Dead Poets Society
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| Dead Poets Society | |
|---|---|
 original movie poster |
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| Directed by | Peter Weir |
| Produced by | Silver Screen Partners IV Touchstone Pictures Paul Junger Witt Tony Thomas |
| Written by | Tom Schulman |
| Starring | Robin Williams Robert Sean Leonard Ethan Hawke Josh Charles Gale Hansen James Waterston Norman Lloyd Kurtwood Smith |
| Music by | Maurice Jarre |
| Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures |
| Release date(s) |  June 2, 1989 (limited) June 2, 1989 (Toronto) 9 June 1989 (wide) 20 July 1989 22 September 1989 |
| Running time | 128 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Dead Poets Society is an Academy Award winning 1989 film, directed by Peter Weir. Set in 1969, it tells the story of an English teacher at a highly conservative and autocratic boys' school who inspires his students to make changes to their conformed lives through his teaching of poetry and literature.
The story is set at the fictional Welton Academy in Vermont and was filmed at St. Andrew's School in Middletown, Delaware. A novelization by Nancy H. Kleinbaum based on the movie's script has also been published.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Seven boys, Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard), the very timid Todd Anderson (Ethan Hawke), Knox Overstreet (Josh Charles), Charlie "Nuwanda" 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') by looking at the pictures of former Welton students in a trophy case. In a later class Keating has Neil 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, just as Henry David Thoreau intended when he wrote, "The universe is wider than our views of it" (Walden). In another lesson, Keating helps Todd overcome some of his shyness by having him close his eyes and free-associate about a picture of Walt Whitman in front of the class; the random and nervous chatter ends up revealing a poetic soul within Todd, who receives an ovation from the class.
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 one's true identity is within oneself. To that end, the boys secretly revive an old literary club, of which 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 that proposes that girls be allowed at Welton, which implies that the reason for the proposed change is to give the boys pleasure. However, when the faculty learns of its who personally punishes him with a paddle and warns him that he had better be the only one involved. Charlie denies the involvement of 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 excels at), rather than medicine (the career his strict father (Kurtwood Smith) chose for him). Keating urges Neil to tell his father how he feels before appearing in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in which Neil had the role of Puck. Neil lies to Keating and tells him that he had told his father of the play and he is very unhappy with it. Neil's performance, while brilliant, fails to please his father who, infuriated by this affront to his authority, 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 University 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, Nolan holds an investigation into the tragedy to find the supposed "responsible culprits." Nolan gets help from 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.
Neil's father takes no responsibilty for his son's tragic death. Instead he holds one of the students responsible and one of teachers — John Keating. All the boys confess what Keating has taught them, only Todd, who is coerced to do so by his strict father, regrets to sign a confession casting blame on his former teacher. In this confession Keating is accused of doing acts which were much more radical than they actually were, such as inciting the boys to restart the Dead Poets Society, when in fact it was really them who asked Keating about it. Inspired by what he had told them about it, they recreated it themselves, without anything from Keating aside from a poetry book. Keating is fired and forced to leave Welton Academy.
In the film's dramatic conclusion, the boys return to English class following Keating's termination. The class is now being lead temporarily by Nolan, who has the boys read from the very Pritchard essay they had ripped out at the start of the semester. As the lesson drones on, Keating enters the room to retrieve a few belongings. On his way out, Todd stands up and apologizes. Nolan, very sternly, orders Todd to sit and be quiet and demands that Keating leave the school at once. As he exits the door, Keating is startled to hear "Oh Captain! My Captain!" being called out by Todd, who has stood on his desk the way Keating had bid them to do earlier. Furious, Nolan warns Todd to sit down immediately, only to be interrupted as, one after another, most of Keatings former students stand on their desks calling out "Oh Captain! My Captain!" as a form of salute. All stand on their tables exept Richard Cameron (the snitch). Nolan stands angrily ordering the boys to sit down until he realizes that there are too many in this demonstration to expel quietly. The look in the boys' eyes reveals that the life lessons that Keating tried to impart to them through poetry will be taken to heart. With tears in his eyes, Keating says "Thank you, boys. Thank you."
[edit] Sources and inspirations
The inspiration for the Keating character is University of Connecticut English professor Samuel F. Pickering Jr., a former teacher of author Thomas Schulman at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville, TN.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed]
The introductory essay that Keating has his students read from their poetry textbook near the beginning of the movie is 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.
