JULES BLOG

SPOILERS FOR DPS AHEAD, WATCH FIRST!!

As depressing as the ending of the film is, and trust me it’s devastating, it's hard to ignore the rest of the film’s optimistic message.

Dead Poet’s Society, released in 1989, is about a group of boys in the 1950s who attend a rich private school in New England, and their new English teacher who inspires them to look at life through a new lens, one that pushes them to “seize the day”.

Throughout the movie we see the characters grow closer to each other because of Mr. Keating’s class. At the start, many of them are wholly defined by the expectations placed on them by their school and families. Todd is shy and stuck in his brother’s shadow, Neil feels trapped by his father’s strict plans for his future, Knox is awkward and unsure of himself. But as they begin reviving the “Dead Poets Society” (a sort of club founded by Mr. Keating and his friends when they were students, they create a space where they can actually be themselves. Their confidence and friendship grows, they are becoming romantics, and poets, and taking their lives into their own hands, even if they have to sneak out to do it.

The relationship between the boys and Mr. Keating is what gives the film so much of its heart. Beyond just teaching, he’s showing them that their thoughts, feelings, and dreams matter. He’s encouraging them to question the rigid world around them and to trust their own voices. For teenagers who feel constantly told what to do, that kind of encouragement is what gets them to make most of what's around them, he's telling them to make something of their lives.

Despite the tragic ending with Neil ending his life after his father disapproves of his acting choices, threatening to send him to military school, it’s still a positive message. Neil never once lets his father take his dreams away from him, in his final act of “seizing the day” he follows his passion to the end. He refuses to live a life that he’s not proud to live.

That’s part of why Dead Poet’s Society works so well as a comfort movie. It’s emotional and painful, but at its core it’s about friendship, self-expression, and the idea that even one person believing in you can change the way you see your life. The movie acknowledges how hard growing up can be, especially when expectations feel suffocating, but it also reminds you to take advantage of the life you have, and seize the day.