DEAD POET'S SOCIETY

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DEAD POET'S SOCIETY
DIR: PETER WEIR
RELEASE: 1989

I don’t want to go into the details of the directors and actors of this piece of art. I call it art, because it is lot more than just a film, it is life itself. On a platter. In front of us to embrace it.

This masterpiece is about a teacher, Keating (Robin Williams), who influences and changes the course of his students’ lives; teaches them how to appreciate poetry, literature, music, art. Tells them about Carpe Diem- and makes them practice it. Teaches them how to live their own lives and not follow the herd... using all unconventional ways in a school whose moto is “Tradition, Honor, Discipline, and Excellence”.

Keating is that teacher who guides his students against all odds. But unfortunately, one of his students, Neil (Robert Sean Leonard), commits suicide because of the parental pressures he faces. And that is when things change and we see the students standing up to Keating’s principles and making him unapologetically proud.

“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, “O me! O life!… of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless… of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?” Answer. That you are here — that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play *goes on* and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?” — Keating
The film brings tears to my eyes as many times I watch it and is beautifully sketched, often citing lines from poems of Keats and Frost. The movie is just not a beautiful piece on life but also on death. It brings out the truth of society that a person who doesn’t appreciate art is just another robot, and that love, art, poetry, and literature are ultimately the things that we live for. It is a crude, idealistic romantic film which shows how the society should be.

Dead Poets Society teaches us to resolve to lead lives of passion and conviction, mindful of the fact that in the story of our lives the script is ours to write, but the ending has long been decided.

“No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.” — Keating

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