Dead Poets Society

In the autumn of 1959, classes began for a privileged group of young men in New England. These boys started their semester at the Welton Academy, an expensive private school where almost all of the graduates reach the Ivy League. They were all following the orders of their parents, who expected them to succeed and go on to major careers.
This is the setting for Dead Poets Society. Director Peter Weir and writer Tom Schulman have created an environment of upper class adolescence- a school where the richest boys in New England go to prepare for college. This school, with all its glamorous tradition, gets a jolt from new teacher (and former alum) John Keating. Keating tries to change things and be different, and for this he gets into trouble. In this sense, Weir’s finest movie shows his disdain for the ordinary. Dead Poets Society is Weir’s personal attack on conformity.
Weir succeeds in providing an emotionally stirring movie that is also aesthetically pleasing. The setting is quite breathtaking. As Frank Scheck says, “John Seale’s photography is gorgeous, giving the film an autumnal glow”(618). This film was shot at a private school in Delaware (even though it was supposed to be in Vermont) with magnificent architecture and a forest environment that is particularly stunning in the winter scenes. The lighting reflects the dramatic mood. There are a lot of scenes at night or in the school that are very dark, giving the film a somber feel to it.
The film does not contain a lot of scores (except for the final scene). Most of the music is diagetic. Music is important to several scenes - records playing while the boys kick soccer balls, jive music on a homemade radio, the dance music at Chet’s party, the flighty music at the play, and the somber chorus at Welton on opening day. The triumphant score in the last scene of this film ties everything together well and accentuates the epiphany of one student.
Weir likes to use long shots that show the class as a group. Of ten he will film their activities as though he was an onlooker from far away, especially when they are outside. In the school, he usually shoots the boys in their dorm rooms from the hallway. These scenes are much more personal and conversational. The editing style also changes when the film goes indoors; there, Weir uses more reverse shots (and more shots in general). Outside, he uses a lot of long takes. In fact, most of his shots last more than a few seconds, except for a few intense conversational scenes.
He enjoys framing people in medium and close-up shots in personal scenes, especially the scene at Chet Danberry’s party. This is one of the few scenes where he gets into the head of the character, spinning the camera to evoke Knox (one character)’s drunken state. Often, he has different levels of positioning people. He does not move the camera around too much; many shots are still. There are a few scenes where he follows people walking or riding bikes, but for the most part he does not move the camera in shot. There is one particular scene of Knox searching for his girl, a frantic long take as Weir follows him around the public high school.
The acting is exceptional. Robin Williams stars as Mr. Keating in a role that got him an Oscar nomination. Scheck doesn’t think that Williams is used correctly and that he could be less restrained (617). Of course, this restraint would also fit his character, who is fighting the school’s old ways to teach his students in the manner he likes. He uses sports to help them remember poetry. He instructs them to rip out the pages of a textbook he thinks is useless. He encourages them to think of something besides the businesses they are about to control, the careers they are going to have, and the prestigious colleges they are about to attend. He teaches them to savor the finer moments in life.
The young men who play his students have mostly gone on to successful careers, and they are all surprisingly effective in this film. The two main characters are Todd Anderson (Ethan Hawke) and Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard). The other main boys are Knox Overstreet (Josh Charles), Charlie Daulton (Gale Hansen), and Richard Cameron (Dylan Kussman). Each boy has a particular problem to deal with. Todd’s older brother was a valedictorian, but Todd has no social skills. Neil has a lot going for him, but he must be respectful to his commanding father (Kurtwood Smith). Knox wants a girl who is already going out with a tough football star. Cameron is too strict, and Charlie is too disruptive. They all must overcome their separate problems throughout the film.
