Rating: 
Summary: Robin Williams at his best
Review: I've never been more riveted or moved by a single movie as I was by the Dead Poets Soceity. For anyone who had a group that was like family at school, this is the movie for you to watch. This brotherhood was just amazing to behold. And Robin Williams? I have never been more astounded by one of his characters as I was with his. Williams plays a Literature teacher who instills a passion for literature and poetry in his students. When one student is faced with a difficult situation, Williams tries to advise and help this young man. But in the end, his love for literature and his students gets him into more accusations and more trouble than you can imagine. Please, if you don't buy another movie in your life, buy this one. It's AMAZING!
Rating:
Summary: Carpe Diem
Review: This is perhaps the best movie i have ever seen. robin williams and robert sean leonard both give show-stopping performances as unconventional prep school teacher john keating and neil perry, his most zealous student. when keating employs some unecclesiastical teaching methods at this strict 1950's boarding school, he becomes the scapegoat for a tumultuous and, in one instance, tragic series of events that ensue due to his students' new eagerness to take joy in the world of poetry. the movie teaches us to be who we are and pursue our dreams... as john keating tells his students: "Carpe Diem. Sieze the day, boys! Make your lives extraordinary!" a classic, not to be missed.
Rating:
Summary: Good movie!
Review: It's the beginning of the school year in Welton, a conservative prep school in an age where crew cuts rule and all boys wish to be bankers, lawyers, doctors - all that their parents wish them to be. We're introduced to a group of boys who study in this school: Neil (Robert Sean Leonard, in a good performance here unlike some later movies), the leader of his group, who's in constant odds with his dad about practically everything: his dad wants him to go to med school, and to give up all extra corricular activities that aren't directly contributing to his career 'choice', such as editing the school paper or acting. His room mate, Todd Anderson,is the shy new boy, who is overshadowed by his older brother (Ethan Hawke, as good as always). Their friends include Meks & Pitts, the 'geeks', Charlie Dalton the nice class 'Bad Boy', Cameron, the not - very - nice teachers' pet, and Knox Overstreet - a sensitive & quiet boy (by the way, has anyone else noticed that all of these guys are sensitive except for Cameron, who's the total & obnoxious opposite?).Robin Williams, Mr. Keating, or 'the Captain' as he likes to be called, is a graduate of Welton school,is hired as an English teacher. He tries to inspire his students to live their lives to the fullest, and to enjoy poetry even thoguh they might think it's 'useless' for their lives and future careers, and just live their lives to the fullest. He also inspires them to recreate the 'Dead Poets Society" he and his friends had formed while in school - a group that gathered to enjoy poetry. Slowly this is taking effect: Knox decides to go after a girl he likes, and Todd seems to be coming out of his shell. But this attitude takes a disasterous turn with Neil: he decides to join a play without telling his dad (which he knows won't approve) and his dad finds out, and tells him to quit it. Neil is upset, and asks for Mr. Keating's advice, which is reasonable: don't go against your father, but try to convince him, and if that doesn't work, just wait until you're on your own. Neil still decideds to go aheard with the play, and is discovered by his father. When his dad decides to send him to military school, Neil commits suicide. Eventually, Mr. Keating is blamed for Neil's death, and is fired from the school. On the most basic level possible, this movie is a classic teens against grownups that just don't understand, while Mr. Keating is the adult who's 'cool' enough to understand the boys. But on a different level, the movie also question's the 'CARPE DIEM' philosophy - Knox gets in trouble with his love interest's boyfriend, and Neil, after all, chose to lose his life to follow it. The movie has a very extremist attitude towards this issue - the school 'wrongly' accuses Mr. Keating in Neil's death, but the questions of how far to take his ideas are still there for people who are looking for them...
Rating:
Summary: BEST MOVIE IN THE WORLD!!!
Review: You HAVE to see this movie. This is the best movie I've ever seen (and that's saying something, because I've seen tons of movies). This has such an irony ending and I loved every second of it--the movie, characters, quotes... and BOYS!!! This is an excellent movie for both educational people and people who just wants to see a fun movie. Read this movie and you'll start to have different point of views for life...
Rating:
Summary: Captures an idealistic moment & feeling perfectly!
Review: A fine film which captures perfectly the feeling of being an idealistic young student discovering new vistas of both Self & the World for the first time, "Dead Poets Society" takes the risk of occasionally being too precious, "too sensitive," and succeeds wonderfully. This IS how it feels to suddenly discover poetry, beauty, ideas & ideals in a new way, and to believe for the first time that such things are not only worthwhile but necessary. No doubt some older viewers will cringe & squirm a bit, remembering that feeling with some embarrassment; when the moment is no longer so intimate, so open, so vulnerable to us as it once was, seeing it so vividly once more is like seeing pictures of ourselves at that age. And very few of us are comfortable with that! But don't give in to embarrassment. However raw & unformed & obvious that feeling seems to the sensibilities of age & experience, it should be embraced & developed as we grow older. The forces of conformity are still very real, sometimes as nakedly as those depicted in the film, more often in more subtle forms which we all too easily internalize & believe to be our own "common sense." Well, there's more to life than common sense! As Mr. Keating says, while there are jobs & professions both honorable & necessary to sustain life, there must also be things to live FOR. "Dead Poets Society" is a glowing reminder of that dimension of life.
