Rhyme and Reason

Rating: 7/10 (22 September 2013)

It was a different World in 1959 and Teaching Conventions and Learning Institutions were Ultra Conservative, especially by Today's Standards. The Film takes place at an Uppity Prep School with Traditions not easily toppled. Enter Free Thinking Teacher Mr. Keating who is about to "Shake Rattle and Roll".
This is a, dare one say it, Poetic Movie with a smooth Patina and an Off-Beat Meter. But, ironically it stays quite standard in its portrayal of Student Rebellion and is nowhere near Kerouac, Ginsberg, or The Beats. Some reference or acknowledgment of "The Movement" might have been a bit closer to the Theme here and would have given it some Street Cred.
This is by the Book, pretty much, with its often visited Story and is not without Flaws. Such as the completely out of context Page Ripping Scene that is so badly thought out that it almost makes the Movie Dumb Ass. Did the Writer actually think that Censorship and Book Destruction was an apt way to illustrate Free Thinking. That is unforgivable.
An overrated Film, but a Very Good one. Schools were like that, Parents were like that, it is an Inconvenient Truth. In the Decade that followed, for better or worse (mostly better), conventions would collapse, traditions would tumble, and the Lip Service given to Freedom would be challenged. In this Fictional Story, all that was a little ahead of its Time and those involved suffered, like all Dissidents.