DEAD POETS SOCIETY Explained: Oh Captain, my Captain!

Quoting this line was a tribute to the late actor and referenced one of the most cherished performances from his filmography. Although it had been thirty five years since the premiere of Dead Poets Society, fans still felt a strong emotional connection both to the film and to Williams’ character, John Keating. Thirty five years since Peter Weir’s work hit theaters, and its impact has not diminished in the slightest.

The film’s characters are affected by the same influence as the audience. They are students at a prestigious all-boys prep school, whose motto, in contrast to the four slogans emphasized during the formal opening of the school year, could be summed up in one word: snobbery. The lessons are terribly dull, and the entire faculty seems to give the impression that its members have never been young and were born wearing suits. Memorizing for exams, ironclad discipline, and the elimination of any individuality — this is the daily life of the boys at Welton Academy. Unexpectedly, a spark of hope arrives in the form of the aforementioned John Keating, a new English teacher. Despite the school’s official requirements, he not only introduces unconventional, much friendlier methods of teaching, but most importantly, he wishes to teach the students one thing: independent thinking.

The boys quickly become captivated by their charismatic teacher, portrayed by Robin Williams, who creates a character that is cheerful, occasionally even funny (the actor has several short scenes where he expertly uses his comedic talents), but above all, evokes great respect. Keating treats his students not entirely as equals, but certainly not from the proverbial pulpit; a telling moment in this context is when, following his own example, he allows his students to climb onto his teacher’s desk. The idea is to look at the well-known, seemingly dull world from a new perspective, but the symbolic meaning is just as clear: a student is also a human being, no less worthy than a teacher, who is not the master of slaves. Keating inspires affection in his students and becomes a source of inspiration for them, but he is not the center of Dead Poets Society. The most important for Weir are those young men.

The director selects a few boys from the class. Among them are the shy Todd (Ethan Hawke), hopelessly in love with the seemingly unattainable girl Chris (Alexandra Powers), the rebellious Charlie (Gale Hansen), and the overwhelmed Neil (Robert Sean Leonard), whose father has high expectations for him. Weir devotes attention to each of them not only to showcase the full spectrum of teenage problems, an essential feature of coming-of-age films, but primarily to show how Keating’s motto carpe diem can manifest in different aspects of life. Make your lives extraordinary, says the teacher, urging his students to free themselves from the chains of others’ expectations (not only institutional ones, but also family ones), stifling conventions, and harmful conformity. For Neil, this freedom would be the pursuit of his dream of an acting career, for Charlie, it would mean unwavering loyalty to his beliefs, but in the case of Knox, courage means trying to get to know the beautiful Chris, and for Todd, it simply means gaining self-confidence and rejecting the false, negative image he sees in the mirror. This is the full power of Dead Poets Society: Weir doesn’t show young people achieving greatness, becoming famous personalities, or discovering a cure for cancer. For each of them, courage can mean something different, even something as seemingly small as believing in oneself.

The director achieves such strong emotional engagement from the viewer on several levels. Dead Poets Society is an extraordinarily optimistic film, one of the prime examples of feel-good movies, but it could not affect emotions so strongly without its diverse main characters. I have already mentioned the key decision to dedicate the right amount of time to them, but this would have been for nothing if the group of boys had been played by weak actors. And one must admit that the young cast of the film holds its own against Williams, whose career was gaining significant momentum at the time, and for his role in Dead Poets Society, he even received an Oscar nomination. Especially notable is Robert Sean Leonard, who never quite reached the heights of a large career, but reappeared fifteen years later with his role as Dr. Wilson in the TV show House. Here, in his best scenes, the young actor perfectly balances on the line between the forced smile that his environment expects of him and the complete resignation and breakdown when his character realizes how far he is from fulfilling his dreams. There is not a hint of falseness in his smiling face when, together with his friends, he casts off societal constraints in favor of uninhibited freedom.

Weir’s characters are an inseparable part of the mood he builds, but the director also bases it on the construction of individual scenes. One sequence that particularly stands out is the scene of the suicide of one of the boys, caused by the final destruction of hope, followed by the events that unfold. The initially unsettling, somewhat surreal music by Maurice Jarre quickly gives way to an eerie silence, aided by the minimal use of dialogue. The deceased’s friends are accompanied only by the sound of the wind and their own crying. Weir also employs subtle, yet significant techniques in more cheerful shots, such as when the boys jump on the beds around the room, and the camera, placed at the center, spins ecstatically with them, or even in emotionally neutral moments, when, for example, the lens again spins in place, but this time filming crowds of students descending the stairs, in a montage compared to a flock of identical birds.

The most famous scene of Dead Poets Society is its ending. John Keating is blamed for the tragic death of one of the students because getting rid of the unconventional teacher is very convenient for the school administration. Independent-thinking teenagers? Absolutely not! But this youth will not be deceived again. Faithful to the principles instilled in them by their exceptional mentor, the boys stand on their desks, repeating both the gesture he taught them and the words he passed on to them at the very beginning: Oh Captain, my Captain. This is the entire film captured in a single scene — perfectly executed, giving a positive boost, and, above all, emotionally overwhelming.