Make your life extraordinary!

Rating: 10/10 (6 February 2009)

To celebrate my 600th review for IMDb, I turn to another of my favourite films. "Dead Poets Society" is an "inspirational teacher" film set at Welton Academy, Vermont, a boarding school organised on the lines of an English public school and based around "Tradition, Honor, Discipline and Excellence". John Keating, a newly appointed English teacher, has a deep love of literature, especially poetry, and aims to inspire a similar love in his pupils. (His name was presumably chosen in homage to the poet John Keats). His aims as a teacher, however, go further; he also introduces the boys to his philosophy of life, summed up by the Latin phrase carpe diem (seize the day). Be true to yourself, think for yourself and make your life extraordinary. Rather than "Sir", he likes his class to call him "Captain, my Captain", as in Walt Whitman's poem. In one memorable scene he encourages his class to rip out of their textbooks a ridiculous essay which claims that the "greatness" of a poem can be calculated according to the mathematical formula PxI=G.
Like another great eighties film, Barry Levinson's "Diner", "Dead Poets Society" is set at the end of 1959. In both films this choice of date has a symbolic significance. The fifties- often seen as a conservative decade- are about to give way to the sixties, the decade of rebellion. The times they are a-changing. Inspired by Keating, a number of boys revive the Dead Poets Society, a secret literary society of which Keating was a member when he was himself a pupil at the school, and try to live up to his ideals. This does not go down well with the school authorities, especially the stern, traditionalist headmaster Mr Nolan, who accuses Keating of encouraging rebellion with his unconventional teaching methods.
When I recently watched this film again I was struck by two things which I had perhaps forgotten since I last saw it. The first is how physically beautiful it is. It was filmed in and around an actual academy (in Maryland rather than Vermont) and Peter Weir achieves some striking images of the school's grey Victorian buildings against the colours of the autumn leaves and the winter snows. Particularly memorable was the scene of the lone piper playing by the lake.
The second thing that struck me was how well the various boys are characterised as individuals in their own right. Charlie Dalton is headstrong and rebellious, Stephen Meeks geeky and academic, Knox Overstreet easy-going. (There is a comic sub-plot about his romance with a local girl, Chris, and his problems with her obnoxious boyfriend Chet). Richard Cameron is a natural conformist who betrays Keating to the authorities when the going gets tough. The two most important characters among the boys are Todd Anderson and Neil Perry. Todd is a shy, nervous boy who gradually develops greater self-confidence under Keating's influence. Neil is sensitive and intelligent, with ambitions to become an actor. These ambitions, however, bring him into conflict with his autocratic father, who is determined that his son shall become a doctor (he has even decided which medical school Neil will attend) and lead to the film's tragic denouement.
The film has a lot in common with an earlier "inspirational teacher" film, "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie". Like Jean Brodie, Keating is a teacher at a highly conservative and conformist private school. Like her, he is by nature a nonconformist and rebel against authority. And like her he encourages his pupils to think for themselves and thereby incurs the displeasure of the school authorities. There is, however, an important difference; Keating is a much more sympathetic character than Jean Brodie, who paradoxically combines her progressive educational philosophy with an open admiration for fascism. Whereas he is capable of inspiring his boys with a genuine love of his subject, she seems most concerned to inspire her girls with a love of herself.
I have often felt that Weir's work has been influenced by that of Stanley Kubrick, and the final scene may be a reference to one of Kubrick's most famous. Keating has been sacked by Nolan and the school governors, and comes to say farewell to his class of students. In a gesture of loyalty to their defeated leader, and led by the once-timid Todd, they climb on their desks and exclaim "O Captain! My Captain!" Whether Weir intended it or not, I was strongly reminded of "I'm Spartacus!"
Robin Williams here gives the best performance of many good ones in his career; he was nominated for "Best Actor", but did not win. At least he had the comfort of knowing he lost to another extraordinary performance, Daniel Day Lewis's in "My Left Foot". Tom Schulman won a deserved "Best Screenplay" Oscar for his script. 1989 was a strong year in the cinema, with a number of excellent films, but I felt that "Dead Poets Society", not "Driving Miss Daisy", should have taken the "Best Picture" award.
Let me close with my personal reason for loving this film, quite apart from its fine acting, great direction and an intelligent and literate script. When I first saw it in the autumn of 1989 I was going through a very difficult period in my life, but I could draw courage from its message of hope and inspiration. It is very rare for a film to affect me so directly, but this one did. My heartfelt thanks to Messrs Weir, Williams and Schulman. You have made your film extraordinary. 10/10