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Summary: A film that inspires writers.
Review: I saw this movie last year in my high school creative writing class. I can easily tell why my teacher felt this film this appropriate to show to students who are becoming writers: it helps inspire writers. First of all, the inspiring teacher played by Robin Williams gives a few important lessons. He tells them to rip out the serious, practical pages of the book in order to focus on unordinary, creative ideas. He tells them to "Sieze the day", not by actually stating it, but you would have to see the movie to understand what I mean. Other staff at the school become displeased with him because they find his lessons to be untraditional. It goes to show that sometimes people have to go beyond the ideas of the world and come up with their own ideas. Second of all, the characters include some very silly, callow young boys who learn about poetry. As a teenager, I saw my own generation in these youth, though the setting I believe is about forty or fifty years ago. The viewer sees how these normal juvenilles end up learning some important lessons in life and discover their intellectuals. This is an excellent inspiration for young people of today(it's no wonder why so many college students like this movie). In the end, the story gets pretty intense. Someone ends up dieing in the end, but it's not one of those pointless, sentimental scenes we see in some types of movies. It leads to questions, which makes the viewer really think. After all that happens in the end, the young characters never give up their hopes or loyalty. This is truely a very thoughtful film and inspiring, as I said before. It also had many very good lines that I would just love to list and quote. So if you are a yound, avid free-lance writer, this would be the film for you to invest in and learn from. I was surprised to learn it is more well known and popular than I thought, which is a good sign because it shows that many know where to look for inspiration.
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Summary: Boys, they're all dust now, seize the moment!
Review: The opening scene where Williams tells the boys to take a long, hard look at the photos of past students in the glass display case in the old, old school is the wise mentor instructing the young. All these sports star's group pictures, their tropheys, the glitter and the gold of the days of old, all gone. All turned to dust. Seize the moment! Williams tells these young men. For one day you to will be a photo, a trophey, a speck of glitter and gold from the days of old. Breathe! Inhale! Exhale! Spread your wings. This is your moment. Seize it! This is how the story goes. Sure, it's a little sappy at times. It has a definate liberal bent. But it's about the spirit of Whitman, Emerson and Thoreau. The younger generations ask, who are they? What have they to do with me? everything! They are the reason for this story. They are the inspiration of so many of us who were still taught about this American Holy Trilogy. Life can be a real ____sandwhich. But with heroes like those in the "Dead Poet's Society" you learn things that endure and expand beyond the dead wood of life. You hear the trees talking to you as the wind rushes through. You feel the cool breeze of an August evening breaking through the stifling heat of another day. "Dead Poet's Society" will be the butt of jokes for those who don't listen to the waves crashing in, to the trees talk'n to you on a brisky day. I will sound sappy to them. But for those of us who know better, "Dead Poet's Society" speaks volumes. For me with all the flaws one can find in this film, it still remains THE perfect film to see over and over and over.
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Summary: Charming though sometimes heavy handed tale
Review: First, I would like to give an enormous amount of thanks to "Mariko & Misaki", whose Oct 25, 1999 basically gave the whole movie away - for those who haven't already seen it. Please don't.This movie takes place - as if we had to doubt otherwise - in the 1950s, the source, as Hollywood would have us believe, of all that's bad & repressive in American life. "School Ties" & "The Dead Poets Society" will prove it to you if you doubt it. Never mind, of course, that the 50s also gave these students an appreciation for classical poetry to begin with (something not usually done in schools today), even if educational administrators back then didn't always understand how to appreciate it ('Shakespeare's quality equals side x times side y, etc.'). But, still, it's a movie that encourages people to "...... diem" and "....... the marrow out of life", even if its political message sometimes gets a bit too much in the way and leads to an overly obvious denouement.
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Summary: A terrible, depressing epic.
Review: This movie was terrible! The whole premise, centered in a boy's school, where some boys decide to "live life to the fullest" has nearly nothing to do with the story! The whole mess of a movie is filled with STUPID symbolic meanings, horrid quotes, and loathable characters. Robin Williams is, as he is in many other of his movies, a dork. He is supposed to be an inspirational character, but has many out of character events, including an impersination of Marlon Brando. The Dead Poets society is a side theme, which is poorly planned and clumsily executed. The ending is also exceedingly depressing and grim (and stupid.) One character dies, one is expelled, and Mr. Keating is drummed out of the school, justly. A real upper, this movie needs no explaination for it, only an apology.
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Summary: Oh wise Robin Williams, enlighten us all..
