Dead Poets Society

Taking into account that Dead Poets Society was created on 1989 and set on 1959, we can interpret that the setting was chosen on purpose, it made it even more old-fashioned, highlighting the fact that boarding schools where common, and the fact that the academy was located at the countryside of the city gave the movie another great touch. All together made the landscapes look beautiful and well placed, and scenes much more real. If it would have taken place today, on a big urban city, it would be completely different, boarding schools are almost gone, at least in Argentina, there are not many schools located on the countryside. The movie would lose it’s sense without the  tidy uniforms,  and the structured and old ways of teaching. Besides that, I would love to share my opinion on a particular “theme”, I want to highlight that as Mr. Keating’s way of learning was the same as “now”. Once his students find his old yearbook, he claimed he was not proud of the student he was, he did all the conservatism values the institute had. To change that, he would teach literature differently, in his own fashion, without any school influence, he did what he wanted to.

About the characters, protagonists? The whole class where! (of course Mr Nolan was too). If I have to categorize them by relevance or participation, Neil, Mr Keating would be the so called main characters. Neil, Todd, Knox, Charlie, Meeks, Cameron, where the paramount group of the movie and the class itself. Mr Keating, the state-of-the-art teacher. I dare to say, if I had to realate grown-ups personal goals and teenagers or students goals, I would say that every adult in the story wants those goals reflected on their sons or students. For instance, Mr. Perry wanted his son to do whatever he wanted him to do, study this, do that, stick to the society customs, acting was insane, any disrespect or answering to him would take him to military school. Furthermore, the Academy and mostly the headmaster; Mr. Nolan, wanted everyone to be disciplined and follow the school rools.  As I mentioned before, Mr. KEating wanted his students to get out of their comfortable-zone, think out of the box, dare to do whatever they ever dreamt about, to question the  input of the society on their lives, to live their own life, seize the day! (Carpe Diem). About this “seize the day” “topic”, I came to the conclusion after watching the film, that Mr. Keating tryes to take the students out of the institute tradition, create their own lives and teach them in a way they feel different, they feel more freedom.  They are all forced to stand up when the teacher enters the classroom, talk super formally, get spanked if they made a “mistake” or “reveal”, all this non-sense kind of actions implied by the school teachers and the students’ predecessors. I think throughout the movie, the students increase their “willingness” to break free and they finally do it when all of them stand on their desk, showing rebellion against Mr Nolan and the school and showing support to Mr Keating. Students begin to behave differently once they see how things go with Mr Keating, he teaches in a new way, he makes them go out to scream and let everything out, rip the pages that he thought were useless, jump from their benches to see everything from a different perspective, and he introduced  the Dead Poets Society to them. About the influence of the families on their kids, I consider wrong the way Neil’s and Todd’s parents raise them, forcing them to study what they couldn’t in the past, trying to forge the kid they weren’t able to be. Todd specifically, was given a desk set as a present every single year, as his parents wanted him to be a lawyer, with the influence of Mr Keating and the help of Neil, he get rid of it, he throws it from the rooftop, showing and claiming he was not going to stand that any more. In the case of Neil, it was much harder than throwing something, his father was really strict and wouldn’t stand neil answering or claiming he thought otherwise. Neil was threatened when he told his father he wanted to start acting , his father almost immediately related this to Mr Keating way of teaching. The threat was to take Neil to a military school if he did not follow his father's commands. Other thought I had… What if Neil did not commit suicide, what if he killed his father instead, that would be awesome and so much different. He could have hidden the body and continued with his acting career and his awesome classes with Mr Keating. Other option would be if Neil instead of killing himself, he stole money from his parents, pay the school, or apply for a scholarship and maintain the DPS and deny its existence.  If Mr. Keating had never come to Neil’s life, he would have certainly not commited suicide, he wouldn’t have dared to answer his father that many times, and keep pushing him to let him become a proffessional actor.

I believe, as the word says, a snowy setting with “cold” snow and skyes, makes the scene or movie much more; sad or depressing, in the end for example it makes a great help to show the sadness Neil’s peers carry after his death. Personally I would not like  the movie as much if it have had taken place on sunny California, you would not be as immersed in the movie that way.

I could not upload this sooner because I wasnt able to finish until the weekend because every website said “server down please try again later” so the movie could not be displayed