Sunday, September 7, 2014

A Robin Williams Tribute

Hello people of the Interwebs!

I'm back! And with that, I have to mention a recent tragedy. Recently, we lost a comedic treasure, Robin Williams. This man was a genius, with a mastery of acting and comedy. There's really not much more I can say to do justice to him, so, I'll move on to my review. In honor of Mr. Robin Williams Himself, I'm reviewing: Dead Poet's Society.

Image Credit to IMDb

WARNING: Spoilers Ahead

This movie is beautiful. It's hard to put into words how this movie makes me feel, but I'll try.

The story is simple, but beautiful. If you don't know it, here it is. A prep school, called the Welton Academy, hires a new English teacher, named John Keating, with unusual teaching principles. He shows his students how to really look at poetry, and at lie, teaching them to make the most of their lives. This inspires the students to restart a "club" of sorts, which was originally started by Mr. Keating when he went to Welton, called "The Dead Poet's Society". This secret society is where students went to recite poetry by the greats, and even some of their own poetry. Mr. Keating also inspires a few single students. 

In the climax, one of the students, Neil Perry, decides that he wants to act, but his father disapproves. Neil performs anyway, but his father gets very upset, and pulls him out of Welton. After being told that he can't live his own life, Neil kills himself. This leads to an investigation into Mr. Keating, where he is subsequently fired. 

Now, this really spoke to my heart. I've always wanted a teacher like Mr. Keating. His lessons, even though in a fiction universe, in a movie, will stick with me. The ending is filled with melancholy, which is really the only way that it could have ended.

Robin Williams is just such a fantastic actor, and his performance in this is no exception. It shows just how well he can do serious roles, as well as comedic ones. He's joined by some other actor's who were fairly new to the acting business, such as Ethan Hawke and Robert Sean Leonard. Both of these actors were just sublime, and gave such amazing performances. The rest of supporting cast is not to be forgotten, as they were fantastically acted as well.

I now consider this movie to be a masterpiece of 20th century film. The beauty and complexity of the scenarios and the characters crafts a feeling of wonder. I'm sure that I will have a spot for it in my heart for years to come.

This is the Teenage Critic, singing off.

May Robin Williams Rest in peace.

1 comment:

  1. Sorry about the lateness of this one. The post sort of... un-published itself.

    ReplyDelete