A question of justice misdirected

Rating: 7/10 (22 June 2018)

The acting in "Dead Poets Society" is very good all around. The plot is an interesting one. It's the type of story that Robin Williams liked doing for much of his career. His characters mostly are far from the ordinary, usual, or everyday people. Often, they are played for the sympathy of the audience. And, that's okay - to an extent. When the character is a hero who does something for the good of others, or thinks of others, he is the proverbial "good guy.
One thinks of such films in which Williams starred. "Awakenings" of 1990 was a fine movie, as was "Patch Adams" of 1998. Williams was superb in "Jakob the Liar" of 1999. But is his John Keating such a person in this film? It's one thing to encourage students to be themselves, to become original, to pursue their dreams. But without the attention to those students, their characters and situations, the teacher ducks responsibility for himself or herself. Then, his uniqueness or difference in methods is really more self-centered. It's not a true interest in the students for their welfare and well-being.
The end of this film is melodramatic, and a way for the students to overcome their disgrace at lying. It never is clear why they would need to be off the hook for anything themselves. Obviously, the institution wanted to find a scapegoat, and the father wanted a culprit. Keating seems to accept the class salute at the end as a good sign and squaring of the students with him. But that doesn't remove his complicity. How much guilt did he feel or show for what happened? Would a teacher who really cared for his students have not been more aware and interested to see that something so drastic as this didn't happen to someone in his class? Would such a death have ever occurred, had he not encouraged his students to be bold, to challenge authority and family?
This is one film in which Williams could have played a character who owns up to a failure in responsibility. Instead, one is treated to a tutor who is put upon for being unjustly dismissed. Was his career more important than the life of any one of his students? Where is the justice when a student takes his own life?