Title: Dead Poet’s Society
Starring: Robin Williams
Rating: PG
Summary (from back of DVD):
In an age defined by crew cuts, sport coats and cheerless conformity, he not only broke the mold… he reinvented it. Academy Award winner Robin Williams delivers and extraordinary performance in one of the most compelling motion pictures of all time.
Williams stars as English professor John Keating, a passionate iconoclast who changes his students’ lives forever when he challenges them to live life to the fullest and “Carpe Diem” — seize the day! Keating’s unconventional approach meets with irrepressible enthusiasm from his students, but the faculty at staid, exclusive Welton Academy prep school is, to put it mildly, not amused.
My Review:
I have heard many great things about this movie. When I finally sat down to watch it, I was impressed, but not as much as I thought it would.
Robin Williams is fantastic in more ways that one and they couldn’t have picked a better actor to play the role of John Keating.
The movie is, as everyone says, inspirational. Williams has some great quotable lines in this movie that everyone should listen to.
The students all have a huge amount of pressure on them from their other teachers as well as their parents. This one needs to be a doctor, that one needs to get straight As and get into the absolute best college there is known to man. One student wants to be an actor, but his father just simply won’t allow it. None of the students want to do what their parents tell them to, but they obey anyway. Otherwise there are other consequences.
Their professor, John Keating, breaks them out of their shell and gets them to do what they want to do. He gets them to do what makes them happy.
The best part? He does all this through poetry.
I will admit the ending disappointed me, but I think it was mainly because I wanted more. I had high expectations for this movie because everyone speaks so highly of it. While is was good and very inspirational, I didn’t fully understand why people fell in love with the movie. I think it’s because the ending was bittersweet. If it ended differently, I might think differently.
Either way, it was a great movie.
Dead Poet’s Society gets 5 out of 5 stars.
Would I recommend? Yes.
