plaguing him. (That'll teach you not to do your homework.) This is another testament to the reason why Keating leaves such a positive impression on his students; he doesn't browbeat them or condescend to them, but is genuinely interested in helping them realize the value that poetry and literature has in their lives, on their terms. It is a radical concept for the staid, tired institution led by the perennially dour Headmaster Gale Nolan (Norman Lloyd), whose interpretation of education does not preclude corporal punishment. When Nolan reprimands Charlie Dalton with a paddle over a prank he played, it is a scene which recalls a famous quote: "A man who resorts to violence is a man who has run out of ideas". The point here is that it is embarrassing for an old man to paddle a young man, but it also speaks to the corruption of the spirit of education, since Nolan has failed to set a meaningful example as to why the prank was "wrong", and the violence only emphasizes his inadequacy as a teacher. Keating could be viewed as something of a "Christ-like figure", a mentor who shares radical ideas of goodness and fraternity which threaten the status quo. The boys at Welton are essentially his apostles, and take to recreating his "Dead Poets Society" in the old caves just off of the campus, reading poems they wrote themselves or from Keating's old library book. Ultimately, Keating is sacrificed for their welfare, but the final, electrifying scene reveals that the surviving members of the resurrected Dead Poets Society will carry his proverbial gospel with them. They have been "saved" from a routine and ordinary existence, empowered to be free thinkers and espouse those same great lessons which Keating must have experienced as a student, just like them.
Recommended for: Fans of an earnest story about learning to find oneself at a time when it is crucial to discover your values and sense of purpose on your own. Dead Poets Society may be the ultimate tribute to those great teachers and educators who go the extra mile and have dedicated themselves to a profession that is more than just the process of forcing kids into adulthood, but one born from a real passion to make the world--and the lives of the next generation--even better than the one before it.
While Keating stands out as the charismatic renegade who dares to stir thoughts of individuality in the minds of his students, Dead Poets Society mostly follows the young boys who are motivated by his revelation, notably two roommates, Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard) and Todd Anderson (Ethan Hawke). Neil is a straight-A student, but is stifled under the authoritarian dominion and bullying recalcitrance of his father (Kurtwood Smith), who refuses him any diversion that could potentially compromise the future he has lined up for his son. Todd lives in the shadow of his brother, also a former alumni, and is taciturn, shy, and desperately unsure about himself and his place in the world. While many of the students in Keating's class are inspired by his wisdom--sometimes to outrageous ends, like the irreverent troublemaker, Charlie Dalton (Gale Hansen), or the lovestruck Knox Overstreet (Josh Charles)--Neil and Todd are the two who appear to be the most affected in their souls by Keating's revolutionary proposition of freedom and independence; this "barbaric yawp" is a novelty in this upper-crust microcosm. Although Neil is the most impassioned about his desire to act in the theater and his longing to tell off his old man, it is Todd who undergoes the most quiet of revolutions. One of the most exciting scenes in Dead Poets Society comes after Keating had previously assigned his students to write and deliver a poem in front of the class. Todd, in his frustration and fear of expressing himself, claims he didn't do the assignment. Keating doesn't chastise Todd as one of his colleagues might have done in ignorance, but brings him to the front of the class, and helps him to realize his inner poet through a kind of free association and stream of consciousness description of the thoughts and fears plaguing him. (That'll teach you not to do your homework.) This is another testament to the reason why Keating leaves such a positive impression on his students; he doesn't browbeat them or condescend to them, but is genuinely interested in helping them realize the value that poetry and literature has in their lives, on their terms. It is a radical concept for the staid, tired institution led by the perennially dour Headmaster Gale Nolan (Norman Lloyd), whose interpretation of education does not preclude corporal punishment. When Nolan reprimands Charlie Dalton with a paddle over a prank he played, it is a scene which recalls a famous quote: "A man who resorts to violence is a man who has run out of ideas". The point here is that it is embarrassing for an old man to paddle a young man, but it also speaks to the corruption of the spirit of education, since Nolan has failed to set a meaningful example as to why the prank was "wrong", and the violence only emphasizes his inadequacy as a teacher. Keating could be viewed as something of a "Christ-like figure", a mentor who shares radical ideas of goodness and fraternity which threaten the status quo. The boys at Welton are essentially his apostles, and take to recreating his "Dead Poets Society" in the old caves just off of the campus, reading poems they wrote themselves or from Keating's old library book. Ultimately, Keating is sacrificed for their welfare, but the final, electrifying scene reveals that the surviving members of the resurrected Dead Poets Society will carry his proverbial gospel with them. They have been "saved" from a routine and ordinary existence, empowered to be free thinkers and espouse those same great lessons which Keating must have experienced as a student, just like them.
Recommended for: Fans of an earnest story about learning to find oneself at a time when it is crucial to discover your values and sense of purpose on your own. Dead Poets Society may be the ultimate tribute to those great teachers and educators who go the extra mile and have dedicated themselves to a profession that is more than just the process of forcing kids into adulthood, but one born from a real passion to make the world--and the lives of the next generation--even better than the one before it.