Review of Dead Poets Society (1989) by Stuart K — 16 Apr 2013

Directed by Peter Weir, who had been able to break Hollywood with Witness (1985) and The Mosquito Coast (1986) and win critical acclaim along the way, he was then offered a deal at Touchstone Pictures, while he had planned to do Green Card (1990), but when Tom Schulman's screenplay landed on his desk, he knew he had to do it first, it's a moving and entertaining drama, lifted with some brilliant performances.

Set at the Welton Academy in Vermont in 1959, which is a strict, conservative and aristocratic prep school, senior students Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard), Todd Anderson (Ethan Hawke), Knox Overstreet (Josh Charles), Charlie Dalton (Gale Hansen), Richard Cameron (Dylan Kussman), Steven Meeks (Allelon Ruggiero), and Gerard Pitts (James Waterston) get their heads down and work, but when new English teacher John Keating (Robin Williams), who was a student at the academy, comes in, his unorthodox teaching methods somehow entrance the student, which puts him at odds with the other teachers, but the students are inspired by his view on English and poetry.

It's a moving and very well made film, Williams is brilliant as the English teacher, it might be a serious performance, but he has some fun along the way and it shows how teaching should be done, and Weir gets the best out of his young cast as well.