DEAD POETS SOCIETY

'''Dead Poets Society''' is an Academy Award winning 1989 film, directed by Peter Weir. Set in 1959, it tells the story of an English teacher at a highly conservative and autocratic boys' school who inspires his students to make changes to their lives of conformity through his teaching of poetry and literature.
The story is set at the fictional Welton Academy in Vermont and was filmed at St. Andrew's School in Middletown, Delaware. A novelization by Nancy H. Kleinbaum based on the movie's script has also been published.

Contents

Plot

Sources and inspirations

Production

Screenplay

Casting

Filming

Reception

Awards and nominations

Soundtrack

Trivia

Popular culture references

References and further reading

External links

Plot

Seven boys, Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard), Todd Anderson (Ethan Hawke), Knox Overstreet (Josh Charles), Charlie "Nuwanda" Dalton (Gale Hansen), Richard Cameron (Dylan Kussman), Steven Meeks (Allelon Ruggiero) and Gerard Pitts (James Waterston) attend the prestigious Welton Academy prep school, which is based on four principles: Tradition, Honor, Discipline and Excellence. According to the boys, the four pillars of "Hellton" are Travesty, Horror, Decadence, and Excrement.
On the first day of class, the new English teacher, John Keating (played by Robin Williams), tells the students that they can call him "O Captain! My Captain!" (the title of a Walt Whitman poem) if they feel daring. His first lesson is unorthodox by Welton standards, whistling the 1812 Overture and taking them out of the classroom to focus on the idea of ''carpe diem'' (Latin for 'seize the day') by looking at the pictures of former Welton students in a trophy case. In a later class Keating has Neil read the introduction to their poetry textbook, a staid, dry essay entitled "Understanding Poetry" by the fictional academic Dr. J. Evans Pritchard, Ph. D., which describes how to place the quality of a poem on a scale, and rate it with a number, a process that was popular in literary circles at the time. Keating finds the idea of such mathematical literary criticism ridiculous and encourages his pupils to rip the introductory essay out of their textbooks. After a brief reaction of disbelief, they do so gleefully as Keating congratulates them with the memorable line "Begone, J. Evans Pritchard, Ph. D.". Eventually he also has the students stand on his desk as a reminder to look at the world in a different way, just as Henry David Thoreau intended when he wrote, "The universe is wider than our views of it" (''Walden''). In a following lesson, Keating helps Todd overcome some of his shyness by having him close his eyes and free-associate about a picture of Walt Whitman in front of the class; the random and nervous chatter ends up revealing a poetic soul within Todd, who receives an ovation from the class.
The rest of the movie is a process of awakening, in which the boys (and the audience) discover that authority can and must always act as a guide, but the only place where one can find out one's true identity is within oneself. To that end, the boys secretly revive an old literary club in which Keating had been a member called the Dead Poets Society. One of the boys, Charlie Dalton, takes his new personal freedom too far and publishes an article in the school flyer that proposes that girls be allowed at Welton. The article implies that the reason for the proposed change is to give the boys pleasure. When the faculty learns of it, he is paddled and interrogated about the others involved. Charlie denies this and says that he acted alone.

This free thinking brings trouble for one of the boys, Neil. He decides to pursue acting, which he loves and excels at, rather than medicine, which was the career his strict father (Kurtwood Smith) had chosen for him. Keating urges Neil to tell his father how he feels before appearing in a production of ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' in which Neil had the role of Puck. Neil feels unable to and lies to Keating, saying that he had told his father of the play and that his father is very unhappy with it. Neil's father finds out, and Neil's performance, while brilliant, fails to please his father. Infuriated by this affront to his authority, Neil's father forbids him from acting and tells Neil of his plans to pull him out of Welton and to enroll him in Braden Military School to prepare him for Harvard University and a career in medicine. Unable to cope with his feelings and equally unable to stand up to his father, Neil commits suicide with his father's revolver.
As a consequence of Neil's suicide, Nolan, the headmaster, holds an investigation into the tragedy to find the supposed "responsible culprits." Nolan gets help from one of the students, Richard Cameron. When Charlie Dalton finds out that Cameron has squealed on them, he furiously attacks his former friend, only to get expelled from Welton.
Neil's parents take no responsibility for their son's tragic death. Instead, they hold one of the students responsible and one of teachers — John Keating. All the boys confess what Keating has taught them, but Todd, coerced by his strict father, regretfully signs a written confession casting blame on his former teacher. In this confession Keating is accused of doing acts which were much more radical than they actually were, such as inciting the boys to restart the Dead Poets Society, although they recreated it themselves inspired by what he had told them, without anything from Keating aside from a poetry book. Keating is fired and forced to leave Welton Academy.
In the film's dramatic conclusion, the boys return to English class following Keating's termination. The class is now being lead temporarily by Nolan, who has the boys read from the very Pritchard essay they had ripped out at the start of the semester. As the lesson drones on, Keating enters the room to retrieve a few belongings. On his way out, Todd stands up and apologizes to Keating for having signed the confession, citing the force exercised by the Academy. Keating acknowledges this. Nolan sternly orders Todd to sit and be quiet and demands that Keating leave the school at once. As he exits the door, Keating is startled to hear "O Captain! My Captain!" being called out by Todd, who has stood on his desk as Keating bid him to do earlier, demonstrating the new perspective Keating has taught him. Furious, Nolan warns Todd to sit down immediately, only to be interrupted as, one after another, most of Keating's former students stand on their desks calling out "O Captain! My Captain!" as a form of salute. Most of the students stand up on their desk, one notable exception is Richard Cameron (the snitch). Nolan stands angrily ordering the boys to sit down until he realizes that there are too many in this demonstration to expel quietly. The looks in the boys' eyes reveal that the life lessons Keating tried to impart to them through poetry will be taken to heart. With tears in his eyes, Keating says "Thank you, boys. Thank you."

