Movie Review: Dead Poet's Society (1989)

We  can act like a robot, but we can’t act like an individual.

- John Keating

At the moment you step into the University, you will realize that “The Dead Poets Society” is now the story of your life. The movie itself shows the reality of the educational system we have been part of. We often think of the idea that we use the book to learn. We follow every single detail of it. We talk about every single idea in it. But we often don’t realize that the most important part of learning is explaining our own thoughts, using our words, voicing out. This is what Mr. Keating did in his English class.

The character of Mr. Keating is what I really admire in the movie. Everything about him is truly amazing and different, different in a good way. The movie reflects the idea of “academic freedom”. Since, I am now one of the thousand students of Polytechnic University of the Philippines, I can really feel the deepness of this reality. Perhaps, I haven’t really understood what is “learning” and what is “education” until now.

Mr. Keating gave me an idea to find my ways to do so. John Keating said: “I always thought the idea of education was to learn to think for yourself.”  What can knowing everything bring to us?  Knowledge, being an intellectual or being a professor.  Can it even bring these to us?  We can be intellectuals or we can know everything that was taught to us, but being an individual is something different.  Education of an individual is not that simple.  We  can act like a robot, but we can’t act like an individual.  Being that individual needs some things:  your own words, voice etc.  These are what make us an individual and when we become an individual we can graduate from our schools.

He is a man of his own principles. Even though, some of his colleagues criticized him for doing such “stupid” methods of teaching. He still did what he thinks right for his students. He insists that stupidity is irrelevant to his unique and “true” meaning of teaching. It tackles the traditional system of the education which seems to be universal but now “not working”. The figure of Mr. Keating is what exactly I wanted to be as a professor in the future. He sees everything in a different perspective and views. He considers his students when he teaches. He doesn’t decide for himself only. He shares everything.

Schools like Welton without Mr. Keating are really boring institutions to learn at. In my opinion, students are just taught to be bookish, not to be intelligent in these kinds of institutions. The students in his English class are so fortunate to encounter a man of right values about learning. Even though I didn’t get the chance to be part of his class, I am too way so grateful to be part of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines. The story is parallel to our university’s principles wherein around the four corners of the organization, we can express our thoughts and practice our rights as students.

Another important idea in the movie is about the concept of parenting. Some parents dictate everything into their children. Some parents give their own standards of right and wrong. They are the one who make a complete draft of their children’s future. This is a usual story that leads for students to fail and to shift to their “passion”. Students usually follow their “reasons” because their parents say it to do so. The character of Neil, is a perfect imagery of this life. His father is one of them too. I get to sympathize with Neil in the movie. I also had this experience that I chose my major not because I’d love it, but because I tried to meet the expectations of those people around me. However, it is an isolated case because my high school teachers and our principal influenced me to do so.

Neil says, “For the first time in my whole life, I know what I wanna do!  And for the first time, I’m gonna do it!  Whether my father wants me to or not!  Carpe diem!”

I feel like empathizing with his bit of success as he decided what he things good for himself for the first time. It is usually difficult for some students like Neil to break the cycle and getaway form the chains of their superiors, it may include their parents, other professors, and even peers. This movie features the true value of learning, the true learning process and the reality of the unbreakable truth. – Carpe Diem!