Dead Poets Society

Rating:
Summary: A movie that tells the truth
Review: A riviting movie with great passion. Robin Williams(Mr. Keating) is a genius in this movie playing an English teacher with passion. He is definetly a teacher everyone wants. Robin shows the kids to seize the day and that being yourself is the best way to be.Keating inspires a group of boys to relive a club called The Dead Poets Society.He shows one kid,Neil Perry, to tell his father the way he really feels.Though the results are devastating Keating told Neil the right thing to do. Keating also shows Todd Anderson, a shy boy, that speaking your own mind is okay and that even if it is a foolish thing to say, it is your mind speaking and no one elses. It truly is the best movie of it's time. The best movie yet!

Rating:
Summary: It didn't quite work
Review: Although it was shooting very high, in my opinion it didn't quite work. Perhaps we are now too far removed from the days when a masculine society cosseted itself in the first of many institutions in this way, although goodness knows, it really wasn't so long ago. So many of the details of this movie failed to hold true; it lacked continuity in the most important areas, at the most important moments. Relationships were explored but never developed. Tradition and discipline are all very well, but they must be maintained in order to be effective. At no time did I think the film was seriously questioning these twin virtues of another age. The character of Robin Williams was acting entirely within the scope of the school, as he needs must. And the difference between the meetings in the grotto and the school drama, which was supposed to play such a pivotal role in the plot, was scarcely apparent.

Only Robin Williams really shone. Somehow his acting is effortless and I will remember this as another good Robin Williams movie, though I only give it four stars. Among the actors playing the schoolboys, some had been carefully chosen for their adolescent qualities; just look at their faces. Others were typecast and I found myself unable to reach into the depths of imagination to the extent of finding them believable. The unfortunate event near the end of the movie was typical of the rest. It was unplanned and unprovided for and the charade which followed, in which students were interviewed by both the headmaster and the boy's parents, only served to confirm the fact. As for the final scene, well, by then, something dramatic was needed to conclude, I certainly agree.

Yet before the movie lost its track, it had much promise. How much of that was due to the impact of Robin Williams is hard to say, but there is a relationship. Schoolboy life before 1960 was often like that of the temporarily indentured servant, no matter what Williams claimed to the contrary. There were limits to what could be done and stepping outside them brought a firm response, there is no doubt. So there are very few real schools, methinks, in which these events could have unfolded, although fragments of them no doubt occurred in all schools. This is what this movie brought to life; a fragmentary glimpse of a world now closed. I enjoyed it very much, but it was not the great cinema it ought to have been.

Rating:
Summary: Dead Poets Society, it'll live on for eternity!
Review: Dead Poets Society was an extremely good film. Not only was the location beautiful, the acting superb, but the plot was worth watching. I would say the only negative thing about this film, and I've seen that a few people agreed with me, was the fact that the John Keating [Williams] character was kind of lacking. It wasn't a problem of Robin Williams though, he managed to make the most of the character, as always. The story is about a prep school in Vermont, 1959. The new english teacher is John Keating [Williams], and he teaches the students not only about poetry, but about "seizing the day", and go for whatever makes you happy. Powerfully performed and written with extreme emotion. Don't go through life without seeing this movie, it can change your way of thinking, as well as your life.

Rating:
Summary: Drop everything and rent this...especially teens
Review: This movie really tugged at my heart strings.I'm 14 year oldpoet.Although i'm a bit younger than the young men portrayed in thismovie,I felt I could relate to them and their newfound outlook on life.Robin Williams was fabulous.I really felt for the wannabe actor who commits suicide because it was his only escape from the "i am god" message of his father.This movie can show newfound hope to other young men(and women) who strive for more in life "Carpe Diem!" Sieze the day.

Rating:
Summary: painfully good
Review: i can't believe all the reviews i've read saying that the DPS is nonsensical tripe. It must be one of the best movies i've ever seen. Each time, it gets better. The "villains" (admin, parents, . . .) are not one-dimensional. The script explains their motivations and actions clearly without diverting the story away from the students. The students themselves provide some of the best young acting in recent years. They each progress throughout the movie, and you can't say you don't know at least one person who resembles one of the boys. I'll admit the Robin Williams character seems unfinished, but his screen presence and his simple, profound words and actions make him a perfect mentor for the kids. he serves the story well as a supporting character, not the main character. we see enough of his life to feel as if we know him, and it isn't as if we expect his character to candidly spill his life's recollections to his students. We expect him to guide them, to teach them.

Finally, to those who don't care about the character who commits suicide, I can't believe you wouldn't feel anything. To me, he was the embodiment of the story, and very few singular moments in a movie have hit me as much as that one. It's what i remember the most from DPS, and it is the most important scene we see.

Rating:
Summary: GOOD!
Review: This probably was one the last good movies that features Robin Williams. The only weak point is that the School's Administration is portrayed almost as Masters of Evil, totally one-sided history.! But the general effect is good and I know quite a few people that had tears in their eyes at the extremely melodramatic ending!

