Flick Chart Nights 4
The Dead Poet's Society
Dir. Peter Weir
DoP John Seale
Last night I showed this for our fourth Flick Chart Night, my roommate Cam hadn't seen it. Its my #7 All-Time Favorite. And this is exactly what a favorite film should be. This is yet another example of how wonderfully I am affected by film. When it was over I wanted to run out of the house and all the way across country, instead I went to a bar in Venice Beach and heard one of the most incredible, strike that, the most incredible bar band I've seen. They were great, and essentially plaid my Punk/Post Punk Ipod Playlist for their set list. Anyway, back to the film,
Williams delivers such a triumphant performance which helps the film earn its saccharine but incredible ending. When Ethan Hawk mounts his desk and utters those amazing words, forever shattering his self doubt and fear, leading those boys into manhood I get all teary eye'd, and its not dusty, its just packed with so much raw adolescent emotion. I'm 27 and I still remember exactly what it was like to be told to my opinions were worthless until I earned them via some degree. I remember putting my fist through my father's office door when I couldn't articulate my self with him, which was because for a large part of my life, my father nurtured the notion of giving my brother and I the room to be free thinkers, except for when it infringed on him, so he could spout off anything he wanted and tell us to think what we wanted, until he disagreed or we disobeyed his largely archaic code of parenting. He and Neil's father would have gotten along really well there for a few years. Then, when I started applying to college, it all changed, no longer was my father a tyrant, something had happened, and we began to see eye to eye. But man, did we have some epic father/son battles. They make Lord of the Rings seem like child's play. And this film so perfectly captures all of this, and bottles it like an elixir. I want to ramble on and on, but I've already left the point in the dust. Basically its one of the greatest films ever made, and I have Peter Weir to thank for it. I still think he should have directed the Harry Potter films.
Grade A+