Rating: 
Summary: It could never happen to me.
Review: I'm torn by two opinions of this movie. On one hand I hate the Hollywood glorification of suicide. On the other hand I want to increase awareness of a swift and deadly disease -- depression. I saw this movie last summer and was deeply touched. In fact, I even discussed it with my 16-year-old son. In October my son died from suicide. Absolutely the worst thing that can happen to a parent -- such pain, such sorrow, such guilt. Kurt was my life and now he's gone. I prayed that he wasn't influenced by this movie. For readers who don't know, suicide is the second leading cause of death for teenagers. Every year over 30,000 people of all age groups die from depression in the US alone. For every suicide, there's estimated to be at least six deeply affected survivors. Suicide is a national tragedy with growing concern. The Surgeon General has recognized the problem. To increase awareness and help in prevention see... (American Foundation for Suicide prevention).
Rating:
Summary: In A Word Inspirational!
Review: Robin Williams, the master of comedy and improv, brings us a movie that can best be described as inspirational. Robin Williams plays Keating, a whitful and unorthodox teacher, who teaches children that they need to think outside the box. His teaching methods are comical, and most effective on his band of students. When his students find that Keating was once part of a group known as "The Dead Poet's Society," his students decide to join in on the fun, and soon Keating is in more trouble than he knows what to do with. Mix these troubles with a father dead set on his son being a doctor (the son coincidentally has no interest in this), who can't seem to take no for an answer, and a climatic and dramatic movie ensues. This is one movie you will watch again and again. I use this movie to train and every time, my trainees act the same way... completely quiet! This thought provoking masterpiece, will have you questioning modern methods and truly inspire you to think outside the box!
Rating: 
Summary: Plenty of potential, but...
Review: ...not enough bang for the buck. Robin Williams made a winning transition from comedy to drama in "Dead Poets Society," but there simply isn't enough plot, nor enough interesting characters, to make this a good movie. At best, it is sadly average, given the potential of its above average cast. Still, there are winning moments, such as the now-famous "Oh Captain, my captain" desk-standing scene. I've heard some people comment that teachers like the one Williams portrays are better left out of the classroom. I would actually prefer to see more creativity like his brought into the schools. If only the writers and director had employed some of that creativity themselves...
Rating:
Summary: ...
Review: Was seen as some sort of highbrow film when it was released, hard to see why. The main charcter is a teacher who has a vision of eduction which is at variance with his employers of school being a factory for producing middle class professionals. Our hero believes that education rather than moving you up the social ladder and providing you with money so that you can buy all aspects of life should in some way develop you as a person. The school in which he works no doubt markets itself by the number of young things it can get into elite universities. Our hero starts out by getting his poetry students to tear out a rather leaden prefix to their poetry books so that they can experiance the verse without the inhibiting vision of some long dead book editor. He then suggests that his students should form a society which breaks curfew at the boarding school and read English 19th Century poetry to each other in a cave late at night. All very homo erotic really. During the film one of the boys wants to act rather than to make huge amounts of money being a banker or a dentist. Our hero supports the kid in this rather heroic decision to opt for a career in which there is a 95% unemployment rate and there is nothing to suggest that the kid has any talent. The kids parents go ballistic and the kid kills himself. Now is this really the sort of teacher that you want teaching your kid? Of course in the film the end is heroic. Our teacher has been sacked and he turns up all meek and mild. His kids jump on their desks in a strange form of existential support for him and he shuffles of to a life of unemployment and writing small poems. The reality is that the film is meant to suggest that education is something more than a mechanical imbibing of facts and that in some way should develop independant thought and a basis of seeing the world. Perhaps so but the main character in this film is weird. He wants the kids to call him "my captain" and to follow his specific vision of life, a sort of Jungian do what you feel thing, rather than acquire any defined skills. It probably appeals in a sort of nostalgic way to people who have attended dreadful schools but seriously, if this sort of teaching went on we would be back in the 19th Century.
Rating: 
Summary: A Dull, Plodding un-Williams-like Film
Review: I realize I am going against popular culture on this one, but "Dead Poet's Society" has to be one of the worst "high-brow" films ever made. I never understood its popularity on release, and years later, on second viewing, still believe that neither its plot nor its characters really end up saying much of anything. Instead, they stand around sounding serious, and Williams tries his best to make the whole thing somehow palpable. He doesn't succeed. Skip this poor excuse for a "thinking person's" film and stick to movies with a real message, if that's what you're looking for. Robin Williams fares far better in other less wordy flicks like "Mrs Doubtfire" and "Good Morning Vietnam."
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