Dead Poets Society: Final Thoughts

When I first saw Dead Poets Society, it wasn’t exactly like I was going into it blind.  I’d seen it referenced before: I knew “Seize the day”, and I even knew the image of kids standing on their desks originated in this film.  I even knew that Roger Ebert’s review was lukewarm at best. What

Dead Poets Society: Facets of Filmmaking

For every film that’s ever been created, there’s a story behind its creation. From pitch to product, writing a script, finding a director and production team, a cast, and everything before, after, and in-between is all part of a huge, collaborative effort to create the final film.  While some projects have simpler stories than others,

Dead Poets Society: Facets of Film

After the script is written, the story worked out, and the characters cast, the only thing left to do in order to make it to theaters is to actually make the film. Which, as you’ve probably guessed, isn’t as simple as it sounds. There’s a lot of effort that goes into the process of making

Dead Poets Society: A Product of the Times

Dead Poets Society is a bit of an odd duck in terms of culture. Produced in the 1980s, Dead Poets Society comes in at the tail end of a decade well-known for its movies centered on the youth.  Following in the footsteps of films like The Breakfast Club, Say Anything, The Karate Kid and more,

Dead Poets Society: The Characters

No matter how good a story is, how great the cinematography, or how subversive the genre-usage, a movie cannot stand without use of characters. Characters are perhaps the most vital element of any story ever told.  An interesting plot helps a movie greatly, but without a use of compelling characters, it falls flat on an

Dead Poets Society: Genre and Themes

Dead Poets Society has no action scenes, no scares, and no fantastical elements.  It does, however, have an emotional storyline, dramatic moments, and a story focused on teenagers, with a few comedic scenes sprinkled throughout the film. With that understanding, there really doesn’t seem to be too many genres that Dead Poets Society can fit

Dead Poets Society: The Story

Dead Poets Society opens in a pretty traditional way: with the first day of school. It’s the beginning of a fresh school year for transfer student Todd Anderson (Ethan Hawke), new, shy kid on the block at Welton Academy, a prestigious prep-school for boys, located in Vermont.  At the opening ceremony, older recruits march through

Dead Poets Society: Legacy and Impact

“Carpe diem! Seize the day, boys! Make your lives extraordinary!” There are very few films that can boast to teach an entire generation of movie-watchers a phrase of Latin, and have them remember what it means over thirty years later. Dead Poets Society was up to the task. In the ‘80s, the late 1950s into

Dead Poets Society (1989) 2 hr and 10 min New unorthodox English teacher John Keating begins work at an all-boys prep school known for standards and tradition.  Using poetry, he pulls his classmates out of their shells, teaching them to use forms of self-expression and how to ‘seize the day’. Drama/Comedy/Teen Rating: PG Director: Peter