To me, this movie is perfection.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Boring. Sounds like a frankstein with teenager movie and cult movie parts

The acting in "Dead Poets Society" is very good all around. The plot is an interesting one. It's the type of story that Robin Williams liked doing for much of his career. His characters mostly are far from the ordinary, usual, or everyday people. Often, they are played for the sympathy of the audience. And, that's okay - to an extent. When the character is a hero who does something for the good of others, or thinks of others, he is the proverbial "good guy. One thinks of such films in which Williams starred. "Awakenings" of 1990 was a fine movie, as was "Patch Adams" of 1998. Williams was superb in "Jakob the Liar" of 1999. But is his John Keating such a person in this film? It's one thing to encourage students to be themselves, to become original, to pursue their dreams. But without the attention to those students, their characters and situations, the teacher ducks responsibility for himself or herself. Then, his uniqueness or difference in methods is really more self-centered. It's not a true interest in the students for their welfare and well-being. The end of this film is melodramatic, and a way for the students to overcome their disgrace at lying. It never is clear why they would need to be off the hook for anything themselves. Obviously, the institution wanted to find a scapegoat, and the father wanted a culprit. Keating seems to accept the class salute at the end as a good sign and squaring of the students with him. But that doesn't remove his complicity. How much guilt did he feel or show for what happened? Would a teacher who really cared for his students have not been more aware and interested to see that something so drastic as this didn't happen to someone in his class? Would such a death have ever occurred, had he not encouraged his students to be bold, to challenge authority and family?This is one film in which Williams could have played a character who owns up to a failure in responsibility. Instead, one is treated to a tutor who is put upon for being unjustly dismissed. Was his career more important than the life of any one of his students? Where is the justice when a student takes his own life?

Robin Williams was mainly known for playing in comedies and it was one of the few dramas in which he is showing another side of his acting skills. The other characters have also become stars since then, thanks to their talent to make this film a classic.

It's with a sad sense of irony that one watches the film today, knowing that Robin Williams took his own life at the age of sixty three a few years ago. No one can truly know what personal demons another person faces daily to bring about such a tragic event. His suicide defied all rationality to anyone who followed his career and he is sadly missed.I think everyone deserves a teacher like John Keating at least once during their time in school. I came close, there was a teacher in my high school who was as well regarded as Mr. Keating but I was not in one of his classes. Yet he was a personal favorite and always took the time to chat when the opportunity presented itself. Insisting that one learns to think for themselves is probably the most valuable lesson any teacher can inspire, and when that lesson takes hold, you have the triumphant acknowledgment that that teacher is not only a capable instructor, but a valued human being as well.I've seen this film a number of times and it always manages to impress. You can see the young men of Welton Academy mature as students and as individuals over the course of the story. The death of Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard) certainly strikes a discordant note, but serves to dramatize the inner turmoil one faces when forced to accept outcomes that don't come from the heart. It was unfortunate that he could not seize the day in his own good time, while attempting to conform to his father's accepted principles of Welton - 'Tradition, Honor, Discipline and Excellence'. There should have been some room left over for Humanity.