Dead Poets Society
Academy Award × 1·National Film Registry
Rent/Purchase
At an elite, old-fashioned boarding school in New England, a passionate English teacher inspires his students to rebel against convention and seize the potential of every day, courting the disdain of the stern headmaster.
What critics thought
Critics in 1989 were genuinely split on Dead Poets Society: nearly everyone agreed Robin Williams gave a carefully controlled, unusually disciplined performance, but the film around him divided serious reviewers from popular audiences. The central fault line was whether Peter Weir's prep-school drama was genuinely moving or a collection of crowd-pleasing sentiment dressed up as daring — audiences embraced it wholeheartedly while several prominent critics found it dramatically soft and ideologically dishonest.
“Dead Poets Society is a collection of pious platitudes masquerading as a courageous stand in favor of something: doing your own thing, I think.”
Roger Ebert·Roger Ebert Official Website
“Robin Williams' performance is more graceful than anything he's done before [–] he's totally, concentratedly there – [he] reads his lines stunningly, and when he mimics various actors reciting Shakespeare there's no undue clowning in it; he's a gifted teacher demonstrating his skills.”
Pauline Kael·The New Yorker
Genres
Comedy, Drama
Cast & Crew
DirectorPeter Weir
StarringRobin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke, Josh Charles, Gale Hansen
ComposerMaurice Jarre
Dead Poets Society
Academy Award × 1·National Film Registry
At an elite, old-fashioned boarding school in New England, a passionate English teacher inspires his students to rebel against convention and seize the potential of every day, courting the disdain of the stern headmaster.
What critics thought
Critics in 1989 were genuinely split on Dead Poets Society: nearly everyone agreed Robin Williams gave a carefully controlled, unusually disciplined performance, but the film around him divided serious reviewers from popular audiences. The central fault line was whether Peter Weir's prep-school drama was genuinely moving or a collection of crowd-pleasing sentiment dressed up as daring — audiences embraced it wholeheartedly while several prominent critics found it dramatically soft and ideologically dishonest.
“Dead Poets Society is a collection of pious platitudes masquerading as a courageous stand in favor of something: doing your own thing, I think.”
Roger Ebert·Roger Ebert Official Website
“Robin Williams' performance is more graceful than anything he's done before [–] he's totally, concentratedly there – [he] reads his lines stunningly, and when he mimics various actors reciting Shakespeare there's no undue clowning in it; he's a gifted teacher demonstrating his skills.”
Pauline Kael·The New Yorker
Genres
Comedy, Drama
Cast & Crew
DirectorPeter Weir
StarringRobin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke, Josh Charles, Gale Hansen
ComposerMaurice Jarre
Rent/Purchase