Dead Poets Society

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Dead Poets Society

Just a few of us gathered for this film, the last in the current season of films by Fermoy Film Club, I had not seen the Dead Poets Society before, but it made a very deep impression on me.

Thursday, 11 April 2013
9:00 AM GMT



Just a few of us gathered for this film, the last in the current season of films by Fermoy Film Club, I had not seen the Dead Poets Society before, but it made a very deep impression on me. It combines a very moving film with performances from the young cast that can only be described as being inspired.

The film is set in 1959 at the exclusive Welton Academy in Vermont, the ethos of the school as defined by the headmaster, Mr. Nolan is tradition, honour, discipline and excellence. The class of senior students at the Academy are introduced to their new English, John Keating, his teaching methods are, to put it mildly, very unorthodox, he tells the students that the may call him Captain, inspired by the Walt Whitman poem, Captain, My Captain.

He strides into the classroom whistling the 1812 Overture and urges his student to seize the day, and quotes lines such as; Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, he inspires his class to embrace poetry as a way of thinking for yourself and being positive about self-expression. He opens the boy’s eyes about what lies within them, tells them that they have the gift of thinking for themselves, that they should savour words and language, and try to look at things in a different way.

The boys discover that Keating, as a young student was part of a group called the Dead Poets Society, and they form their own group, meeting in a cave, and it is here that we see the boys open up and begin to express themselves, their loves, their aims in life and, their fears. But tragedy strikes when one of the boys, Neil, who wants to be an actor, clashes with his over ambitious parents, and takes his own life.

This leads to an inquiry within the school, during which the boys have to make a heart-breaking decision, and ends with John Keating losing his job, but not before one last hurray in which they acknowledge him as truly being their inspiration, their very own Captain.

For his outstanding performance as John Keating, Robin Williams was nominated for an Oscar, the films only Oscar was for Best Original Screenplay, but Dead Poets Society won the B.A.F.T. Award for 1989 and it also won the Caesar Award, the French equivalent of the Oscars, the film is now available on DVD.



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