Dead Poets Societ
Dead Poets Society is an Academy Award-winning 1989 film, directed by Peter Weir. Set in 1959 at a conservative and autocratic boys prep school, it tells the story of an English professor who inspires his students to change 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 (ISBN 0553282980) based on the movie's script has also been published.
Plot
Seven boys, Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard), Todd Anderson (Ethan Hawke), Knox Overstreet (Josh Charles), Charlie 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, new English teacher John Keating (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." He later 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).
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 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 says he acted alone.
John Keating standing on a desk
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, 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 wins the role of Puck. Neil feels unable to and lies to Keating, saying that his father is still unhappy with his acting but is letting him keep the role as long as he keeps up his studies, too. But Neil's father finds out the truth. After Neil's performance his father remains unimpressed and Neil is taken home instead of returning to school with everyone else.
Infuriated by this affront to his authority, Neil's father 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 come out 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. 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, and is expelled from Welton.
Neil's father takes no responsibilty for his son's death and instead holds Keating responsible. All the boys, but Todd, confess what Keating has taught them, but coerced by his strict father, Todd regretfully signs a written confession casting blame on his former teacher. Keating is accused of inciting the boys to restart the Dead Poets Society, although they recreated it themselves, but Keating is fired.
In the film's dramatic conclusion, the boys return to English class following Keating's termination. The class is now being temporarily taught 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 apologizes to Keating for having signed the confession, citing the force exercised by the Academy. Keating acknowledges this. Nolan sternly orders Todd to be quiet and demands that Keating leave 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 the students stand on their desks calling out "O Captain! My Captain!" as a form of salute (one student who does not rebel is Cameron (the snitch). The looks in the boys' eyes reveal that the life lessons Keating wanted to impart to them through poetry will be taken to heart. With tears in his eyes, Keating says: "Thank you, boys. Thank you," and then walks out of the classroom for good.
> This story tells us that every poets that has made by an author is reflect to what the reality is, if a person aims and dreams high he/ she can made it to the top but not as easy as he/she thinks but because of perseverance, patience and determination he/she can achieve it.
