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How others will see it. Dead Poets Society was a box office hit, mostly due to the presence of Robin Williams, who is well suited for the role of the caring, inspiring, but perhaps dangerously charismatic teacher. The presence of a number of good looking young male actors probably helped fill the theaters with equally young women in search of well dressed, clean cut eye candy.
How I felt about it. Dead Poets Society is an interesting film. It is uplifting most of the way. Our repressed teens see a beacon of light provided by Williams. Perhaps there's more to life than the drudgery of work and conformity after all. Encouraged by Williams, the teens exult at last in being alive. They form a conga line in a cave. How exciting!
But are the kids mature enough to understand the boundaries of revolutionary thought? Believe whatever you like, but don't rub it in the face of a non-believer with authority over you. That's common sense, a quality that most seventeen year olds don't have in excess.
Because this is a movie, our sympathy is with the radical teacher, Williams, and not with the authority figures, who are predictably rigid jerks. Jocks are also stereotyped as stupid, violent, and drunken carousers.
An attempt is made to humanize Perry's taskmaster father (Kurtwood Smith). The father sees himself as a relative failure, and believes that his son can achieve a more splendid career if he sticks to his studies and nothing else. In a way, he cares too much. His refusal to bend ensures his status as an unwitting villain. But the blame for the family tragedy rests with the son. This is an important point that the audience, and the cast, doesn't want to accept.
Williams' days with the prep school Helton were numbered when, on his first day as teacher, he instructs the class to deface the textbook. Williams and Helton are as compatible as fire and gunpowder. Even in his last day, pushed out the door, he quietly encourages further rebellion, even if it means the expulsion of his most ardent admirers. Quite the legacy. It's no glory to fight the law. The law wins, as it always does.
A minor and less interesting subplot has Overstreet chasing friendly cheerleader Powers. Can he win her heart from her subhuman jock boyfriend? Is there a heart to win, or is she just a pretty, vivacious blank slate? Does the dictate Carpe Diem dictate harassment, or making a fool of yourself?
All things in moderation, including the alcohol of free thought. Dream of freedom at night, but submit to the drudgery of the day. You owe it to others as well as yourself.