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Hello, and welcome, if you happen to chance on this blog.
First of all, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Katie, I'm 25, married, and I love watching movies. I have little-to-no internet notoriety, so if you think I am "that" Katie, I'm probably not. I wanted to write this blog because I do, as previously noted, love watching movies, and I often have opinions about them that I'd like to record, even if it's just for me to read.
I want to make it clear that this will not be a spoiler-free blog. I will primarily be talking about movies that are old. Whether old means the 1940s or the 1990s to you, I will probably be getting into the whole spectrum. If I do talk about movies that are currently in theaters, I will make sure to put some sort of "spoiler alert" tag on them. If you do not want spoilers on a certain movie, please do not read the entry about that movie. Including this one.
The first movie (appropriately) for my blog is Dead Poets Society. This movie was released in June of 1989, and starred Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, and Ethan Hawke, among many others. It was directed by Peter Wier, who also directed such illustrious films as The Truman Show and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. He also directed Green Card (a fabulously awful tear-jerker of a chick flick starring Gerard Depardieu and Andie MacDowell), but we won't hold that against him.
The film is set at an all-boys boarding school called Welton Academy for Boys. The boys in one particular English class are encouraged by their teacher, Mr. Keating (Robin Williams) to "Seize the day!" but also to find inspiration and their own voice by reading and writing poetry.
That in and of itself is a beautiful sentiment, and since I saw this film long ago, I am now convinced that the introduction-ripping scene had such an effect on me that I never could bear to analyze poetry and have there be a "right" answer. If that is true, then I changed my major in college from English to History because of this film.
The controversy in this movie comes from the scene where Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard - yum), one of the students, takes his own life because of complex circumstances which are all based upon his father not letting him live his own life, and trying to control him. I've heard it said that it was a plot device that Mr. Weir used to pull at our heartstrings, and attempt to make the movie a classic. I disagree. This scene is what sets the movie apart. Without it, it is merely another movie about teens with a mentor. The only conflict without this one is minor in the large scheme of things, and I believe the depth of the movie would be lost without it.
Inspired by this movie, and a personal need for change, I am starting this blog. It's time. I hope you, too, are inspired by this movie and bravely find your own voice as they did.
2 comments:
Robert Sean Leonard is yum. He was the reason I started watching House obsessively. We watched Dead Poets Society in tenth grade, when I was in the not yet painful part of the delusions that plagued me in high school, so the themes prevalent in the movie had a very deep impact on me. My English teacher at the time was someone with whom you had to agree if you wanted a good grade in the class, and I remember her almost coaching us to accept that Neil's suicide was cowardly and not at all keeping in the spirit of nonconformity (when compared with any of the kids who didn't commit suicide), and I was mildly upset. Obviously she can't have us thinking suicide is in any way acceptable for ourselves, but I wanted to give Neil a little more credit.
I did think it was mildly odd that I said someone was yum and then talked about them killing themselves, but it's all good, because you understand. :) Wow, that's awful that your teacher said that! I mean, no, he shouldn't have done it, but ... I dunno, what she said puts a bad taste in my mouth.
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