By Summer,
What’s your favorite Robin Williams film? If you’re like me, it’s hard to pick just one! I love Disney’s Aladdin, Goodwill Hunting, Night at the Museum, Mrs. Doubtfire (“It was a drive by fruiting.”) and Dead Poets Society.
Maybe it doesn’t take much to excite me, but I AM excited that Dead Poets Society is coming out in Blu-Ray today (January 17, 2012). I remember watching Dead Poets Society for the first time in high school. It was inspiring! I was talking with some girl friends about re-watching it and we got to talking about teachers in our lives who were like the teacher John Keating (Robin William’s character). This proved to me that Dead Poets Society just resonates with people. There is just something about it; I think it has to do with being young and seizing the day … carpe diem. (You know I can’t get away with posting about Dead Poets Society without the Latin!)
If you’re never seen Dead Poets Society it’s about an all-boys preparatory school in the 1959. Their school, Welton Academy, don’t encourage free thinking and prefers to tell students how to think and want to do in order to be successful in life, which really means get into an Ivy League school and have a “noble” profession such as a doctor or lawyer. Of course this is all shaken up when their new poetry teacher John Keating who prefers to be called Captain starts to help some of the boys in his class begin to love poetry, free thinking and creates a true paradigm shift on their lives. A few of these students revive the lost Dead Poets Society of which John Keating was a member of in his days at Welton as a student. Conflict arises as Keating’s unconventional teaching methods are not accepted by other Welton faculty and students. WARNING: There is a teenage suicide in the movie. (In case this is a sensitive issue for you.) BUT the movie is not gruesome and there is no image of the suicide. SPOILER ALERT: The suicide is blamed on Mr. Keating. The school forces the students to tell about the Dead Poets Society they had created in secret and sign a paper stating they blame Mr. Keating. As Mr. Keating retrieves he final belongs from his classroom while class is in session the Dead Poets Society members and other students who respect Mr. Keating stand on their desks and call out to him, “O Captain, My Captain!” (from its names sake Walt Whitman poem).
Other actors you’ll know from Dead Poets Society include Robert Sean Leonard from TV’s House, Ethan Hawke from notables such as Reality Bites (another one of my favorites) and Training Day, and Kurtwood Smith from TV’s That 70’s Show; though other actors will look very familiar from their varied resumes.
Dead Poets Society, which won writer Tom Schulman an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1989, is being released for the first time Blu-Ray for only $20 (1-disc). Dead Poets Society is also being released in High Definition Digital Download also for $20 or Standard Definition Digital Download for $14.99. You can get your own Blu-Ray copy, right now, on Amazon for only $14.99. Copies include the movie as well as Special Features — Dead Poets: A Look Back, Raw Takes, Master of Sound: Alan Splet, Cinematography Master Class, Audio Commentary, and the Theatrical Trailer.
My Mom Start Review Grade of Dead Poets Society in Blu-Ray DVD: A+
About Summer:
Summer is very active in our Local MOMS Club chapter, she is the mother of two adorable active boys, and is always thinking of ways to help others. She is a friend, a wife, and always busy as all mommies are. She is very active on Facebook, addicted to Geocaching and very interested in organic and green living while cooking up a storm











