Film Review

By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

Dead Poets Society
Directed by Peter Weir
Buena Vista 12/89 DVD/VHS Feature Film
PG

Here is a very special movie directed by Peter Weir and written by Tom Schulman, two men who accept the Blakean view that no bird soars too high if he soars with his own two wings. In a rousing performance, Robin Williams stars as John Keating who in the fall of 1959 arrives at Welton Academy, a private boy's prep school, to teach English. Exemplifying his philosophy of strident individualism, this charismatic and unconventional teacher tells his students to seize the day and make their lives extraordinary.

Keating's passion for poetry inspires some of his students to revive a secret club that he led when he was a student at the Academy. They gather in a cave to read poetry aloud and share their creative efforts. Among those who are most deeply influenced by Keating are Robert Sean Leonard as a boy who defies his father's orders and plays Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Ethan Hawke as a reclusive lad who learns to stand up for what he believes in, and Josh Charles as a love-sick student who uses poetry to woo a seemingly unattainable girl away from her football star boyfriend.

Keating's ardent belief that words and ideas can change the world turns out to be true when a tragedy rocks the Academy and the conservative play-it-by-the-book administration make him into the scapegoat. His best students now become rebels with a cause.

Dead Poets Society celebrates nonconformity and freethinking as an adventure worthy of emulation — not your usual movie theme these days. The tale's dramatic finale will stir both your heart and your mind!

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by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat