Barnes & Noble

Unconventionality and nonconformity are often desirable qualities, but attaining them occasionally carries some risk, especially when the society around you seems to value them insufficiently. That's the message of this earnest, uncompromising drama, which won the 1989 Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and reminded viewers just how effective veteran funnyman Robin Williams could be when applying his considerable talents to a dramatic role. Under the direction of Peter Weir, Williams abandoned his sometimes annoying, hyperkinetic performance style to play iconoclastic English teacher John Keating, who labors overtime to fan the flames of creativity and freethinking in his New England prep school students, most of whom seem destined for Ivy League colleges and soul-deadening careers. Captivated by Keating's ebullience and enthusiasm, outgoing student Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard) revives the aged school's secret club, the Dead Poets Society, and enlists among its members the deeply withdrawn Todd Anderson (Ethan Hawke). The story is predictable up to a point, but it has a shattering climax that even today, more than 15 years after the film's theatrical release, retains the power to shock and dismay audiences. The young actors are uniformly excellent in their sharply drawn characters, and Kurtwood Smith is outstanding as Neil's domineering father, but it's Williams who makes this Society worth joining. The film soars whenever he's on camera, and even the most jaded home viewer will be moved by the influence his character wields over the impressionable students. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

Robin Williams toned down his usually manic comic approach for the successful period drama Dead Poets Society. In 1959, the Welton Academy is a staid but well-respected prep school where education is a pragmatic and rather dull affair. Several of the students, however, have their thoughts on the learning process (and life itself) changed when a new teacher comes to the school. John Keating (Williams) is an unconventional educator who tears chapters of his textbooks and asks his students to stand on their desks to see the world from a new angle. Keating introduces his students to poetry, and his free-thinking attitude and the liberating philosophies of the authors he introduces to his class have a profound effect on his students, especially Todd (Ethan Hawke), who would like to be a writer; Neil ( Robert Sean Leonard), who dreams of being an actor, despite the objections of his father; Knox (Josh Charles), a hopeless romantic; Steven (Allelon Ruggiero), an intellectual who learns to use his heart as well as his head; Charlie (Gale Hansen), who begins to lose his blasé attitude; unconventional Gerard (James Waterston); and practical Richard (Dylan Kussman). Keating urges his students to seize the day and live their lives boldly; but when this philosophy leads to an unexpected tragedy, headmaster Mr. Nolan (Norman Lloyd) fires Keating, and his students leap to his defense. Dead Poets Society was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Williams; it won one, for Tom Schulman's original screenplay. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 786936239911
• Source: TOUCHSTONE / DISNEY
• Region Code: 1
• Editions: Special Edition
• Time: 2:09:00
• Sales Rank: 797

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Good Morning, Vietnam / Dead Poets Society

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