This American drama was released on June 2, 1989. It was directed by Peter Weir and the screenplay was written by Tom Schulman. The movie received an Oscar for Best Screenplay. The cast includes
the following actors :Robin Williams as John Keating
Robert Sean Leonard as Neil Perry
Ethan Hawke as Todd Anderson
Josh Charles as Knox Overstreet
Gale Hansen as Charlie Dalton
Dylan Kussman as Richard Cameron
James Waterston as Gerard Pitts
Norman Lloyd as Mr. Nolan
Kurtwood Smith as Mr. Perry
Carla Belver as Mrs. Perry
Plot summary:
This movie displays a well-reputed and strict school named Welton Academy where only boys are allowed to study. A new boy gets admitted to the school whose name is Todd Anderson and he is paired as a roommate with Neil Perry who is one of the best students in the school. In a short period of time, Todd Anderson becomes good friends with Neil Perry’s friends.
A teacher is teaching in a class where he uses a very old method of teaching where the students have to tell exactly what he has written. Students reading there follow this method without any question and with full discipline. After that, it is shown that the next teacher enters the class who seems to be an English teacher and it is his first class in that very class. He enters the class whistling from the front door and leaves the room from the back door. All the students get amazed at him and look at the back door and he asks them to come out with him. So everyone follows him outside. After they come out, he first says,” O captain, my captain” and asks the student if anyone knows where the words are taken from. No one replies so he himself says that it is Walt Whitman who wrote the line for Abraham Lincoln. He explains what it means and everyone laughs.
Now he asks one of the students to read a poem. After that he tells the Latin word ‘Carpe diem’ and asks for the meaning. One of the boys replies that it means ‘seize the day’ and the teacher again asks the students why the writer used the line. One of the students light-heartedly replies that the reason may be because he was in a hurry. The teacher declines the reason and explains that the writer used the line to depict that one day our hearts will stop too and we will be all cold and we will die, each one of us will die. And hence carpe diem means to live each day, to live every moment.
Now he shows photos of some old students who are no more in this world and he too was a student from the same school and he survived. He adds that there is no freedom of thought in this school and the students are taught just like the machines.
In the next class, the same teacher Keating asks Perry to read the introduction page. Perry reads it very well. Now Keating tells everyone to rip the page off. All the students get surprised and ask him once again to make sure they heard right. Keating once again tells them to rip that page off. All of them do so with confusion. When everyone is tearing the paper, the silent class becomes noisy and as a result a teacher from the next class comes to ask why there is so much of noise. Keating had gone to bring the dustbin. That teacher after looking at Keating tells him that he thought he was not there. Keating now explains why he told them to tear that page. The reason is that there is a formula to rate a poem in that page and it is not correct and adds that poetry is something that they cannot rate. Keating also adds that we don’t write poems because it is beautiful but rather because we are humans and humans are full of passion. Law, business, and engineering are necessary to sustain life but poetry keeps us alive.
Keating now takes students from one of the classes to the courtyard where he asks three of the students to walk differently. When they walk, all the other boys start clapping. Mr. Keating asks them why they started clapping and the boys reply that we need acceptance in our lives. Keating is actually teaching the student the real way of living life. Now the strict headmaster who was looking at the students tells them to not break the rules. Now the students get to know that during Keating’s time, they had a group called the dead poets society but actually no such groups were allowed in that academy. They restart this society once again. They go to hidden places like caves and recite their poems and their thoughts. But the school is unknown about all these. Time flies and due to the way of Keating’s teaching and the dead poets society, a huge transformation is seen in the thoughts of students and their way of living life.
In all these, Neil discovers that he is very good at acting and he even wants to joat a play at his school. But his father doesn’t allow him to do so. On the other hand, Keating is teaching in a class where he stands at a table and asks the students why he is doing so. One of the students replies that he is doing so to look taller. But he replies he actually did this to look from a different perspective. After that, he asks all of them to stand there and have a different look.
One day Keating asks each of the students to come forward and speak something. Todd Anderson looks a little hesitant to come. Keating asks him to say the word ‘yawp’. He hesitates at first but finally tells it loudly after Keating motivates him. He asks Todd to speak whatever came to his head when he saw the picture on the wall. Todd gets hesitated at first but Keating calms him down and as a result he is able to generate a really beautiful poem. Each of the students gets amazed at him.
In the same school, there is another student named Charlie too. In a school magazine, he posts an article saying girls should study in their school too. And he posts the article by the name of the dead poets society. This makes the principal very angry and he calls Charlie to the office. He angrily asks Charlie the name of students who are involved in this society. But Charlie doesn’t take the name of even a single student. This makes the principal angrier and he starts beating Charlie in a very inhuman manner. But hens also Charlie doesn’t speak a word.
As a result, the principal tells Keating to make students understand that they cannot question the authority like this. Keating teaches them to understand the result before stepping into anything. Neil’s father comes to him to tell that he can’t take part in a drama. Neil tries to convince him in the best way possible but he can’t do so. Neil goes to Keating where he says that he should definitely do what his heart tells him to. He should prove to his dad that he definitely loves acting. So Neil decides to perform there. During his play, his father arrives there and eventually, he tells Neil that he has removed him from Welton and has admitted him to a military academy where he will prepare to go to Harvard and become a doctor. Neil becomes helpless, he can’t take that and commits suicide. Hence his father thinks that someone definitely was brainwashing his son and hence asks the principal to find it out.
On the other hand, one of the students from dead poets society, Cameron puts all the blame on Keating he does so because he wants to escape the punishment from being a part of the dead poets society since the principal has already known that the society exists and the members are too. Cameron even tells the members of the dead poets society that they should blame Keating for all this. This makes Charlie angry and as a result, he punches Cameron and due to this he gets rusticated from the school. On the other hand for all the allegations Cameron has put on Mr. Keating, a report is prepared and everyone is made to sign there. Todd Anderson says that he doesn’t want too but since he is helpless he signs too.
Mr. Keating is thrown out of his job. And now, the principal has started teaching English. He asks one of the students to read the introduction page but since they had already torn it off, he tells that they had torn the page. So the principal gives him his own book to read. And at the very moment Keating is seen leaving the classroom since he was taking his belongings out of the class. Todd Anderson gets up and tells him that he doesn’t know whether Mr. Keating will believe him or not but they were made to sign forcefully. The principal gets angry and warns him to not speak even a single word and asks Mr. Keating to leave. But as Mr. Keating has reached the door, Todd gets up on the bench and starts telling “O captain my captain”. This was something Keating taught them and hence Keating stops for a while. And now half of the class students get up turn by turn in the same way. Keating becomes happy looking at the bravery of the students. The principal, who thought he has won by removing Keating out of the school because he thinks that he disturbed the four pillars of the academy, now, feels that he has lost. Keating had taught the students that they should call him ‘O captain my captain’ only when they think they have the courage in them. So he becomes happy looking at their courage to stand for truth, to stand for originality.
0 comments: