DEAD POETS’ SOCIETY
...creative. However, because the group eventually led to students committing uncouth activities, the group was frowned upon by the administration. The boys, despite their warning from Keating, decide to create their own dead poets society anyway and essentially, the boys follow in Keating's footsteps, reading poetry, being creative and eventually, leading themselves to do more non-conformist acts. As school goes on, Neil is inspired to act in a play and against his father's wishes, auditions and gets the part. Todd, on the other hand, is still pressuring himself too much and is not confident about himself. However, his confidence grows as a result of Keating's teaching methods. Also, Knox has decided to pursue the love of a girl, Chris Noel (Alexandra Powers). Each of the boys embark on some sort of adventure of discovery and this sparks their passion for life. But teachers are starting to frown upon Keating's teaching methods and some students' parents are also starting to dislike what Keating is doing to their children. And the film asks us the question of whether it is better to have "lived life" or "dying knowing that you hadn't lived". The film's conclusion is based on this final question. The film's screenplay contains many themes and each of these are clearly depicted throughout the film. The first and most important theme is the concept "carpe diem" or "seize the day". Mr. Keating inspires his students to follow their hearts and move away from being conservative and become willing to take risks. Because the boys' futures have literally been spelt out for them by their parents, they never had the opportunity to think for themselves and with Mr. Keating encouraging free thinking, the boys become risk takers and do what their heart wants rather than what their parents want. Further than that, this film is a metaphor for the battle between conformity and non-conformity. Most of the school and the students' parents are seen as conformists and can be represented as the state society is in the moment. The expectations placed on the students are like the rules placed on society. The students in this film are like most people in society. They follow rules without ever questioning them. By following them, they believe that this is the "right way". Mr. Keating, however, is clearly the non-conformist and being a non-conformist, he defies the rules of conformity and his unorthodox teaching methods portray this view. The film constantly bounces back between the conformists and the non-conformists and how the two views contrast so greatly both in the film and in real life. Another aspect of the screenplay that is so compelling is the fact that the audience can understand the students' admiration for Mr. Keating. The audience know how the students feel because there are teachers that have such a passion to learn and their passion spreads to the students, whose initiative to learn has been reignited by these teachers. Keating is one of these teachers, who reignites the students' passion to learn, most notably that of Neil and Charlie, whose passion for learning go as far as reconvening the dead poets society and their increasing passion to read more and more poetry. With the dead poets society recreated, this gives the boys the chance to let their creativity run wild and furthermore, develop their creative, free-thinking nature that their parents have prevented them from doing. The boys' personalities blossom and its great to watch the boys grow in their creative abilities. This creates a brilliant screenplay and add some wonderful dialogue to the screenplay and an award winning screenplay is created. Oh, and who can forget the ending to this magnificent screenplay? I will not say how the film ends, but all I will say is that this final scene of the film is an extremely emotionally moving moment and also a true cinematic moment. This ending is sure to bring a tear to many people's eyes. Apart from that, the technical aspects of the film are also sound. The editing and cinematography show the posh, lavish surroundings of the school very well. Seeing the seasons change in front of you was a very beautiful sight. The set direction was also brilliant, perfectly depicting the surroundings of a 1950s boarding school. From the dim lighting to the wooden interiors of the dorms to the uniforms and clothes worn by the teachers and students, all of this recreates the 1950s boarding school feel. However, one of the technical aspects of the film that I found particularly brilliant was Maurice Jarre's underrated score. The bagpipes that pump out the school song add to the sense of tradition within the school. But there is something very poignant about the sound of the bagpipes that drive the song and this is even more evident when the strings play this theme. Its an emotionally powerful musical score and perhaps one of the best in Jarre's long career (he did the scores to films like Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago). The acting in this film is another huge plus, with Robin Williams filling in the role of John Keating with perfection. Williams is the kind of person that has the charisma, vivaciousness and affable nature that the character of John Keating needs. Williams is simply brilliant. However, just as brilliant as Williams are the supporting cast. Ethan Hawke as the shy Todd Anderson is flawless. Hawke is able to show the innocent nature of Todd through his eyes and his eyes tell a lot. On top of that, his mannerisms convinced the audience that he is a nervous wreck. Robert Sean Leonard as Neil Perry is also exc...