Dead Poets Society

In the fall of 1959, Todd Anderson begins his junior year of high school at Welton Academy, an Episcopal all-male preparatory boarding school in Vermont. He is assigned one of Welton's top students, Neil Perry, as his roommate, and meets Neil's friends: Knox Overstreet, Richard Cameron, Steven Meeks, Gerard Pitts, and Charlie Dalton. On the first day of classes, the boys meet their new English teacher, John Keating, a Welton alumnus who studied English literature at the University of Cambridge. Keating teaches them the Latin expression carpe diem, encouraging them to "seize the day". During his classes, he has the students take turns standing on his desk to demonstrate ways to look at life differently, tells them to rip out the introduction of their poetry books that explains a mathematical formula for rating poetry, and invites them to make up their own style of walking in a courtyard to form their individualism. These unusual methods attract the attention of strict headmaster, Gale Nolan. Upon learning that Keating had been a member of the unofficial Dead Poets Society during his time as a student, Neil restarts the club. He and his friends sneak off campus to a cave to read poetry. Keating's lessons and the conversations in the club encourage them to live on their own terms. Knox pursues Chris Noel, a cheerleader who is dating Chet Danburry, a football player whose family is friends with his. Neil discovers his love of acting and wins the role of Puck in a local production of ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' despite the disapproval of his authoritarian father, who wants him to attend medical school. Keating helps Todd come out of his shell when he takes him through an exercise in self-expression, resulting in his spontaneous composition of a poem in front of the class. Charlie publishes an article in the school newspaper on behalf of the Dead Poets Society recommending that girls be admitted to Welton. In response, Nolan paddles Charlie, attempting to force him to reveal the names of the other members of the Dead Poets Society; Charlie refuses. Keating gently admonishes him, advising the boys that one must assess all potential consequences of one's actions. On the eve of the play's opening performance, Neil's father discovers his involvement and demands that he quit. Neil performs in the play, but his father retaliates by telling him he plans to withdraw him from Welton and enroll him in Braden Military School in preparation for Harvard Medical School. Lacking support from his mother and unable to explain his feelings to his father, a devastated Neil commits suicide. At Neil's parents' request, Nolan investigates his death. Cameron shifts blame onto Keating to avoid punishment for his role in the Dead Poets Society, and he names the other members of the group. Charlie punches him for his betrayal and is expelled. Each of the boys is called to Nolan's office to sign a letter confirming Cameron's false allegations. Todd reluctantly signs under his parents' pressure, and Keating is fired. Nolan takes over Keating's English class. As Keating interrupts the class to gather his belongings, Todd confesses that the boys were pressured into signing the letter that led to his dismissal. Keating assures Todd that he believes him. Nolan threatens to expel Todd and anyone else who speaks out of line. Despite the threat, Todd stands up on his desk and says, "O Captain! My Captain!". Several other members of the Dead Poets Society, along with several classmates, follow suit. Touched by their support, Keating proudly thanks the boys and departs. ==Cast==

Development The original script was written by Tom Schulman, based on his experiences at the Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville, Tennessee, particularly with his inspirational teacher, Samuel Pickering. Jeff Kanew was originally hired as the director and Kanew had envisioned Liam Neeson in the role of Keating, as well as Dustin Hoffman, Mel Gibson, Tom Hanks, and Mickey Rourke. Robin Williams, who was Touchstone Pictures's preferred choice, was ultimately cast, but on the first day of shooting outside Atlanta, Williams did not show, as he did not want to work with Kanew. The studio burned down the already built sets and replaced Kanew with another director. It was when Weir was given directing duties that filming began in earnest. Early notes on the script from Disney also suggested making the boys' passion dancing rather than poetry, as well as a new title, Sultans of Swing, focusing on the character of Mr. Keating rather than on the boys, but both were dismissed outright. Classroom scenes with Keating were filmed in a replica classroom built on a soundstage in Wilmington. Weir also said that he hid a half-day's filming from Disney executives to allow Williams free range to use his comedic improvisational skills. Dead Poets Society held two open casting calls, in which more than 3,000 extras were used. ==Reception==

