Three Questions with Responses The Film Cast Cast Notes Quotes from the Film
Poetry from Dead Poets Society Essay on Romanticism Vs Realism Reviews
The Cast of Dead Poets Society
Robert Sean Leonard (Neil Perry) Born: Feb 28th, 1969 His first starring role was in the "classic" My Best Friend is a Vampire. Since DPS he has had small roles in Mr. and Mrs. Bridge and The Age of Innocence as well as more substantial roles in Swing Kids, Much Ado About Nothing, Married to It, and Safe Passage. Recently he has been in Killer: A Journal of Murder, in which he plays a prison guard who befriends an unlikely inmate played by James Woods. He can currently be seen in the HBO film, In the Gloaming, directed by Christopher Reeve. Upcoming films include Prairie Fire and The Last Days of Disco
Robin Williams (John Keating) Born: July 21st, 1952 Beginning his career as a stand-up comedian, his first big break came when he was cast as the alien in Mork and Mindy. Although most people identify DPS as his first serious role, Williams proved his acting ability early on with such films as The World According to Garp, Moscow on the Husdon, and Seize the Day. Memorable films since then include Good Morning Vietnam, Awakenings, The Fisher King, Aladdin, and Mrs. Doubtfire.
Ethan Hawke (Todd Anderson) Born: Nov. 6th, 1970 DPS was one of his first roles. His first came in Explorers where he co-starred with River Phoenix. Since, he has starred in a number of well-received films including White Fang, A Midnight Clear, Alive, Reality Bites, and Before Sunrise. A recent starring role was in the futuristic Gattaca. Coming up soon is an update of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations.
Josh Charles (Knox Overstreet) Born: Sept. 15th, 1971 After DPS he starred in the TV film Murder in Mississippi, the elegantly titled Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, Threesome (with Lara Flynn Boyle whose scenes were mostly cut from DPS) and the recent HBO film Norma Jean and Marilyn. In his latest film, Little City, he stars with Jon Bon Jovi and Penelope Ann Miller. Gale Hansen (Charlie Dalton, aka Nwanda) Since DPS, he has starred in a few minor films, including The Finest Hour with Rob Lowe. He was last seen in the short-lived TV series Class of '96 which aired in 1993.
Allelon Ruggiero (Steven Meeks) Since DPS, he has acted in the never to be forgotten Mannequin 2: On the Move and in the past year has shown up in a small part in Thinner as well as the Denzel Washington film, Fallen. He also starred in and directed a short film entitled Lost which was shown on PBS's Independent Images series.
James Waterston (Gerard Pitts) Son of actor Sam Waterston (The Killing Fields, TV's Law and Order). DPS has been his only film role to date.
Dylan Kussman (Richard Cameron) Since DPS, he has had roles in Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken and Journey of Honor. He has not had any film roles since 1992
Alexandra Powers (Chris Noel) Her first role came in the TV film The Day After. She also had a small role in Mask (with Eric Stoltz, not Jim Carrey) and the TV series L.A. Law and 21 Jump Street. After DPS she starred in The Seventh Coin opposite Peter O'Toole and had small roles in The Player and Rising Sun. In 1994 she played Tonya Harding in the TV movie Tonya & Nancy: The Inside Story. Her latest roles have been in Bruce Willis' Last Man Standing and the Walter Matthau / Jack Lemmon comedy Out to Sea.
Kurtwood Smith (Mr. Perry) Born: July 3rd, 1942 Perhaps still best known for his role as the psychotic bad guy in Robocop, he seems to often pop up in supporting roles as various advisors in such action films as Rambo III, Under Siege II, and Broken Arrow. He also was almost unrecognizable in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country as the President of the Federation.
Leon Pownall (Mr. McAllistar) He has acted in a number of Canadian films including Termini Station, Bye Bye Blues, and Angel-Square. He can also be seen in the TV films Spencer: The Judas Goat, How the West Was Fun, and Hostile Advances: The Kerry Ellison Story.
Norman Lloyd (Mr. Nolan) Born: Nov. 8th, 1914 He began his career with a couple films by Alfred Hitchcock, Saboteur and Spellbound. He is perhaps best known for his role in the TV series St. Elsewhere. Since DPS he has acted in The Age of Innocence (with Robert Sean Leonard) and a TV remake of The Omen. He has also appeared in numerous TV series including Murder She Wrote, Wiseguy, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Wings.
The opposite of romanticism in this movie is realism. Instead of the idealized vision of life presented in romanticism that was compounded of hopes and feelings, realism tended to be a mimic of life.
A brief summary of the terms used in this report
•Romantic (Madman) = one who submits to romanticism, while opposing realism
•Anti-romantic romanticist= one who controls one's passions and submits to realism half the time, while the other half of the time, that individual submits to his passions and controls his realistic tendencies. This person can usually distinguish which is called for in each situation.
•Realist (Traditionalist) = one who one who submits to realism opposing romanticism
**NOTE: Because they are opposites, you cannot control one while being submissive to the other. This explains why I believe Todd is the main character, and all other characters are obstacle characters.**
•This movie is about the struggle that takes place between the two extremes, and the way that each character deals with it. Neil, Nwanda, and Knox all go overboard into extreme romanticism, while Cameron adamantly stays on the side of realism. Todd is the only one who finds a middle ground between the two, which I'm going to call "anti-romantic romanticism" for lack of a better term because it is based in romanticism (of feeling and free thinking), but there is also a sense of reality. By the end of the movie, Todd is able to express his passions, but he does not try to live in the ideal world of his imagination like the others do. He does not try to assume for himself an entirely new identity like Puck for Neil; Nwanda for Dalton; or even "Mutt Sander's brother" for Knox (at Chris' party).
Also, in this analysis, I'm going to use the point of view that the main character is dynamic while all other characters are just static and obstacle characters that just help emphasize the main character's change. Obstacle characters are try to pursuade the main character that their way is best and that he should follow their philosophy in order to solve his problem. In this case, I'm going to say that the obstacle characters can be grouped into the Realists and the Romantics. Conceivably, you might be able to make an argument using drama theory to claim that there are other main characters besides Todd, but since the purpose of this page is to deal with romanticism vs. realism, I'm not going to discuss who else could be a main character, rather how each SYMBOLIZES romanticism and realism.
•Todd is dynamic, he goes from realism to anti romantic romanticism
•Neil is always a romantic (madman).
•Knox is always a romantic (madman).
•Keating is always a romantic although he has learned that he must at least try to incorporate some traditional views into his life in order not to go overboard. Hence, although he is a romantic, he tries to teach the philosophy of the anti romantic romanticist.
•Nwanda is always a romantic (madman).
•Cameron is always a realist (traditionalist).
•Meeks and Pitts are hard to judge because their characters aren't as developed as the others. They may have understood Keating's teachings to a degree, but they didn't really have the opportunity to prove it.
•Therefore Todd MUST be a (or in my argument, the) main character, he is the only one whose character undergoes a change in the movie. Everyone else is the same as they started. Just because Neil died, that does not count as change, he was essentially a dead man at the beginning of the movie.
Also, my interpretation of the character is the overall one - while I do agree that in some instances, they did act in a way different than how I categorized, I meant that given Keating started out being a romantic and the movie ended with him still being a romantic. The school started out being realistic and also ended being realistic. I was contracting the characters to Todd, who started out being a realist and finished being "anti romantic romantic," hence a character change. I mean even Nwanda warned Knox about controling himself with Chris, and I would not classify him as anything other than romantic. Those terms are how I would classify each character overall.
•Something else to think about (from a response I received) - "The school represents tradition and order. Is it more than coincidence that it looks like a monastery? I always thought that the scene where they first sneak off to the cave at night looked like a group of monks with their hoods pulled up. Perhaps this is intentional.
Here is why: In the monastery the monk submits to tradition, and discipline. His task is to serve God and worship Him with heart, mind, and soul. This means denial of self and leaning to control the passions through ascetic discipline (prayer, fasting, sacraments, etc). The boys leave "the monastery" where the passions are forced to remain in check. They must flee the cloistered walls in order to pursue their unruly passions. Mr. Keating plays the part of the wise spiritual director and corrects them when he has knowledge of them going overboard. He tries to teach them through their failings how to be wise."
•The movie tells of 7 characteristics of Romanticism from Walt Whitman's "Songs of Joy"
The tune that Keating whistles is Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. He whistles this tune one the first day of class to lead the students out of the classroom, and before he tells them of the Dead Poets Society. Beethoven's 9th Symphony is the "Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee" song played during the soccer game when they exalt Keating. Beethoven's Concreto 5 is played in an extra scene where the students are sitting blindfolded at their desks listening to this piece. These are all romantic scenes.
There seems to be a theme for what music is played when. For example, the "Midsummer" music (I still don't know what it is called or who it's by) seems to always be played in relation to romanticism (scenes concerning the Neil and the play and also scenes about Knox and Chris). The music played during the kicking the ball scene is Handel who is Baroque. Baroque describes "anything irregular, bizarre, or otherwise departing from established rules and proportions." (Britannica) Beethoven is borderline classicism/romanticism - depending on which part of his life the piece was composed, and Tchaikovsky is romanticism.
Addition by G. Jeffery...It is interesting to note that McAllister sees himself as: "Not a cynic...a realist. 'Show me a man unfeted by ..... and I'll show you a happy man.'" "Only in his dreams can man be truly free," says Keating. "'Twas always thus and always thus will be." McAllister asks if Tennyson is the author of those lines. "No, Keating," is the reply. "Print!" cries Weir.
Again at the end of the film, when Nolan begins instructing the class, Cameron tells him that they "jumped around a lot" (stressing the Keating method to go against the rigid structure of the school) and had covered "the Romantics". Nolan asks if they had studied the Realists, and the answer is, of course, in the negative.
QUOTES
Keating: "We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, 'O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless--of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life? Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.' That the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?"
Keating: "O Captain, my Captain. Who knows where that comes from? Anybody? Not a clue? It's from a poem by Walt Whitman about Mr. Abraham Lincoln. Now in this class you can either call me Mr. Keating, or if you're slightly more daring, O Captain my Captain."
Keating: "Now I'd like you to step forward over here. They're not that different from you, are they? Same haircuts. Full of hormones, just like you. Invincible, just like you feel. The world is their oyster. They believe they're destined for great things, just like many of you, their eyes are full of hope, just like you. Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they were capable? Because, you see gentlemen, these boys are now fertilizing daffodils. But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it? --- Carpe --- hear it? --- Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary."
Neil Perry: "I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life. To put to rout all that was not life, and not when I had come to die, discover that I had not lived."
Question One: Would Neil still have eventually committed suicide if Mr. Keating had never come into his life?
Kilbeggan: Neil would still have committed suicide, even if he had not met Mr. Keating. He would have followed his father's wishes and lived an unfulfilled and miserable life. Eventually, his life would have no meaning and he would have ended it.
•Jay: If Mr. Keating had never come into his life, he would have never have gotten his hopes up about acting. I think that without Keating, Neil would not have ended things the way he did, but he would have gone on to live a long life, possibly still under the hand of his father - the hand holding him down. It is probably better that he ended things this way.
•Jonathan: Neil would still have committed suicide if he'd never met Mr. Keating. He felt trapped by his father, and nothing could change that. Neil tried to find someone to save him, he lied to Mr. Keating about talking to his father and knew Keating realized he was lying. Neil wanted Keating to stop him, but Neil realized that no one could save him from who he was. •Drreamerr: I don't think Neil would have killed himself. Without Keating he would have not have had the courage or even known what living truly is.
•A White Rose: I don't know if Neil still would've killed himself had Mr.Keating not come into his life.Certainly he would have never gone against his father. However he would also never have had a taste of freedom from his father, therefore he wouldn't have known what he was missing. Maybe he would have eventually went his own way but I think either way he felt suicide was his only way out.
