Define and sum up all positive and negative aspects of the film mentioned in the article. Reviews

'DEAD POETS SOCIETY'

Every so often the film industry pays lip-service to literature: Dead Poets Society, directed by Peter Weir, is such a film. It might be compared with such offerings as The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Educating Rita. This film is set in Welton Academy, an American public school (i.e. a private school) in 1959, and deals with the impact on the highly traditional institution made by John Keating, a charismatic teacher of literature, played by Robin Williams. By taking literature seriously and getting the boys to follow suit his influence proves disruptive, not to say devastating, and the film makes us reconsider what has always seemed a curious fact of life: that there is something a bit odd about the academic centrality which traditional and repressive societies have accorded to protest art. Once it was Catullus and Aristophanes; in modern times it has been Byron, Shelley, Blake, DH Lawrence, Joyce, etc., all studied for GCSE and A-level. And hardly anyone seems to worry; perhaps the examinations are thought to reduce all possible danger.

To some extent the film is a vehicle for the brilliant virtuoso Robin Williams, best-known for his manic performance in Good Morning Vietnam, where he blasts the air-waves with verbal napalm. He ranks with Barrie Hum­phries as one of the great inventive ad-libbers, and it seems a pity to confine geniuses such as these to anything resembling a script. In fact Robin Williams is kept fairly well in check in Dead Poets Society, and there is only a brief appearance of his true talents when he imitates a number of Shakespearean acting styles. But "his charisma is on display, and he makes a very plausible job of creating a certain kind of odd­ball schoolteacher. In the end he has as disas­trous an effect on his charges as Muriel Spark's Miss Jean Brodie, since one of them commits suicide, frustrated that his father has put the kibosh on his acting ambitions.

The character played by Robin Williams sets out to revive a secret society — The Dead Poets Society — which he had belonged to when he was a pupil at the same public school years before; it involved going to a cave in the woods at night (infringing lots of school rules) to read poetry.

The film sounds promising enough, but I was profoundly dissatisfied with it. The retreat to the cave had possibilities, but the producer made very little of the poetry that was actually read there. It reminded me of a public school frater­nity rite rather than an enlightening or spiritual experience. Some of the literature was exotic, but the film isn't — except occasionally, where the poetry being read has the effect of an up­-market sex-aid. The possibility that literature might encourage a kind of idealised homo­sexuality (the possibilities are present in Amer­ican as well as British public schools) was probably too dangerous for the film's makers to develop.

And there are doubts about the teacher, who is nicknamed 'the Captain' (after the Whitman poem 'O Captain! my Captain!'). He is a leader, purveying values in competition with those of the school authorities but it is important to remember that he is operating as a leader rather than as a mentor wishing to influence his pupils by more indirect and subtle means. One has the impression that the production team approved of him, yet a certain number of question marks must hang over any teacher who manipulates his pupils in such a fashion. The boys struck me as a group rather too easily led; when I was at school charismatic teachers, when they made their rare appearance, usually appealed to a part of a class rather than to everyone; there would always be bolshy and unco-operative youths who would see through the tricks and keep a surly distance.

The film's most memorable moment is when the teacher makes the boys tear out the mis­guided textbook preface on the judgement of poetry. No need to worry: it is a 'public school', so no harm is being done to public property.

Bernard Richards

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14