Year Released: 1989
Directed by;: Tom Schulman
Starring: Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke
(PG, 128 min.)
Genre: Drama

“Carpe deim. Seize the day. Make your lives extraordinary.” –John Keating (Robin Williams)

They don’t get any better than this! Dead Poets Society’s innocence and nobility shine even brighter now than when the film was released in 1989. Especially when compared with the dearth of those qualities in our current lives or cinema.

Tradition, Honor, Discipline, and Excellence – the “Four Pillars” of the setting, fictitious Vermont boarding school Welton Academy.

The new English teacher John Keating (Robin Williams) himself went there, and he embodies at least two of these pillars wholeheartedly. But there is still a bit of youthful rebellion inside him, as he probably remembers the students’ parallel pillars:

Travesty, Horror, Decadence, Excrement.

As in Witness, another Peter Weir film, the thought provoking Australian director deals with outsiders in a constricted and almost obsessive world.

In one sense, one could argue that within the elite Welton Academy there are no outsiders, that Welton represents an exclusive world where none dare enter without the requisite wealth or privilege. Yet, there are subtle levels of outsiders here. One is Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard), whose family has had to scrimp and save to pay his tuition. And Mr. Perry (Kurtwood Smith) intends to get his moneys worth. Neil must devote everything to academics, renouncing his position as editor of the student paper, and later on, something that means everything to him.

Another outsider is Todd Anderson (an almost unrecognizably boyish Ethan Hawke so different from his later cynical/shaggy appearances in Before Midnight and Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead.) Within his own family and at Welton as well, Todd is in the shadow of his older brother, whose stellar reputation precedes him. Big brother has scooped up academic accolades without effort; Todd is almost tongue-tied, a fact immediately recognized, first by the loathsome Cameron (Dylan Kussman) who dubs him “a stiff,” and then by Mr. Keating, who intends to help him find his voice.

Boys, you must strive to find your own voice. Because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all. Thoreau said, ‘Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.’ Don’t be resigned to that. Break out! –

In a sense all the boys there are outsiders, living out their parents’ fantasies instead of their own. Mr. Keating intends to set them free, and of course, that makes him an outsider as well.

***

First he takes them to Welton’s hall. It is festooned with pictures of past graduates from the 100-year-old school, pictures that are usually ignored. But Mr. Keating has the boys look closely at their faces

They’re not that different from you, are they? Same haircuts. Full of hormones, just like you. Invincible, just like you feel. The world is their oyster. They believe they’re destined for great things, just like many of you. Their eyes are full of hope, just like you. Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they were capable? Because you see, gentleman, these boys are now fertilizing daffodils. But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it? Carpe. Hear it? Carpe. Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.

And Carpe diem becomes their shared motto, as Keating continues to break down false facades of tradition, starting with the very introduction in their text, where the revered M. Evan Prichard (his pretentious name is a give away) maps out how to judge a poem, even graphing it out. Keating has the boys rips out the entire introduction, which some do reluctantly and others with zeal. Cameron, by the way, uses his ruler to at least make a clean cut.

Excrement. That’s what I think of Mr. J. Evans Pritchard. We’re not laying pipe; we’re talking about poetry. I mean, how can you describe poetry like American Bandstand? ‘I like Byron, I give him a 42, but I can’t dance to it.’

Slowly at first, the boys start to bloom. Keating shakes them out of their expectations by his very physical teaching. That may involve just walking outside – a sly demonstration of the lure of conformity – standing on Keating’s desk to see the world in anther perspective, writing their own poems, or reciting great thoughts just before kicking a soccer ball.

But the best demonstration of his evocative teaching is coaxing a poem out of the super shy Todd Anderson.

Finally, a select group of the more daring boys recreate the Dead Poets Society that Mr. Keating himself had started when he was a student there.

The Dead Poets were dedicated to sucking the marrow out of life. That’s a phrase from Thoreau that we’d invoke at the beginning of each meeting. You see, we’d gather at the old Indian cave and take turns reading from Thoreau, Whitman, Shelley — the biggies. Even some of our own verse. And in the enchantment of the moment, we’d let poetry work its magic.

We were romantics. We didn’t just read poetry; we let it drip from our tongues like honey. Spirits soared, women swooned, and gods were created, gentleman. Not a bad way to spend an evening, eh?

What red-blooded male could resist such an incantation? You will be pulled into this magic right along with them – although be warned; sometimes a spell can be broken.

***

The film sets out to decry the rigid conformity of its late 50s setting embraced by the boys’ parents and the academy itself. These young boys are in a vise squeezed by both parties. And their moneyed background doesn’t save them; in fact, it and their parents’ expectations entomb them even more, their futures as lawyers, doctors, and successful businessman already rigidly mapped out for them. The pressures to conform and exceed are almost irresistible.

Mr. Keating, however, wants to teach them to break away from this intellectual conformity.

Now, in my class, you will learn to think for yourselves again.

Free up your mind. Use your imagination.

Just when you think you know something, you have to look at it in another way. Even though it may seem silly or wrong, you must try.

Of course, the head master sees those ideas as completely unwarranted. “These young men are too young to think for themselves,” he intones.

Yet, even as the film seems to indict the fifties conformity, that same conformity infects academia today. Yes, in some ways the shoe in on the other foot. Students, particularly on college campuses, are no longer under the thumb of their teachers or professors. Indeed, they shout down and try to “cancel” those with whom they disagree.

Yet there now exists a new conformity, even more pernicious than that exposed in Dead Poets Society. A conformity embraced by young minds, victims of an indoctrination more subtle, strong, and pervasive.

Over three decades later this towering film still stands. And its message about the dangers of conformity and the ensuing punishment for thinking for oneself are needed now more than ever.

See it again and remember lost youth, innocence, and the yearning to be free.

–Kathy Borich
🥁 🥁 🥁 🥁 🥁

Trailer

Film-Loving Foodie

I’ll turn this portion over to Cinema Sips blogger, Liz Locke. She has found a great cocktail to go along with our extraordinary film.

A perfect pick for fall viewing, Peter Weir’s film opens on a bucolic New England boarding school just as the leaves are starting to change. The boys who inhabit these drafty buildings want so badly to be men, and it isn’t until they meet their new English professor Mr. Keating (Robin Williams) that they start to learn what that truly means. You see, Mr. Keating doesn’t just teach them poetry. He teaches them to be brave, to inhabit the world with honor, and that feelings and emotions matter. To me, this shows what an important role a great teacher can play in one’s life. At the end of it all, you might not remember what a quadratic equation is, or who wrote the words, “O Captain! My Captain!” but you’re damn sure going to remember the person who encouraged you to be curious about the world, and fearless in the face of adversity.

Because this movie gives me all the cozy New England vibes, I’ll be drinking a nice, warming apple brandy cocktail, perfect for poetry readings in caves. While watching Dead Poet’s Society, I recommend drinking this Captain’s Mule. –Liz Locke (Cinema Sips)

Captain’s Mule Cocktail

Ingredients

1 ½ oz Calvados Apple Brandy

½ oz Lime Juice

3 dashes Angostura Bitters

6 oz Ginger Beer

Dried Apple for garnish

Directions

Place first three ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled, then strain into a copper mug filled with fresh ice. Top with ginger beer, and garnish with dried apple.

Cinemaa Sips.com