Williams' Society for Dead Poets. Review on Dead Poets Society Movie

“No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world,” says John Keating, the new charismatic and unconventional teacher who arrives in the fall of 1959 in a conservative prep school called Welton Academy. Keating's specialty is poetry and as he teaches his young students to appreciate the art, he also tries to stir their hearts and their minds and instill freethinking into them. He gives them the mantra of “Carpe diem, seize the day”.

His teachings inspire some of the students in his class to revive a secret club called “Dead Poets Society'' that he led when he was a student at the Academy. They find a cave where they gather in the night to share their creative interests. Some of them in the group get highly influenced by his teachings and one of them being Neil who till now never had the strength to stand up to his rigid, somewhat psychologically abusive father, defies his father's orders to act in a play.

But a tragedy befalls the Academy and the conservative administration makes Keating into the scapegoat for his nonconformist teachings. Although initially the students give into the administration’s pressure, but in the end they pay tribute to his teachings by rebelling in the class in front of the headmaster, Mr. Nolan.

This movie moves and stirs you from inside and celebrates the free spirit in everyone’s heart, which has got conformed along the way in our growth as a person due to the influences that we have in our lives, primarily teachers and parents. It sends out the message of not fearing to experiment and explore to figure out what we want from our lives and what we want to become or do with our lives. This movie is about heart and trying to find out what heart seeks!

Director Peter Weir (''Witness,'' ''The Year of Living Dangerously'') and screenwriter Thom Schulman do a marvelous job in their departments. Robin Williams brings on a splendid and gentle performance where his influence throughout the movie is greater than his actual presence. He is humorous and full of life. This depiction won him an academy nomination for Best Actor...a well deserved one! Other standouts in the department of acting are the students. Robert Sean Leonard (Neil) as the victim of a dominating father, Ethan Hawke (Todd) as his roommate who is living under the pressure of his elder brother’s success, Gale Hansen (Charlie) as a rebellious poet who sustains a beating from the headmaster and Josh Charles (Knox) who uses poetry to win his love interest and many others make this movie in all a treat to watch.

Here are some of the memorable quotes from the movie:

1. John Keating: We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.

   
   




2. John Keating: Why do we need language?

   
   

Neil: To communicate...

John Keating: Nooo!! To woo women!

1. John Keating: Boys, you must strive to find your own voice. Because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all. Thoreau said, ''Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.'' Don't be resigned to that. Break out!

   
   




2. John Keating: You must trust that your beliefs are unique, your won, even though others may think them odd or unpopular, even though the herd may go, ''That's baaaaaaad.''

   
   

© Roshan Thomas