Sources and inspirations

The inspiration for the Keating character is University of Connecticut English professor Samuel F. Pickering Jr., a former teacher of author Thomas Schulman at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville, TN. Williams, however, partly based his portrayal of the character on the late John C. Campbell (d. 2007), Williams' history teacher at Detroit Country Day School. On the first day of class it was customary for Campbell to dump the AP American History textbook in the trash and to commence lecturing extempore.
The film was also inspired by the book ''Goodbye, Mr. Chips'' by James Hilton, which has been adapted for television or film at least four times.
The introductory essay that Keating has his students read from their poetry textbook near the beginning of the movie is taken nearly word-for-word from an early chapter of Laurence Perrine's ''Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry'',^[1] which is still occasionally used by AP English classes in the United States.
Charlie Dalton writes his poem on the image of a centerfold; she is Elaine Reynolds, Miss October 1959 in Playboy magazine. In another reunion, the centerfold for Miss March 1959 Audrey Daston is seen briefly.
In one scene, a bagpipe player stands on the docks in the middle of the night. The song played is "The Fields of Athenry", an Irish ballad that tells the story of a man who stood up against 'the famine' and 'the crown' and was arrested for it. This echoes the boys' actions: they stood up against the school and were punished, even though they did it for the right reasons. (The song was actually composed in the 1970s, and is thus an anachronism).
The uniform of Welton Academy shares characteristics with that of director Weir's high school, The Scots College, including the use of the rampant lion on blazer breast pocket. The major difference is that Welton's uses red and blue, while Scots' uses a gold and blue colour system.
The quotation from Henry David Thoreau read at the beginning of each meeting is incorrect. It actually reads
:"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived … I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner…" (61) (''Walden'', 1854).
The line that Keating refers to from Whitman's poem "Song of Myself" is also misquoted: it actually reads "I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world".
Neil Perry says a line in the film which catches the minds of all. He speaks the words of Puck's soliloquy at the end of A Midsummer Night's Dream: "If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumber'd here While these visions did appear. And this weak and idle theme, No more yielding but a dream, Gentles, do not reprehend: if you pardon, we will mend: And, as I am an honest Puck, If we have unearned luck Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue, We will make amends ere long; Else the Puck a liar call; So, good night unto you all. Give me your hands, if we be friends, And Robin shall restore amends."...

Production

Screenplay

The first draft of the screenplay ended differently: Neil Perry's father sues both Keating for corrupting Neil, and the school for compensation and emotional suffering. Todd and the other 'Dead Poets' are told by Nolan to testify against Keating, in exchange for a clean record of any wrong-doing. Cameron is the only one who testifies against his former teacher, feeling that the school needs a scapegoat. Instead, the rest of the boys defend him and explain that Neil chose to act on his own beliefs rather than be influenced. Keating is acquitted of all charges, much to the fury of Neil Perry's father, who spends his last years in depression and sorrow over the loss of his hopes for Neil and his "legacy." The boys are put on disciplinary probation, while Keating goes into hospital as his condition worsens. At the end of the film, Keating dies of leukemia, vindicating his 'carpe diem' philosophy. Peter Weir changed the script to emphasize more the boys' personal journey, but he has stated that he wished he had gone with the original ending.

Casting

Bill Murray and Dustin Hoffman were both considered for the role of John Keating. When Jeff Kanew was slated to direct the film, he told Liam Neeson that "you're my guy", but Neeson was replaced with Williams. Dustin Hoffman later told Neeson that he did a better job in his audition than Hoffman himself could have done.

Filming

Director Peter Weir chose to shoot the film in chronological order to better capture the development of the relationships between the boys and their growing respect for Keating.
The extreme closeups that can be seen in this movie became a successful signature for Peter Weir.
Filming of the movie took place between Nov 14, 1988 - Jan 15, 1989.

