First of all, this is movie is my all-time favorite, out of all the hundreds of films I have seen. However, every time I mention this film, I have to answer most people”s quizzical looks with "It”s a beautiful little 80s film that stayed in the 80s." After seeing it for the 24th time since I first saw it 5 years ago, on my 13th birthday, I can gladly say that this movie went far and beyond the 80s, and the power and inspiration of the message can be felt every day.
Dead Poets Society is a most underrated film by a most underrated director whose inspiring, uplifting and moral tales firmly grounded in reality are not nearly as appreciated as they should be. Here, we see one of his very personal and cradled projects, and he shows the visual style and concentration on characters in which he is so affluent. His control of the camera and the characters are very strong and very smooth. The cinematography is near perfect, with every shot, along with the editing, seamless. Also very compelling are the color-tones in every scene, perfectly matching the mood and events of the scene. Could you say this is art Absolutely.
Then we have the performances. Robin Williams continues in stride as one who has to-date remained the most touching, heart-wrenching, awe-inspiring comedians with inarguable acting talent （he still remains my most favorite performer on the film screen）。 His Professor John Keating is a man who embodies every professor who you thought was cool and respectable, every person who taught or enlightened you in something out of the ordinary. In fact - dare I say it - he teaches something EXTRAORDINARY! We have the tragically underrated Robert Sean Leonard in his role as the free-thinking catalyst student Neil. Why is this man not a household name/Hollywood heavyweight His roles are always full of inspiration, energy, and tragic emotion that never fail to move an audience. His role in this movie is fresh, unhindered, and never pretentious as the cautionary tale of the movie. And then we have Ethan Hawke in one of his earliest roles as the point-of-view character. The entire supporting cast is very strong, also, providing the foundation and serve as the various emotional ties that further involve us in the story. Josh Charles”s role as Knox Overstreet is a role that almost all guys can relate to wholeheartedly. And of course, all the actors who are in that Dead Poets Society do a fine job.
And lastly, the story. I won”t summarize it since it”s been summarized many times here, but I will say that it is one of the best coming of age stories for not only adolescents, but anyone. I have personally heard from nine-to-fivers who were inspired by this movie to change the situations of their jobs, careers, relationships for the better. I first saw this movie when I was 13, and immediately stamped, crowned and elevated this movie as my all-time favorite. Now that I am 18 and living on my own, with very different concerns than back then, I turn back to this movie over and over again, to find inspiration, solace and of course, entertainment. It is still my all-time favorite, and it still inspires me to seize the day and make my life extraordinary.
死亡詩社英文觀后感（二）
I”m the first to admit that I get a little sappy when writing about Dead Poets Society. I first saw the film during my senior year of high school, and 16 years later it”s a movie that is still with me, one that I go back to time and time again.
There”s a little bit of formula at work here: A stuffy rep school, 1950s, a collection of impressionable young boys, and a teacher that will change their lives. But there”s something at work that turns what could have been a forgettable, droll piece of saccharine storytelling into a classic. Part of it is Robin Williams as Mr. Keating, a young English teacher that uses poetry to teach them how to "Sieze the day," to suck the marrow out of life, as Thoreau put it.
The poetry angle is an interested and unexpected one. And writer Tom Schulman and director Peter Weir have no confusion that the idea is a little corny. Putting a kid in front of the class, covering his eyes, and forcing him to free associate until he comes up with a verse about Walt Whitman Sounds ridiculous, but it works. In fact, it”s one of the most powerful scenes in the film.
That”s because the kids in the film are just as good as Williams is here. Robert Sean Leonard is the ostensible star as Neil, a deeply repressed lad who”s the class president type yet dreams of doing something artistic, despite the insistence by his father （Kurtwood Smith） that he become a doctor. And then there”s roommate Todd Anderson （Ethan Hawke）， an intensely shy young man who”s attending Welton Academy for the first time this year and will be memorably brought out of his shell, fighting all the way, by Keating. The other students of note -- Josh Charles as a lovesick kid and Gale Hansen as the unforgettable rebel "Nuwanda" -- are equally apt.
Ultimately the film revolves around Neil”s story, when he decides for the first time to defy his father and act in a local play -- as Puck, in A Midsummer Night”s Dream, of all things. This leads to a series of catastrophic events that culminates in （spoiler alert from here on out） Neil”s suicide and the scapegoating/firing of Keating for it.
At once uplifting and emotionally crushing, there”s no way to leave this movie without wanting to somehow improve your life and follow Keating”s advice by seizing the day. Every time I watch the film I”m compelled to complete some lingering project, plan a trip, move into a new house, or do something unforgettable. Weir”s direction perfectly captures the 1950s mood -- an era of repression just on the verge of breaking wide open -- and Williams manages to keep his mania in check for the bulk of the film, trotting out an impression here or there when the story requires it.
In recent years, Dead Poets Society has become a curious platform for deconstruction and revisionism. Viewers wonder, among other things, whether Neil was so troubled because he was secretly gay. Whether Keating might genuinely be guilty of contributing to his death. Whether "Sieze the day" isn”t such a great motto after all. I”m not actually supporting any of these ideas per se, but the latter-day ruminating gives the film more weight than you might otherwise think, and it makes the movie all the richer for it.