They way that Weir tells his story is a major part of the film’s success. He uses a restricted, objective narrative for most of the movie. We really don’t get to see into the heads of any characters (except for Knox’s one scene). He follows the traditional three-act format well. In the opening of the film we (the audience) are introduced to all of the major characters as they move into the school. We also get a hint of the problems that they may have, seeing Neil’s dad reprimand him; Todd’s immediate shyness at meeting Neil; and the actions of all the other boys. We are introduced to the school and the headmaster, who talks about the tradition they have.
The real action starts when the boys sit down for their first class with Mr. Keating, who instructs them to go down to the lobby and look at the nostalgic pictures of old students. He challenges them to “seize the day…make your lives extraordinary.” Later he gives them a reading of Shakespeare’s Macbeth in John Wayne’s voice, which Robert Seidenberg claims is the best part of the movie (57). The boys sit in amazement at Mr. Keating, who is unlike all the straight and unimaginative teachers they have had. They discover that he once went to Welton and founded a group called the Dead Poets Society. They decide to bring it back.
Eventually, the boys begin to change. They have learned from that class to be individuals, and they start doing things they would not have earlier. The meetings they have late nights at the cave of the Dead Poets Society only further encourage them to be different. Knox tries to get the girl he wants but cannot have. Neil decides to get into acting, which is not something his father would approve of. Mr. Keating even gets a response out of the quiet Todd in class. All of the boys are feeling great about themselves when the mood shifts.
The pint of no return in the movie comes when Neil lands the starring role in the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. His father tries to make him quit but he does it anyway. Then his father pulls him out of Welton and prepares to send him to a military academy. Neil kills himself because he cannot face that future. This night is the climax for several people: Neil, because it is his high point and also low point; Mr. Keating, because it is what will lead to his dismissal; and Knox, because he pleads for one last chance with his crush- and gets it. After Neil’s suicide, the teachers at Welton decide that Mr. Keating’s influence caused Neil to reach for unattainable goals.
The last scene of the movie is Todd’s epiphany. As Mr. Keating is clearing out his office, Todd stands up on his desk in protest. The shyest kid in the class becomes the leader, which shows how he overcame his problem. The last shot of the movie is from Keating’s point of view as he sees Todd standing and smiling at him (through someone else’s legs, as they are all standing on desks).
Gary Hentzi believes that Weir is definitely an outsider in Hollywood and that this movie deals with his ideas on culture (3). The main point of this film is that the boys have been such dutiful sons and need the injection of creativity that Keating gives them.
There is one scene where the headmaster approaches Keating and asks him about his unorthodox teaching methods. Keating replies that a good education should teach kids to think for themselves and ask questions about everything. This is Weir’s thesis for the film: too much conformity is harmful for these students. How can they learn if they are unable to be creative and express their true emotions? The headmaster wants Keating to teach them poetry and leave them on their own. This conflict of conformity vs. creativity is present throughout the entire movie in many different ways: Knox (who is creative) vs. Chet (who is a dumb jock, it seems), Neil vs. his dad, and Keating vs. the headmaster.
This is probably the masterpiece of Peter Weir’s career. It was nominated for Best Picture in 1989 and won Best Original Screenplay (Seidenberg 57). He has also directed famous movies such as Witness, The Year of Living Dangerously, and The Truman Show. Weir has a style that Hentzi calls “new age humanism”(5). His films are usually about society and how one person dares to defy it. This film goes along with that idea, as Mr. Keating tries to fight conformist ideas in the high society that is Welton. He succeeds, though tragically.
Dead Poets Society remains a classic film of inspiration. Although it includes a lot of heartbreaks, the film makes a strong case against conformity. Peter Weir’s masterpiece touches anyone who has ever been in a classroom environment and challenged the metonymy of high school education. It was an easy choice to screen for this course, but it could be seen in any school setting. The lessons that the students received that year at Welton Academy were more important to their lives than any major class they could take.





Works Cited

Hentzi, Gary. “Peter Weir and the Cinema of New Age Humanism.” Film Quarterly. Winter 1990-91. 2-11.
Scheck, Frank. “Dead Poets Society.” Films in Review. December 1989. 617-18.
Seidenberg, Robert. “Dead Poets Society: Reciting Tom Schulman.” American Film. July-August 1989. 57.
Weir, Peter. Dead Poets Society. Video: Touchstone Pictures, 1989.