•Lucia: It's possible, he was a romantic. And most of all he really knew what he wanted.
•Joan: Neil would have committed suicide with or without Keating's presence in his life. It's just a matter of time. Neil has that great passion for life but what is life without the freedom to persue his own aspirations? What is living if everything has been planned before you've lived it ? Man isn't a machine and he dosen't run a program. Neil would have no choice but to terminate that program his dad is running on him.
•mattyboy: Yes, he still would have committed sucide but maybe not the physical kind. His life was a suicide in a way. The joy of child being crushed by the demands and pressures of the authority figure. His father was killing him and by not being able to do what he felt was important to himself he was slowly killing himself by not having something he enjoyed in his life.
•Question Two: Why exactly did Neil take his own life?
•Kilbeggan: When Neil started acting, he felt he had found his calling. His father refused to allow Neil to follow his desire to act. The father had Neil's life all mapped out for him with no room for anything else. Neil was trapped and he felt the life his father had planned for him was not worth living.
•Jay: Neil was frustrated and stressed and felt misunderstood. His suicide could have been an act of spite against his father, as if to say "this is one thing you can't make me quit". Or it could have been a catharsis for the demons created by the bleak prospects that his father had created, rather than stopped. Ironically, Neil killed himself because he, like me and a lot of other teenagers who feel restricted, wanted to live.
•Rachael: I believe that Neil committed suicide because the creed of the DPS was to live life to the fullest, Carpe Diem, and when he realized that he hadn't and was letting other people live his life he couldn't handle that.
•Erin Santee: If Neil would've killed himself down the road, which I believe would have been the case, he would've done it for different reasons. Keating introduced him to the ideology of, "To live deep...and not when I had come to die, discover that I had not yet lived." He took his life because he realized that it was better to die after living, then to die after a long life of unhappiness. There is a certain dignity to that, that is the embodiment of "Carpe Diem."
•Lori: Neil took his life because he was at a dead end. After he played Puck in the school play, he was in his glory, doing exactly what he wanted to do. But his controlling father wanted to thwart Neil's aspirations and dreams by forcing him to go to medical school. He saw no way out, of course it was the 1950s and he couldn't blatantly disobey his father to such a high degree. He was, afterall, from an affluential home and image was important. Mr. Perry would never have his son be an actor--unheard of! Neil saw he had no options, and in reality I don't think he did. I imagine I would've felt helpless and very much out of control of my own life. He had no say in any decisions. Honestly I don't believe Neil would've taken his life if he had never met Mr. Keating, but this is not necessarily a good thing. On the contrary. Mr. Keating supported Neil as a father should support a son...to pursue his ambitions and dreams. If Mr. Keating hadn't been in Neil's life, then I don't think Neil would've even been in the play. Mr. Keating just served as a fire under Neil's rear; he encouraged his fancies. And he bought out Neil's spirit and helped to bring Neil's dreams to realization, if even for a brief night that ended up tragically.
•Drreamerr: Entrapment. Neil realized that down the path he was being forced down he could never think or do things for himself. Anything that meant anything to him was trampled by his father. Death was his only escape.
•Lucia: He felt it was the only way to be free.
•Anonymous: Neil killed himself because he had tasted what it was to live, and because when his father said to him, "What do you feel? Tell me what you feel?" he both realized that his father would never understand and that he was not able to speak the truth. I think if he had only fought back instead of freezing up and saying, "nothing, nothing," his life would have been confusing and he might have despaired, but he would not have killed himself. Realizing that he didn't have the character and courage to stand up to his father, and not anticipating finding it soon, he could not stand the thought of living that was not really living. He believed in the sacredness of life communicated to him by Mr. Keating, and he chose to "live free or die." What a tragedy.
•Question Three: Could Neil have found another way out of his predicament? Was suicide his only answer?
•Lucia: I don't think it's the only way, but oviously it was the only one he figured out. For my point of view he could make out his point over his father's and do what he really was good at, "acting".
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Last updated on 10th May 2000