Reception

Dead Poets Society was generally well received, with an average rating of 83% on Rotten Tomatoes ^[2]. Critics generally praised the uplifting message of the story, the depth of many of the characters and Williams' performance. However, the film garnered particularly sharp criticisms from certain critics.
Roger Ebert abhorred the film, saying he wanted to throw up by the end of the movie.^[3]
Film director Alexander Payne felt similarly about the film's ending. He commented, "I remember feeling so cheated ... when they all stand up on their desks. Please. It's saying, 'Really in their hearts, people aren't conformists,' when quite the opposite is true. If I had directed ''Dead Poets Society'', it wouldn't have made half the money it made ... At the end, he should go in, they all look at him, they feel guilty for what they've done, you want one of them to stand on their desk, none of them does, and he leaves, and you're left with a more chilling feeling. That, to me, says the same idea, that we should be nonconformists. The way it's done, you like it and you forget about it. I think it's a little more important to make movies that are challenging at the end. You've got to think about it more and come up with your own response."^[4]

Awards and nominations

''Dead Poets Society'' won the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay, and was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Robin Williams), Best Director and Best Picture. It also won the BAFTA Award for Best Film. (It was the first Touchstone Pictures release to receive a best picture nomination.)
This movie ranks number 20 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.

Soundtrack

# Carpe Diem
# Neal
# To the Cave
# Keating's Triumph
Tracks composed by Maurice Jarre.

Trivia

★ The DPS's book "Five Centuries of Verse" seen in the film version, somewhat of an icon, is reputed to actually exist. The commonly suggested "real title" is "Five Centuries of ''English'' Verse" by William Stebbing, published in 1913 by Oxford University Press, which may be found in many library catalogues online (including the British Library and Bodleian Library). Since that is a 2-volumed text, however, this is unlikely, and the book in the film more likely simply a prop.

★ Neil (Robert Sean Leonard) mentions his father wants him to focus on becoming a doctor instead of acting. Robert Sean Leonard is currently starring as a doctor on Fox's medical drama, ''House, M.D.''. Kurtwood Smith, who plays Neil's father, guest starred in the show's third season.

★ Coincidentally, Williams had the leading role in the film ''Seize The Day'' in 1986.

Popular culture references

★ An electronic mailing list called Dead Runners Society was inspired by the film. Its motto is "carpe viam" (seize the roadway).

★ A few years later, Rob Williams would make a subtle reference to the movie in his movie ''Mrs. Doubtfire''. While in disguise at the restaurant, he attempts to fish his dentures out of a wine glass and says "Carpe dentum."

★ Samples from this movie were used in the title track of ''A Change of Seasons'', a 1995 EP by progressive metal band Dream Theater. The track's lyrics make extensive use of the mantra "carpe diem."

★ In the ''Family Guy'' episode "Fast Times at Buddy Cianci Jr. High" this movie is parodied when Brian's remedial English class stands on its desks and shouts "O Captain!, My Captain!"

★ In the UK version of ''The Office'', David Brent says, "I excite [people's] imaginations - it's like the bloody Dead Poets Society sometimes, you know at the end where they all stand on the tables?"

★ In the ''Simpsons'' episode "Special Edna," a nominee for teacher of the year is a Keating look-alike and sound-alike (voiced by Dan Castellaneta). A judge then says "''Dead Poets Society'' has destroyed a generation of educators".

★ In the ''Simpsons'' episode "Homer the Vigilante," Jimbo Jones is seen spray-painting the phrase "Carpe Diem" on a wall.

★ The second season ''Simpsons'' episode "Dead Putting Society" is an obvious reference to the title.

★ There is a Hip-Hop group from Vienna named "Fat Poets Society".

★ In the ''Friends'' episode "The One with the Fake Monica" the fake Monica said she changed her life after seeing ''Dead Poet's Society'': "I thought that movie was so incredibly... boring. I mean, that thing at the end where the kid kills himself because he can't be in the play? What was that?! It's like, kid, wait a year, leave home, do some community theatre. I walked out of there and I thought, 'Now, that's two hours of my life that I'm never getting back'. And that thought scared me more than all the other crap I was afraid to do.".

★ A second season episode of ''Roseanne'' where Darlene has to read a poem for her school's arts night is titled "Brain Dead Poet's Society".

References and further reading

1. Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry, , Laurence, Perrine, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1969,
2. Dead Poet's Society - Rotten Tomatoes
3. Dead Poets Society Ebert, Roger
4. Jack be humble Glenn Whipp


★ Erläuterungen zu Nancy H. Kleinbaum/Peter Weir, 'Der Club der toten Dichter', , Stefan, Munaretto, Bange, 2005, ISBN 3-8044-1817-1

External links

★

★ Carpe Diem, A Dead Poets Society Page

★ Crazy Dave's Dead Poets Society filmography

★ AntiRomantic.com: Dead Poets Society - Death of a Romantic

★ Dead Poets Society at Instant Movies