Box office The worldwide box office was reported as $235,860,579, which includes domestic grosses of $95,860,116. The film's global receipts were the fifth-highest for 1989, and the highest for dramas. Critical response On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Dead Poets Society holds an approval rating of 85%, based on 66 reviews, with an average score of 7.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Affecting performances from the young cast and a genuinely inspirational turn from Robin Williams grant Peter Weir's prep school drama top honors." On Metacritic, the film received a score of 79, based on 15 reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a rare "A+" grade on a scale of A+ to F. The Washington Posts reviewer called it "solid, smart entertainment", and praised Robin Williams for giving a "nicely restrained acting performance". Vincent Canby of The New York Times also praised Williams' "exceptionally fine performance", while writing that "Dead Poets Society... is far less about Keating than about a handful of impressionable boys." Roger Ebert's review for the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two stars out of four. He criticized Williams for spoiling an otherwise creditable dramatic performance by occasionally veering into his onstage comedian's persona, and lamented that for a film set in the 1950s, there was no mention of the Beat Generation writers popular among college students of the era. Additionally, Ebert described the film as an often poorly constructed "collection of pious platitudes... The movie pays lip service to qualities and values that, on the evidence of the screenplay itself, it is cheerfully willing to abandon." On their Oscar-nomination edition of Siskel & Ebert, both Gene Siskel (who also gave the film a mixed review) and Ebert disagreed with Williams's Oscar nomination. Ebert said that he would have swapped Williams with either Matt Dillon for Drugstore Cowboy or John Cusack for Say Anything. On their If We Picked the Winners special in March 1990, Ebert chose the film's Best Picture nomination as the worst nomination of the year, believing that it took a slot that could have gone to Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing. Film historian Leonard Maltin wrote: "Well made, extremely well acted, but also dramatically obvious and melodramatically one-sided. Nevertheless, Tom Schulman's screenplay won an Oscar." John Simon, writing for National Review, said that Dead Poets Society was the most dishonest film that he had seen in some time. Richard Schickel reviewed the film for Time, commenting: "Williams, who has comparatively little screen time, has come to act, not to cut comic riffs, and he does so with forceful, ultimately compelling, simplicity." Kevin Dettmar wrote in The Atlantic: "The beloved film's portrayal of studying literature is both misleading and deeply seductive." He commented further on how literature was taught in the film (by Robin Williams's character John Keating), describing it as "the literary equivalent of fandom," and "anti-intellectual". Accolades American Film Institute Lists The film was voted #52 on the AFI's 100 Years…100 Cheers list, a list of the top 100 most inspiring films of all time. The film's line, "Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.", was voted as the 95th greatest movie quote by the American Film Institute. Legacy After Robin Williams's death in August 2014, fans of his work used social media to pay tribute to him with photo and video reenactments of the film's final "O Captain! My Captain!" scene. Upon hearing about Williams's death, many teachers came forward to pay him their respects online and even revealed that they were inspired to become teachers because of his character, Mr. Keating, from Dead Poets Society. Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles feature prominently in the music video for "Fortnight" by American singer Taylor Swift from her album The Tortured Poets Department (2024), as a nod to the similarity between the two titles. Lara Flynn Boyle scenes A majority of actress Lara Flynn Boyle's scenes were edited out of the final film despite her name being in the film's credits. Boyle went on a 1990 episode of Late Night with David Letterman saying she was totally edited out of the film. However, Boyle did appear in sections of the final film that showed the performance of Shakespeare's ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''. ==Adaptations==

Novelization Nancy H. Kleinbaum's novel, Dead Poets Society (1989), is based on the movie. Stage play A theatrical adaptation written by Tom Schulman and directed by John Doyle opened off-Broadway October 27, 2016, and ran through December 11, 2016. Jason Sudeikis starred as John Keating, with Thomas Mann as Neil Perry, David Garrison as Gale Nolan, Zane Pais as Todd Anderson, Francesca Carpanini as Chris, Stephen Barker Turner as Mr. Perry, Will Hochman as Knox Overstreet, Cody Kostro as Charlie Dalton, Yaron Lotan as Richard Cameron, and Bubba Weiler as Steven Meeks. The production received a mixed review from The New York Times, with critic Ben Brantley calling the play "blunt and bland", and criticizing Sudeikis's performance, citing his lack of enthusiasm when delivering powerful lines. In 2018, the theatrical adaptation of the film, written by Tom Schulman and directed by Francisco Franco, premiered in Mexico. The Mexican actor Alfonso Herrera played the main character. An adaptation was made for the Bad Hersfelder Festspiele in Germany, also with the assistance of Tom Schulman. It premiered in July 2021, and was still staged two years later. The lead actor was Francis Fulton-Smith. Parodies The ending of the film was parodied in the 2009 Community episode, "Introduction to Film". It was also parodied in the 2016 Saturday Night Live sketch, "Farewell, Mr. Bunting," with Fred Armisen playing Williams's role. The sketch is a largely faithful recreation of the scene, until a student (Pete Davidson) is decapitated by a ceiling fan when he jumps on top of his desk. The 2018 television show Derry Girls parodies the plot of Dead Poets Society in season 2 episode 2, "Ms. De Brún and the Child of Prague". The episode focuses on a new teacher who echoes Mr Keating's lessons, inspiring the students with the progressive methods. ==References==