Dead Poets Society (1989)

	Directed by: Peter Weir	COUNTRY USA GENRE Drama NORWEGIAN TITLE Dagen er din RUNNING TIME 128 minutes
	Produced by: Steven Haft Paul Junger Witt Tony Thomas
	Written by: Tom Schulman

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
John Keating	Robin Williams	½
Neil Perry	Robert Sean Leonard
Todd Anderson	Ethan Hawke
Knox Overstreet	Josh Charles	-
Charlie Dalton	Gale Hansen	-
Richard Cameron	Dylan Kussman	-
Steven Meeks	Allelon Ruggiero	-
Gerard Pitts	James Waterson	-
Dr. Gale Nolan	Norman Lloyd	-
Mr. Perry	Kurtwood Smith

Review

This goody-goody picture about an unconventional English teacher who awakens a "passion" in his prep school students through literature and poetry was both a commercial and critical success at its time of release, hailed for its dramatic power and Robin Williams’ performance. But if you can sit through it without feeling unpleasantly, almost suffocatingly manipulated – not to mention rather cheated – I applaud your tolerance. The script, by Tom Schulman, is so in love with its own perceived sophistication and intellectualism that any concern for truthfulness is flimsily brushed aside. And the director, Peter Weir, never lets his young cast breathe and create discernable characters in their own right. Although Robert Sean Leonard and Ethan Hawke look great and demonstrate hints of talent in their parts, their minutely controlled performances reveal them to be puppets for Weir’s melodramatic agenda. And the ever so sympathetic Williams is his willing adjutant.