An incredible story of poetic freedom

Rating: 9/10 (7 August 2015)

I watched this movie near one year after the tragic death of Robin Williams, and only for the first time. I had heard about the "O Captain! My Captain!" thing and knew it was a very popular film, but what I wasn't prepared for was how deeply emotional it is, and how much it resonates with the passing of Williams. This is a movie that although could be described as trying too hard for emotion, still just makes you want to smile, you want these boys to break out of their closed off traditional world and do what they want to do in life.
The story is about an elite prep boarding school and its students, where some are being worked hard as they await the day they enter college. But in comes Mr Keating, a new English teacher who's ways don't exactly impress the hard up parents and teachers, who's values are very much the underpinning of what the young students despise. The story has its ways of making Williams just great to watch; the young guys who act here work well alongside him and make this a movie that has no central character, but a central story to share.
Directed by Peter Weir, the movie is not all about Robin Williams and the famous scenes that are involved. In fact Weir gives just a fine performance as any other, his directing is finely done and he knows how to control the emotion of the film so that it isn't always one tone. Tom Schulman whose experiences inspired this movie, creates a beautiful script, in fact I am not quite sure if is Weir or Schulman who make this special, but in any case both are on great form.
The rest of the cast pitch in well too, a young Ethan Hawke as the painfully shy Todd is OK, I am not sure if he is good but in any case his more emotional side is fascinating when done. Josh Charles as Knox is also good and the other boys involved such as Robert Sean Leonard are good also. I found if any part of the movie stops this from utter perfection, then the acting is what it is, by no means bad but sometimes a little over the top. As for Williams's nomination for an Academy Award, well maybe I agree, I mean his acting is great here and although I've seen some criticise his comic side coming out here, I for one don't think it was a bad thing.
When you get a film that just makes you think, you know it is fairly special, but one that adds into it emotion too, then it starts to become sublime. This film knows how to challenge perception, and even though this is set in 1959 and made in 1989, the ideas that Keating uses are still inspirational today, and the way in which he talks about poetry can at times be most beautiful. I think again a lot of praise goes to Schulman for creating a script that can mean a lot to someone, watch this at just the right age and this could blow your mind, it really could.
Is it for everyone? well it should be, a movie I would highly recommend to someone even if they don't usually like this kind of movie, simply because of the thought process involved. It isn't even too long, I felt maybe for it to one of the best ever, it had to maybe have had an even better ending than it already does, which is a really fine ending by the way. It should keep you gripped throughout, it never made me feel bored or like I had better things to do, it was a rare movie that spoke to me and opened my mind as I feel the people behind this wanted it to do.