Rating:
Summary: An inspireing true to life tale...
Review: Dead Poet Society is without a doubt one of the greats. A touching and realistic movie with some breathtaking camera shots. The first time a saw it,it reminded me of my History teacher. Going outside for class, insulting the textbook, controvercial teaching meathods, good taste in clothes, and over love of life, teaching, and his students. Also an avid soccer player might I add. Unforunatley, this paralell also has it's dark side. Far from his wife, a student being pushed over the edge by his parents, and it all leads to them both leaving. Goodbye and good luck my friend, I shall miss you dearly.

Rating:
Summary: Easily one of the most overrated films of all time
Review: Why the Academy would award this melodramatic tripe with an Oscar for Best Screenplay is beyond me. It's nearly enough to make anyone lose faith in Peter Weir's abilities as a director (thank God he redeemed himself with the brilliant TRUMAN SHOW). Robin Williams appears in yet another one of his serious, fine-specimen-of-a-man roles, this time playing an offbeat English teacher at a boys' prep school. It's not his worst performance, since for the most part he eschews the obvious humor, but you know you're watching a bad movie when Robin Williams turns out to be the best thing in it--and DEAD POETS SOCIETY is a shamefully bad movie.

The film unabashedly lifts quotes from Thoreau and other notable writers, many of whom would have rolled over in their graves to see their thoughtful, reflective writings reduced to trite, easy-to-swallow tidbits--the equivalent of literary mashed potatoes. DEAD POETS SOCIETY seems to be in a rush to pay homage to the joy of literature, so it's ironic that the story embodies literature's worst elements--predictable soap opera plotting, godawful dialogue, and cheap, obvious payoffs. A character shoots himself at the end, and I couldn't have cared less--my only regret is that the rest of the young lads didn't subsequently gut themselves (that, at least, would have made this thing interesting). Instead, we're subjected to a scene in which all the boys stand up on their desks, in self-righteous defiance of authority, to salute Robin Williams with "O Captain, my captain!" Avoid this like the plague.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent! Society praised it, what really was praised?
Review: Individuality. Passion. Love. Creativity. Ingenuity.Innovativeness. Non-Conformity. Following one's dreams. These wereall major attributes encouraged by Instructor Keating in thisexcellent movie, which highlights the conflict of heart v. head,individuality v. comformity, passion v. rationality - not that theyall oppose one another and cannot co-exist - but do often elicit verydifferent actions/results accordingly.

What follows is aninterpretation of the underlying connections made as a result of thepoets/writers in the movie and society's powerfully, positveresponse.

This movie was highly acclaimed by the public. The poetsand writers were virtually worshiped, and encouraged to be a source toa "road" on which to lead one's life. Most recently inmedical science, after rigorous biographical research, it has beenconcluded highly likely that these transcendentalist writers (keats,shelley, whitman, byron, etc.) had a medical condition: bipolar(formerly known as manic-depression). How can we know if theseinspirational characters are no longer living? By the samemethodology used today: Examination of the symptoms, actions, behavior(in this case as demonstrated by extensive biographers).

Inaddition, in Kay Jamison's "Touched with Fire", there ismention of numerous 19th century romantic, transcental writers whowere most likely bipolar - and others who, by rigorous examination,most probably had it in their family tree (Emerson, Frost [who wasquoted in the movie]). Several other foremost authorities inpsychiatric research have lent evidence for the creative contributionsthat those with the bipolar nature have made (R. Fieve, [Moodswing],N. Andreason [Broken Brain], etc.)

What societal ramificationscould this evidence of the nature of the writers in this movie whichwas praised bring? Well, Society might become aware that the samepeople they might call "crazy" are the ones (in some cases)who prolifically, produce works of art, music, drama, etc., that areenvied, and provide so much gratification and revolution. So, I thinkthe response to this movie could bring forth revisitation of theperpetual, contradictory societal stigma, if the aforementionedevidenced becomes more widespread.

But, just as the moviedisplayed, non-tradition and individuality are met strongly by themajority force. So, as much as it was inspiring to be told one canfollow his passions, we are so much a part of a workforce in whichconformity and the team approach dominates. Hence, the individual'sartistic passions very seldom bring forth any sense of substantialincome for real survival. We are in an age with tons of highlyspecific jobs with long titles and an enormous population. In the1700's and 1800's we had so much more room to be "great",and for the creative construction of the framework upon which we havethe highly specific now.

Aside from Albert Einstein, Ghandi, andBill Gates, are we really going to "indeed be a 'God'" or"Great", or see as many Mozart's, Aristotle's, Washington's,Lincoln's, Byron's, Sinatra's, Shakespeare's in the our current time?

Of course, this was not the sole intention encouraged by theinstructor, as one can follow his/her dreams and passions to be otherthan famous or understood for his/her strengths. But then in thiscase, the person must try to counterbalance his/her passion withpractical pursuits, as, like a person with a bipolar condition,society will often praise the individual's works and use it for theirentertainment - but not always allow "room" in to the workforce, or attempt to understand and make the "acceptable"modifications, to grant the person an opportunity for a steadypaycheck for practical living.

We have made progress in this area,especially through the help of NAMI (National Alliance of MentallyIll), but a subtle bias can still continue without the greaterunderstanding of the person's condition, which includes extremestrengths, accompanied by his/her major weaknesses.

Rating:
Summary: good
Review: full of excitement of youth, who are energetic, creative and active. i like it.