Dead Poets Society (1989) on Netflix
In the fall of 1959, Todd Anderson starts his junior year at Welton Academy, rooming with Neil Perry. Their new English teacher, John Keating, tells the boys to seize the day.
- Netflix4.0/5
- IMDb8.1/10669,317 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes84%
Trailer
Plot summary
Welton Academy, an Episcopal boarding school for boys in Vermont, is where Todd Anderson starts his junior year in the fall of 1959. Neil Perry, one of the school's top students, becomes his roommate, and he meets Neil's friends. Their new English teacher, John Keating, teaches the boys the Latin expression carpe diem and urges them to seize the day. He has the boys stand on his desk to demonstrate looking at life differently and tells them to tear the introduction out of their poetry books. Keating's methods attract the attention of the strict headmaster, Gale Nolan.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Dead Poets Society (1989)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Early notes on the script from Disney suggested making the boys' passion dancing rather than poetry, as well as a new title, Sultans of Swing, focusing on the character of Mr. Keating rather than on the boys; both were dismissed outright.
- Jeff Kanew was originally hired as director and had envisioned that Liam Neeson would take on the role of Keating, with Dustin Hoffman, Mel Gibson, Tom Hanks and Mickey Rourke also starring.
- Weir stated that he hid a half-day's filming from Disney executives so that Williams would have free range to use his comedic improvisational skills.
- Robin Williams cracked so many jokes on set that Ethan Hawke found it irritating, yet Hawke's first agent signed with him after Williams told the agent that Hawke would "do really well".
- Filming at St. Andrew's happened mainly over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays to avoid disrupting the school, storefronts in Delaware towns were stripped of all modern conveniences, and Weir asked the young cast not to use modern slang even while off camera.
- Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles feature prominently in the music video for "Fortnight" by Taylor Swift, from her eleventh studio album The Tortured Poets Department, as a nod to the similarity between the titles of the film and the album.
- After Williams's death in August 2014, the hashtag "#ocaptainmycaptain" began trending on Twitter, with many fans paying tribute to him by recreating the "O Captain! My Captain!" scene.
