Dead Poets Society

 Dead Poets Society

My favourite movie would have to be Dead Poets Society (1989) written by Tom Schulman and directed by Peter Weir. This movie follows a group of school boys in an all boys private school called where they find a deep connection to literature through their new English teacher and his passion for the subject. These boys engage with the difficult situations that come with ageing but they rely, support and help guide each other through the hard time, most of the time. This movie is very much a coming of age story that channels all emotions through various ways and is incredibly moving.The cast includes the icon Robin Williams as the English teacher (John Keating), the other leads are Ethan Hawke and Robert Sean Leonard as Todd and Neil. The rest of the group of boys are played by Gale Hansen (Charlie Dalton), Dylan Kussman (Richard Cameron), Allelon Ruggiero (Steven Meeks) and James Waterston (Gerard Pitts). The way this film makes me feel is so overwhelmingly beautiful and tragic, I have never experienced such a range of extreme emotions from a film before. I felt such a close connection to every character which made it sort of interactive and made me very emotionally involved. After watching the movie for the first time I felt so empty and full at the same time, it was a meeting of the two and the feeling is inexplicable. This film is a coming of age which i personally find to be one of my favourite genes as how much i can relate and connect to the character very easily especially Neil as he carries people pleaser traits and putting other opinions before his own which i relate to highly and so seeing Neil’s story play out was very depressing for me and took a few days to fully recover but the characters are so human i imagine it is hard for anyone to not connect or find an aspect the resonates. Throughout the film there is the constant underlying theme of ‘carpe diem’ which stands for seize the day, this phrase is used in the movie and it inspires the boys so the course of the movie states to do what you want and feel is right regardless of what society or people of authority say which takes the boys on very different paths as seizing the day does not mean any one thing but the message stays clear and true throughout the whole film. One of the reasons the boys relationship felt so natural and real would be thanks to Weir’s decision to have all the actors dorm together so that they could bond and it worked so well that the cast look back at that film and only have good things to say, especially Robin Williams who says it was one of his favourite movies he did. Overall this movie  is my favourite because of the unmatchable way it makes me feel through the incredible actors, the deep and relatable plot line, the human feeling behind the whole movie and the emotions it draws out of me. Safe to say the movie is an emotional rollercoaster.