Due to the combination of a 'hip' older teacher (Robin Williams) and an ensemble cast of cute teenage boys, "Dead Poets Society" made a fortune at the box office. Blatantly manipulative, the film teaches us that adult males other than Williams are all uptight jerks. But there is hope that the kids will avoid that plight, and grow up to be poetry-reciting wussies instead.
The film is set in 1959 at an Eastern coast, conservative boarding school. Welton Academy is an all-male Ivy League prep high school. Professor Keating (Williams) is newly hired to teach poetry to the young, impressionable students. Keating has rejected all conventional educational methods. He eschews textbooks, instead having the students run about in the yard shouting motivational slogans that resemble poetry.
With the students' other professors apparently half-embalmed, Keating becomes their hero. Told to "seize the day", they form a Dead Poets Society. This involves male bonding, reciting poetry and doing the conga in a dark cave, armed with only flashlights and a vague sense of rebellion and empowerment.
Keeping with typical Hollywood fashion, the biggest roles are given to the best looking students, while the ones who look goofy draw supporting roles. Neil (Robert Sean Leonard) is a dreamer who wants to be an actor, but his repressive, humorless father forbids it. Knox (Josh Charles) is a dippy student with a crush on a blonde goddess burdened with a thug boyfriend. There's also shy, sensitive Todd (Ethan Hawke), leader and troublemaker Gerard (James Waterson), and so on. Their coming of age difficulties, whether involving puppy love, pleasing dad, or impressing their friends, seem contrived and formulaic rather than involving.
Director Peter Weir took the unusual step of filming each scene in its chronological order. This practice can be costly since it may keep expensive actors like Robin Williams on the set when they have no scenes. Weir made this decision to make the bonding between Keating and his students seem more natural.
Williams is much less manic than in past roles (e.g. "Good Morning Vietnam") but does slip out of character once. In an unscripted scene, Williams does dead perfect imitations of Marlon Brando, John Wayne and Cary Grant performing Shakespeare. Perhaps instead of focusing on 'poor little rich boy' teenage angst, the film could have been the Robin Williams show. This might not have improved matters, but it would have been more entertaining. As it is, the ending seems bogus, what with the weepy human sacrifice to the gods of the theater, the discovery and comeuppance of a student snitch, the 'unjust' sacking of the kindly teacher, and the futile barking of the headmaster (I was waiting for him to shout "Demerits for everyone!") to get the worshiping students off their desks.
But the casting of Williams, an 'inspirational' message, and (especially) the commercial success of "Dead Poets Society" led to a number of Academy Award nominations. It was up for Best Picture, Best Actor (Williams) and Best Director (Weir). Tom Schulman undeservedly won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. (51/100)
Multi-talented Robin Williams delivers a brilliant performance in one of Hollywood s most compelling and thought-provoking motion pictures. Williams p...More at Buy.com
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