Dead Poets Society
Carpe Diem, friends! The three of us all remembered the iconic lines and moments peppered throughout Dead Poets Society, but not much else. It turns out there's a pretty good explanation for that.
Peter Weir's film is a stacked deck in terms of its cast (especially the Oscar-nominated performance of Robin Williams), but does it actually engage with any of the ideas it espouses in its numerous sentimental platitudes? And does that ultimately even matter if there are so many other aspects of this that work?
Topics include: the truly bizarre notes the studio had on how to improve the script, the type of career Robert Sean Leonard seemed destined for in the late 80s, the importance of establishing a clear audience identification character in a story like this, the response to Williams' performance at the time, actors who find out they've been cut from a film at the very last minute, and much more!