Set in 1959, Dead Poets Society follows a group of boys in a boarding school and their encounters with the new English teacher, John Keating, played by Robin Williams. His distinctive, non-conformist teaching methods gets in the head of many of the youths, showing them that English not only isn't trivial, but that by using their minds, they can break out of the mold and live their lives deliberately.
The Actors
For years afterward, whenever I saw these young actors, I would invariably say "Oh, he was in Dead Poets Society." Ethan Hawke, Josh Charles, and Robert Sean Leonard all shared that fate and, considering I never watched House or Sports Night (and other things they did), that mentality still pervades.
And don't get me started on Kurtwood Smith, the overbearing father to Leonard's character. Smith was so overbearing that it took me a long time before I could even watch the occasional episode of That 70s Show and allow Smith the chance to be a funny guy. As a twenty year old, I hated him.
He doesn't fare much better now that I'm fifty and a dad, but the one crucial scene where he finds Neil's body after his son killed himself (c'mon. It's a thirty-year-old movie.) is heartbreaking. Smith plays the distraught father perfectly, especially in his cries as he cradles his son's dead body. Didn't get to me in 1989. Got to me in 2019.
The Ending
What I also cherish is the ending. Loved it then, love it even more now. "O Captain, my captain," Hawke's Todd Anderson declares, stepping up on his desk, to Williams's Keating as the disgraced teacher exits the classroom. Goosebumps and tears all flowed together. It was proof Anderson got the message of all Keating's teachings. He got it, as did others.
We want to think Anderson and the other boys went on to adulthood in the 1960s continuing to think for themselves and making a difference in the world. Maybe they did, but they would have had to do it during that turbulent decade. What would they have made of John Kennedy's death? Or the war in Vietnam? Would any of them have been drafted? Or would they have enlisted, given that some of their dads might've been World War II veterans? What about Watergate, the 1980s, or September 11?
Those boys in 1959 would be in their sixties and seventies now. Do you think they'd still be reading poetry? Do you think they used poetry--or wrote their own--to woo their wives? Do you think they read poetry to their children? Better yet, do you think they sent their kids to Welton Academy?
Those are questions the movies doesn't answer, but they're still fun to ponder.
The Legacy and the Lasting Message
What isn't in question is how good this movie remains. A seminal movie in my way of thinking about the world and my place in it, I've loved this movie's message in how I live my life. Don't like the music I like? Tough. Don't like the books I read or the TV shows I like? Oh well. I'm not contrarian. I just like what I like and don't need anyone else to criticize my choices.
Dead Poets Society taught me not only to appreciate poetry (yeah, I bought a book of poetry as a direct result of this movie) but to appreciate life. I always did (my parents and grandparents instilled a love of life from my earliest memories), but after this movie--and after Neil's suicide in the film--my twenty-year-old self relished all that life brought, the good and the bad, the valleys and the mountaintops. Cut to me becoming a dad and life becomes even more precious. Throw in the undertones of Robin Williams's sad death, and his message about living life to the fullest becomes even more poignant.
This is a movie for the ages, one of my favorites starring Robin Williams, and one all should see and revisit throughout the seasons of our lives.
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