Review of Dead Poets Society (1989) by Yi B — 07 Nov 2011

I'm the first to admit that I get a little sappy when writing about Dead Poets Society. I first saw the film during my senior year of high school, and 16 years later it's a movie that is still with me, one that I go back to time and time again.

There's a little bit of formula at work here: A stuffy rep school, 1950s, a collection of impressionable young boys, and a teacher that will change their lives. But there's something at work that turns what could have been a forgettable, droll piece of saccharine storytelling into a classic. Part of it is Robin Williams as Mr. Keating, a young English teacher that uses poetry to teach them how to "Sieze the day," to suck the marrow out of life, as Thoreau put it.