Charlie Dalton writes his poem on the image of a centerfold; she is Elaine Reynolds, Miss October 1959 in an unknown magazine.
In one scene, a bagpipe player stands on the docks in the middle of the night. The song played is "The Fields of Athenry", an Irish ballad that tells the story of a man who stood up against 'the famine' and 'the crown' and was arrested for it. This echoes the boys' actions: they stood up against the school and were punished, even though they did it for the right reasons. (The song was actually composed in the 1970s, and is thus an anachronism).
The uniform of Welton Academy shares characteristics with that of director Weir's high school, The Scots College, including the use of the rampant lion on blazer breast pocket. The major difference is that Welton's uses red and blue, while Scots' uses a gold and blue colour system.[citation needed]
The quotation from Henry David Thoreau read at the beginning of each meeting is incorrect. It actually reads
- "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived … I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner…" (61) (Walden, 1854).
The line that Keating refers to from Whitman's poem "Song of Myself" is also misquoted: it actually reads "I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world".
Neil Perry says a line in the film which catches the minds of all, "If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumber'd here While these visions did appear. And this weak and idle theme, No more yielding but a dream, Gentles, do not reprehend: if you pardon, we will mend: And, as I am an honest Puck, If we have unearned luck Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue, We will make amends ere long; Else the Puck a liar call; So, good night unto you all. Give me your hands, if we be friends, And Robin shall restore amends. "
[edit] Production
[edit] Screenplay
The first draft of the screenplay ended differently: Neil Perry's father sues both Keating for corrupting Neil, and the school for compensation and emotional suffering. Todd and the other 'Dead Poets' are told by Nolan to testify against Keating, in exchange for a clean record of any wrong-doing. 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 Neil Perry's father, 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 of leukemia, vindicating his 'carpe diem' philosophy. Peter Weir changed the script to emphasize more the boys' personal journey, but he has stated that he wished he had gone with the original ending.[citation needed]
[edit] Casting
Bill Murray and Dustin Hoffman were both considered for the role of John Keating. Before Peter Weir became involved with the project, Liam Neeson had the role but he was replaced with Williams.[citation needed]
[edit] Filming
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 Keating.
[edit] Awards and nominations
Dead Poets Society 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. It also won the BAFTA Award for Best Film. (It was the first Touchtone Pictures release to recive a best picture nomination.
This movie ranks number 20 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.)
[edit] Popular culture references
- An electronic mailing list called Dead Runners Society was inspired by the film. Its motto is "carpe viam" (seize the roadway).
- Samples from this movie were used in the title track of A Change of Seasons, a 1995 EP by progressive metal band Dream Theater.
- In the Family Guy episode "Fast Times at Buddy Cianci Jr. High" this movie is parodied when Brian's remedial English class stands on their desks and shouts "O Captain!, My Captain!"
- Co-stars Ethan Hawke and Robert Sean Leonard would later play high school friends in Tape.
- In the UK version of The Office, David Brent says, "I excite [people's] imaginations - it's like the bloody Dead Poets Society sometimes, you know at the end where they all stand on the tables?"
- In the Simpsons episode "Special Edna," a nominee for teacher of the year is a Keating look-alike and sound-alike (voiced by Dan Castellaneta).
[edit] References and further reading
- Munaretto, Stefan (2005). Erläuterungen zu Nancy H. Kleinbaum/Peter Weir, 'Der Club der toten Dichter'. Hollfeld: Bange. ISBN 3-8044-1817-1.
[edit] External links
- Dead Poets Society at the Internet Movie Database
- Carpe Diem, A Dead Poets Society Page
- Crazy Dave's Dead Poets Society filmography
- AntiRomantic.com: Dead Poets Society - Death of a Romantic
- Dead Poets Society at Instant Movies
| Films Directed by Peter Weir |
| Homesdale | The Cars That Ate Paris | Picnic at Hanging Rock | The Last Wave | Gallipoli | The Year of Living Dangerously | Witness | The Mosquito Coast | Dead Poets Society | Green Card | Fearless | The Truman Show | Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World | War Magician |
| Preceded by The Last Emperor |
BAFTA Award for Best Film 1990 |
Succeeded by Goodfellas |
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