Review: Here is yet another movie where Robin Williams plays the wise guru. Fear not troubled souls, becuase Robin is here to set us all free. He plays an English teacher who teaches his students to "Seize the day!" Amazingly enough, none of these scholars have ever heard this pharse before. Once again, another Hollywood sham that has no story; just a buch of hoopla that takes up time and space. One embarrasing scene after the next. The boys reading poetry in the cave, the theatre play, the (contrived) suicide of one of the boys, and finally the most embarrasing of all, "Captain oh my Captain!" All bow down to the wise guru Robin Williams. He is free and all knowing.
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Summary: " O, Captain, my Captain. "
Review: I really don't understand how anyone chould not like this movie,i honesty don't. I thought the acting was sepectacular,ecspically the part of Todd Anderson played by Ethan Hawke. I can really relate to his caracter, because his character is just like me.It was very sad,but i actaually didn't cry which is a suprise.It makes me mad to think that thay blamed Mr. Keating for Neil's death, when the only thing he was doing was letting Neil follow his dreams. It was his parents fault because they didn't let him do anything he wanted to do. They never let him have an opinion. The ending is so vey good. The person you least expect to stand up for Mr. Keating does. The ending is the best part in the whole movie. Like i said before, i'm suprised i didn't cry.I don't really know what else to say, but that you NEED to see this movie it is so good!....and if nothing else Ethan Hawke is really cute in it. :)
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Summary: Life is to live
Review: This review is an attempt to bring to mind many of the deeply invigorating and inspiring themes this film adresses. This is a story of young men in private boarding education, discovering life. Sounds mundane, but it isn't. The real strength in this film is that it doesn't leave 'heroic tales' to the 'heroic past', it brings heroic ideals and potential to the life of everyday students in modern society. Every student is special, every student is capable of special things, and perhaps most of all, every student is capable of happiness and true freedom. We ourselves are heroes, we ourselves can make the future beautiful. What is poetry? Is it a quaint little way of expressing words and ideas suited to the old or the quiet types? No, it is life, it is the expression of the soul, the heart and expression of the struggle for independance, freedom and happiness. "So it is about a bunch of guys standing around reading poetry", asks one of the students? No, they didn't 'read it', they were themselves the embodiment of it, they were life itself finding itself young and beautiful. The 'dead poets' refers, I believe, to the death of mediocrity, the birth of substance and freedom of the free. The motto is simple, sieze the day, sieze the time, live life in beauty and grandeur, die to mediocrity, and express all of who you are. Wise words. The trouble is, some will not like you for it, in rare cases you may die for it. This film captures many of the passions and the troubles young people of all ages experience, but importantly, it also manages to put these passions and troubles in the social sphere of modern young humanity. It gives some answers to difficult issues. As so many poets have done. Tragic yet beautiful, thy name is humanity.
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Summary: They could be artists...
Review: This movie provides startling evidence for the failure of the conservative orthodox approach towards teaching art. This movie reminds me of one of Richard Wagner's great music-dramas "Die Meistersinger", which is also about the struggle of the creative process. I do not feel the students had a clue about what it meant to be artists (poets) until they finally, at the end of the movie, stood on the top of their chairs in defiance while "captain, my captain" left the school. Anyone with children who have an interest in their kids becoming musicians, poets, painters, etc, should watch this movie!
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Summary: Inspiration
Review: When I first watched this film, I was still a student. I did my best to take it's lessons to heart. Now as a teacher, I see a different film that still inspires me. Rare is the film that shows with such detail the influence of teachers AND the influence that those students can have on teachers. Most of time when people talk about DPS, they speak of Keating's inspiration. I dare say that they inspired him too. "Carpe Diem" has become such a weary phrase in popular culture, but the message contained in the film is still resonant. Each time I see it, I get something new out of it. It is very moving. Oh, it is not perfect. The plot is a bit too melodramatic, particularly the last third. However, on the whole, this beautifully (hello DVD fans) shot film overcomes this. Watch it. "Only in their dreams can men be truly free. It was always thus and thus will always be." - John Keating
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Summary: One of the best English movies
Review: I watched this movie for the first time five years ago. It was recommended by my English (being an Englishman and teaching me English) teacher. I found it was not a very "USA" movie. It has such a depth and makes people extremely impressed. Within the last five years, I have been watching countless US movies, good and bad. A few days ago, I watched this video again and was absolutely convinced it is one of the best US movies I have ever watched. Totally no affectation, no fanciness. The movie touches you deeply in plain behavious of Mr. keating and the young students, as the words in one song "the plainest people moved me the most". Yes, the greatest movies are those away from fanciness.
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