oh captain my captain dead poets society

Or, as Dettmar says, 'while the boys are marching to the beat of a different drum, it’s Keating’s drum.' In one classroom exercise, Keating stands on his desk, and then urges each of the young men to climb up as well so that they can see the world differently - from Keating's perspective. Rather than teaching the students to think for themselves, Keating teaches them to think like him. Dettmar points out, accurately, that Keating, the supposedly genius teacher, is a crappy reader, utterly unaware of the irony in Frost's 'I took the road less travelled by,' turning the nuanced, knowing contradictions of Whitman and the Romantics into chautauqua orations and encomiums of bland uplift. Dettmar of Pomona College recently performed a pleasantly vicious evisceration of the film.

In celebration of 'Dead Poets Society's' 25th anniversary, Kevin J.H.

He has taught us all, students and audience, to join together as one in the worship of nonconformity. Onscreen and offscreen are fused in joyful, righteous contemplation of the great man. Their tribute to Keating, the star teacher, is also our tribute to Williams, the comedian making his transition to serious acting their gratitude to him for inspiration is our gratitude to him for that same inspiration. Pitts, the lovestruck Knox Overstreet (Josh Charles), the scene dragging on and on impossibly as we contemplate each of their young, sad, grateful faces, turned, like ours, toward Robin Williams. Then, one by one, other classmates rise the awkward Mr. 'O Captain, My Captain!' declares Todd Anderson (a ludicrously young Ethan Hawke), the stomp of his feet on the desk emphasized by the soundtrack, his ascent turned into a vertiginous rush by the circling camera. Keating stands with mournful pride in the door of his classroom while his loyal students, one by one, climb atop their desks, defying social convention and the ineffectual whining of their headmaster (Norman Lloyd) in order to bear him tribute. Robin Williams as the disgraced English professor/guru Mr. We'll sit in the back and sneak away as soon as it's over.Īnd I suppose you would promise that this would be the end of it.If there's one memorable scene in 'Dead Poets Society,' it's the last one. You know what would happen if Chet found out? You come with me tonight, and then, if you don't want to see me again, I swear, I'll bow out.

If you don't like me after tonight, I'll stay away forever. Then you wouldn't be here warning me about Chet.Ĭome on, Chris, just give me one chance. Knox, Knox, it just so happens that I could care less about you. Knox, you say that over and over you don't - you don't even know me! Well, you did Chet found out, and it took everything I could do to keep him from coming out here and killing you. Oh, but it's fine for you to come barging into my school and make a complete fool out of me? If they catch you, we're both gonna be in big trouble. Then you have to talk to him before tomorrow night.Ĭhris, you can't be in here. What about the play? The show's tomorrow night! You are not an indentured servant! It's not a whim for you, you prove it to him by your conviction and your passion! You show that to him, and if he still doesn't believe you - well, by then, you'll be out of school and can do anything you want. They're counting on me he'll just tell me to put it out of my mind for my own good. I know what he'll say! He'll tell me that acting's a whim and I should forget it. You have to show him who you are, what your heart is! Now, I know this sounds impossible, but you have to talk to him. You're playing the part of the dutiful son. Have you ever told your father what you just told me? About your passion for acting? You ever showed him that? We- But he's planning the rest of my life for me, and I- He's never asked me what I want! I- But he doesn't know! He- I can see his point we're not a rich family, like Charlie's.

He's making me quit the play at Henley Hall. From the moment we enter crying t-to the moment we leave dying, it'll just cover your face as you wail and cry and scream. You kick at it, beat it, it'll never cover any of us. Y-Y-You push it, stretch it, it'll never be enough. Truth like-like a blanket that always leaves your feet cold.įorget them, forget them! Stay with the blanket. Oh, that's *excellent*! Now, give him action - make him do something! Close your eyes, close your eyes! Close 'em! Now, describe what you see.Ī sweaty-toothed madman with a stare that pounds my brain.

Oh captain my captain dead poets society