Dead Poets Society is an Academy Award winning 1989 film, directed by Peter Weir. It 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 and was filmed at St. Andrew's School in Delaware. A novelization by Nancy H. Kleinbaum based on the movie's script has also been published
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. This movie ranked number 20 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.)
Eleven boys, Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard), 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' or to 'live life the fullest') by looking at the pictures of former Welton students in a trophy case. 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, just as Henry David Thoreau wrote that "The universe is wider than our views of it" (Walden).
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 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 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 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). 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. However, Neil went on stage without facing his father, a highly dictatorial man whom he could not bear to face. 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 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.
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. 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 found out about it and asked Keating about it. Inspired by what he had said, they recreated it themselves, without anything from Keating aside from a poetry book. Keating is fired and forced to leave Welton Academy after retrieving 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 Keating, "O Captain! My Captain!" to show him that his messages have been understood and appreciated while Nolan stands helpless with the realization that there are too many in this demonstration to expel quietly. With tears in his eyes, Keating says "Thank you, boys. Thank you," and the film ends on a high, but uncertain note.
“Carpe Diem" (Seize the road)….
Alternative ending
The original ending had Keating dying of leukemia , hence his 'carpe diem' philosophy. 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 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. 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.
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