Dead Poets Society

Dead Poets Society is a 1989 film which tells the story of an English teacher at a 1950s boys' school who inspires his students to overcome their reluctance to make changes in their lives and stirs up their interests in poetry and literature.

The story is set at the fictional Welton Academy in Vermont, but it was actually filmed at St. Andrew's School in Delaware. A novelization by Nancy H. Kleinbaum based on the movie's script has also been published.

Plot

Seven boys, Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard), Todd Anderson (Ethan Hawke), Knox Overstreet (Josh Charles), Charlie Dalton (Gale Hansen), Richard Cameron (Dylan Kussman), Steven Meeks (Allelon Ruggiero) and Gerard Pitts (James Waterston) attend the prestigious Welton Academy prep school, which is based on four principles: Tradition, Honor, Discipline and Excellence. According to the boys, the four pillars of "Hellton" are Travesty, Horror, Decadence, and Excrement.

Among the teachers the boys meet on their first day of class is the new English teacher, John Keating (played by Robin Williams), who tells the students that they can call him "O Captain! My Captain!" (the title of a Walt Whitman poem) if they feel daring. His first lesson is unorthodox by Welton standards, taking them out of the classroom to focus on the idea of carpe diem (Latin for 'seize the day'). In a later class Keating has one of the boys read the introduction to their poetry textbook, a staid essay entitled "Understanding Poetry" by the fictional academic Dr. J. Evans-Pritchard, Ph.D., which describes how to place the quality of a poem on a scale, and rate it with a number, a process that was popular in literary circles at the time. Keating finds the idea of such mathematical literary criticism ridiculous and encourages his pupils to rip the introductory essay out of their textbooks. After a brief reaction of disbelief, they do so gleefully as Keating congratulates them with the memorable line "Begone, J. Evans-Pritchard, Ph.D.". Eventually he also has the students stand on his desk as a reminder to look at the world in a different way.

The rest of the movie is a process of awakening, in which the boys (and the audience) discover that authority can and must always act as a guide, but the only place where one can find out his or her true identity is within himself or herself. To that end, the boys secretly revive an old literary club to which Mr. Keating was a member called the Dead Poets Society. One of the boys, Charlie Dalton, takes this a bit too far and publishes an article in the school flyer about why girls should be allowed at Welton, which is implying to give the boys more fantasies. However, when the faculty learns of its existence, they demand to know who is involved to punish them for subverting the school. To add insult to injury, Charlie receives a "phone call from God" in front of Headmaster Nolan, who personally punishes him with a paddle and warns him that he had better only be the only one involved. Charlie denies anybody else and says that he acted alone.

This free thinking brings trouble for one of the boys, Neil, who decides to pursue acting (something he loves and is very good at), rather than medicine (the career his strict father (Kurtwood Smith) chose for him. Mr. Keating urges Neil to tell his father how he feels before starring in a play, a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in which Neil had the role of Puck, but he could not bear facing his father (a highly-dictative man). Neil's brilliant performance fails to please his father, who, instead, tells Neil of his plans to pull him out of Welton (and acting) and to enroll him in Braden Military School to prepare him for Harvard and a career in medicine. Unable to cope with his feelings and stand up to his father, Neil commits suicide with his father's revolver.

As a consequence of Neil's suicide, Mr. Nolan holds an investigation into the tragedy to find the responsible culprits. Mr. Nolan gets help from at least one of the students, Richard Cameron. When Charlie Dalton finds out that Cameron has squealed on them, he furiously attacks his former friend, only to get expelled from Welton.

All the boys confess what Keating has taught them, and Todd, who is coerced to do so by his strict father, also signs a confession casting blame on his former teacher. He is fired and forced to leave Welton Academy after he gets all his belongings.

The film concludes with the boys, led by the previously very timid Todd Anderson, standing on their desks — in front of Mr. Nolan, in open defiance — calling to Mr. Keating, "O Captain! My Captain!" to show him that his messages have been understood and appreciated. With tears in his eyes, Keating says "Thank you, boys. Thank you," and the film ends on a high, but uncertain note, with the viewer wondering what would become of Keating and the boys who supported him.

