Dead Poets Society

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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.

Contents

1 Plot

1.1 Alternative ending

2 Awards and nominations
3 Trivia
4 Quotes
5 Further reading
6 External links

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. In a later class Keating has one of the boys read the introduction to the poetry textbook, which describes how to place the quality of a poem on a scale, and give it a number, a process that was popular in literary circles at the time. Keating, much to the astonishment (and delight) of the students, finds the idea ridiculous and has them rip out the introduction. Eventually he 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. However, when the faculty learns of its existence, they demand to know who is involved to punish them for subverting the school.

This free thinking brings trouble for one of the boys, Neil, who decides to pursue acting, rather than medicine, the career his strict and unloving 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. When Charlie Dalton finds out that Cameron has squealed on them, he furiously attacks his former friend, only to get expelled from Welton. Mr. Keating is blamed for it all by Mr. Nolan and is forced to leave Welton Academy. 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. 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." 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. ^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}

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

The passage in the poetry textbook Keating has his students read from at 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.

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.

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.

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, boys--to woo women--and, 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.

External links

Films Directed by Peter Weir

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