Dead Poets Society

Dead Poets Society is a 1989 film which tells the story of a Whitman-quoting English teacher at a 1950s boys' school who inspires his students to overcome their reluctance to make changes in their lives and stirs up their interests in poetry.

Synopsis

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 fictional Welton Academy. The school's values are based on four principles: Tradition, Honor, Discipline and Excellence.

Related Topics:
Robert Sean Leonard - Ethan Hawke - Josh Charles - Gale Hansen - Dylan Kussman - Allelon Ruggiero - James Waterston - Tradition - Honor - Discipline - Excellence

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At the beginning of the first class, the replacement English teacher, Mr. Keating (played by Robin Williams), has one of the boys read the introduction to the poetry textbook, which describes how to place the quality of a poem on a scale, and give it a number, a process that was popular in literary circles at the time. Keating, much to the astonishment (and delight) of the students, has them physically remove the introduction. 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 his or her true identity is within himself or herself.

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This free thinking brings trouble for one of the boys, Neil, who decides to pursue acting, rather than medicine, the career his father chose for him. Neil eventually kills himself in his father's office after even his triumphant performance in a school play fails to please his father and his father pulls him out of Welton and places him in a military school.

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As a consequence of Neil's suicide, John Keating becomes the scapegoat of the schools's headmaster, Mr. Nolan, and has to leave Welton Academy. The film concludes with the boys standing on their tables - in front of Mr. Nolan - addressing Mr. Keating as "captain" - this way showing him that his messages have been understood.

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