Alternative ending

The original ending was that Keating was dying of leukemia, hence his 'carpe diem' philosophy. Mr. Perry sues both Keating for corrupting Neil, and the school for compensation and emotional suffering. Todd and the other 'Dead Poets' are told by Mr. Nolan to testify against Keating, in exchange for a clean record of any wrongdoing. Cameron is the only one who testifies against his former teacher, feeling that the school needs a scapegoat. Instead, the rest of the boys defend him and explain that Neil chose to act on his own beliefs rather than be influenced. Keating is acquitted of all charges, much to the fury of Mr. Perry, who spends his last years in depression and sorrow over the loss of his hopes for Neil and his "legacy." The boys are put on disciplinary probation, while Keating goes into hospital as his condition worsens. At the end of the film, Keating dies feeling that he has made a difference in the boys lives. The director changed the script to emphasize more the boys' personal journey, but he has stated that he wished he had gone with the original ending.

Awards and nominations

It won the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay, and was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Robin Williams), Best Director and Best Picture.

Trivia & Goofs

* The introductory essay which Keating has his students read from their poetry textbook near the beginning of the movie is actually taken nearly word-for-word from an early chapter of Laurence Perrine's Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry, which is still occasionally used by AP English classes in the United States.
* The inspiration for the Keating character is University of Connecticut English professor Sam Pickering, a former teacher of author Thomas Schulman at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville, Tennessee.
* Bill Murray and Dustin Hoffman were both considered for the role of John Keating. Before Peter Weir came on the project, Liam Neeson had the role before he was recast with Williams.
* The film was also inspired by the book Goodbye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton, which has been adapted for television or film at least four times.
* The film has become standard viewing for many high school English classes in North America.
* A electronic mailing list called Dead Runners Society was inspired by the film. Its motto is: "Carpe Viam" (Seize the road).
* In one scene, a bagpipe player stands on the docks in the middle of the night. The song played is titled The Fields of Athenry, which tells the story of a man who stood up against 'the famine' and 'the crown' and was arrested for it. This can relate to the boys who stood up against the school and were punished, even though they did it for the right reasons. (The song is often taken to be a very old ballad, but was actually composed in the 1970's, while the film is set in the 1950's; it is an anachronism).
* Samples from this movie were used in the title track of A Change of Seasons, a 1995 EP by progressive metal band Dream Theater.
* Originally, Professor Keating was supposed to die of leukemia. But the director decided to have the story focus on the boys instead. [1]
* Director Peter Weir chose to shoot the film in chronological order to better capture the development of the relationships between the boys and their growing respect for Mr. Keating.
*Charlie Dalton writes his poem on the centerfold of Elaine Reynolds, Miss October 1959.
* The uniform of Welton Academy shares similarities to that of director Weir's high school, The Scots' College, including the use of the rampant lion on blazer breast pocket. The difference is that Welton uses red and blue, while Scots' uses a gold and blue colour system.
* The Thoreau quote read at the beginning of each meeting is incorrect.
* The line that Keating refers to from Whitman's poem "Song of Myself" is misquoted. The line actually reads "I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world".

Quotes

No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.
Sucking all the marrow out of life doesn't mean choking on the bone.
Listen, you hear it? — Carpe — hear it? — Carpe... carpe diem... seize the day, boys, make your lives extraordinary.
Language was invented for one reason, boysand, in that endeavor, laziness will not do.
*O Captain! My Captain!
*To indeed be a god!
*Two roads diverged in a wood and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.
*Look at things in other points of view.
*Tho much is taken, much abides; and tho We are not now that strength which in old days Moved Earth and Heaven, that which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield''

External links

*Carpe Diem, A Dead Poets Society Page
*Crazy Dave's Dead Poets Society filmography
*AntiRomantic.com: Dead Poets Society - Death of a Romantic
*Online Critical Resources on DPS

Dead Poets Society: Encyclopedia BETA

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