Review of Dead Poets Society (1989) by Nick O — 09 Mar 2011

For a good hour and 40 minutes, "Dead Poets Society" made me gag. I wished this movie would be as gone and buried as the writers that inspired one true-life teacher at Vermont's Welton Academy to whisper dreams of dancing sugarplums in the keen heads of his English class.

Peter Weir has made a wide variety of films, from grand scale epics ("Master and Commander: Far Side of the Universe") to quietly surreal ("The Truman Show"). Watching "Dead Poets Society", nix a few interesting camera twirls, Weir's mark was vague but missing overall -- until the movie's finale, when things turn into a gripping and disturbingly understandable (not to mention well-acted) nightmare whose dance of death is one sure to keep parents up at night. Weir builds paranoia so well that when it folds on itself you don't see it coming, especially when the damaged pieces end up crawling back so close to home.