Review of Dead Poets Society, directed by Peter Weir

If you’re new here and stumbled on this blog through the mythical and magical powers of the Internet, or because of whatever the search engines decided was going to show up today when you Google something, welcome! My name is Ashley, and I made this blog in addition to my author/writer portfolio because I wanted to remember all of the books, shows, and movies I was coming across throughout the years.

I read and watch a lot, and I used to work as a professional film critic on the side when I was in graduate school. While I loved going to film festivals and ploughing through 500 pages of readings a week, on top of my regular fiction and nonfiction TBR list, I wasn’t remembering everything at the end of the day.

So I started writing little reviews and posts to keep an archive. It’s also pretty fun to return to a book or movie after a few years, then come to this website to see what I thought about it originally. One could call this a mind map, especially as you can literally track changes in the way we think throughout a set period of time through this kind of work.

As I suddenly became unemployed in January 2025, while waiting for my visa to come through, I decided to spend some time off and see what I could do with this blog. It was extremely unexpected and I am so grateful to have had the money to be able to do this, as most people cannot afford to take off work for this long.

Today’s blog post is dedicated to a series that I’ve been working throughout recently: revisiting old films I’ve watched over the years. I’ve been going back to old television series and movies lately for the nostalgia factor, but also seeing how my opinions have changed throughout the years (so what I was saying earlier).

I don’t remember when the first time I watched Dead Poets Society was, but it’s been a very hot minute. I wanted to come back to this movie because I could vaguely remember some details but not the entire plot. I could also remember some aspects of my reaction, but going into this it felt like a completely new film.

Let’s get into the review! I know I have a tendency to ramble during introductions, so let’s keep it somewhat short and sweet.

An English teacher at an elite boarding school inspires his students through poetry.

This film takes place in the late 1950s, specifically in 1959, at an all-boys boarding school in Vermont. It’s one of those classic boarding schools for the rich and wealthy, and one of our main characters is Todd, who is just starting junior year. His new roommate is Neil, and together they form a friend group with Knox, Richard, Steven, Charlie, and Gerard.

On day one of classes, they have a new English teacher: John. He’s completely different than all of the other teachers at the school, and he encourages his students to go after what they want, or seize the day. He asks them to stand on his desk, promoting the idea to look at life differently, then requests they tear out the introduction of their poetry books.

Turns out he wants them to think critically about literature, rather than using a formula. He wants them to be their own individuals, rather than copies, but these methodologies capture the attention of the headmaster, who’s a stickler for the rules.

After doing some digging, Neil realizes John was a part of the Dead Poets Society when he himself was a student, and he wants to revive the society. The friend group leaves campus (against the rules, if I may add), and they go and read poetry in a cave together. With John’s advice, they decide to live life differently than they did before, and on their own terms.

Neil starts to pursue his newfound love for acting, while Knox specifically tries to date Chris, a cheerleader who happens to be family friends. Neil is given the role in a local Shakespeare play production, but his father disapproves of it, as he wants his son to study medicine and not the arts. Todd is helped by John, who realizes he has a lot of literary potential.

But when Charlie publishes in the school newspaper that girls should be admitted to the school, the headmaster punishes him violently and demands him to reveal the other members of the society. He doesn’t tell the headmaster, but then the headmaster goes to John to warn him. John then tells the boys to be careful and assess the risks of their decisions.

When Neil prepares for opening night of his play, his father finds out and demands he quit. John tells him to stand up for himself, but his father removes him from the school when he does that and puts him in the military school. Neil then kills himself with his father’s gun, leaving devastating consequences behind. The headmaster investigates, and Richard sells out the other group members and implies John is to blame for what went down.

Charlie hits Richard when he tells him what he did, and the boys are forced to sign a letter confirming everything that Richard claimed to the headmaster lest they be expelled. John is fired, and Todd, while John packs up his stuff, tells everyone what happened. The students stand on their desks and say “O Captain!” to him John, and he thanks them before leaving, realizing that they listened to his advice.

Overall Thoughts

I think Dead Poets Society is a decent movie. It’s not entirely my cup of tea, especially considering the story is set inside of a male boarding school, but I think there are some very relevant themes that could be applicable beyond the setting. It’s a bit of a coming of age tale, but it’s also terribly tragic. I do wonder what these boys would grow up to be like, or if they lost the sense of defiance they had fostered at the film’s end.

Poetry teaches us to be more alive, and while I do think it’s romanticized in this film, I hope it’s through movies like these that remind us why we consume and talk about literature. I feel like that in my own life I’ve noticed people reading less and less, unless it’s for being performative and appearing like a book girlie.

Go see this if you’re interested in the film and haven’t already! I think it’s fine, but I don’t know if I would return to it again in the near future, especially considering the sheer amount of movies that exist in the world.

Follow me below on Instagram and Goodreads for more.