Director: Peter Weir
Starring: Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke, Kurtwood Smith
Running Time: 128 minutes
Synopsis: In New England of 1959, Welton Academy is a stuffy private school for boys, emphasizing tradition and discipline. John Keating (Robin Williams) is the new and free-spirited poetry teacher, encouraging his students to seize the day and think independently. His students are inspired to recreate a secret poetry-loving club and start to test boundaries. Neil (Robert Sean Leonard) defies his strict father (Kurtwood Smith) and joins a theatre group; Knox (Josh Charles) pursues an unlikely romance; Todd (Ethan Hawke) gradually comes out of his shell; and Charlie (Gale Hanson) shocks the school community with an unacceptable demand.
What Works Well: The central anti-conformance message is liberating, and here delivered with the confidently smiling light touch of Robin Williams in one of his best performances. His John Keating was himself a student at Welton, and so the deliberate challenge to the status quo comes from a place of knowledge. Keating's moments of unorthodox teaching, including connecting with pictures of students past, instilling confidence to walk independently, prodding Todd to discover the poetry within in front of the class, and introducing a different perspective from atop the desk, all register with breezy profundity. Robert Sean Leonard and Ethan Hawke convey the rigours of adulthood transformations with convincing fragility, while director Peter Weir and cinematographer John Seale augment the drama with some beautifully captured imagery in and around Welton Academy.
What Does Not Work As Well: Keating's largely blank backstory nudges him more towards a symbol rather than a person, and one of the boys' stories dominates the final act, leaving a few loose ends. Some of the scenes (including the outsiders brought to the Dead Poets Society cave and some of the soccer pitch sequences) just add unnecessary padding.
Key Quote:
Keating (whispering forcefully): Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.
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Honestly, I think this is a better movie than my opinion of it. There's something in this movie that feels like biting on tinfoil to me, and I'm not sure what it is. I suppose it's that it presents Keating as far too idealized to the point of unreality.
ReplyDeleteYour mileage may vary, of course.
Yes, as presented Keating is more of an idea to a strive for than a real fleshed-out person.
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