Directed by: Peter Weir
Produced by: Steven Haft, Paul Junger Witt, Tony Thomas
Written by: Tom Schulman
Starring: Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke, Kurtwood Smith, Gale Hansen, Norman Lloyd
Music by: Maurice Jarre
Cinematography: John Seale
Editing by: William M. Anderson
Distributed by: Touchstone Pictures
Release date: June 2, 1989 (1989-06-02)
Running time: 128 minutes
SUMMARY
The film tells the story of a traditional, expensive and very strict boarding school with the
arrival of a new teacher which follows a completely opposite ideology reffering to the education
system to the schools’. This new proffesor, with his unique methot, tries to make the students
able to think by themselves, enjoying literature and poetry and encouraging them to “Seize
the day” becoming very popular between the students and truly influencing their lives. The
movie emphasizes the different lives of a group of teenagers who follow the steps of this new
teacher, Mr Keating, reopening the dead society club and to a point where something tragic
takes place.
TWO DIFFERETN APPROACHES TO EDUCATION
In this film we observed two different approaches to education, the first one is representd in
the movie by the older teachers, who try to educate their pupils in a traditional way using
books, and simply giving lectures. At the end of the film we are able to appreciate this way of teaching after the school rehires the old literature proffesor. On the other hand, we find Mr Keating’s method in teaching which pretends to make fully interactive classes where kids are able and allowed to learn while having fun. For example as we can see in the film, instead of ordinary classes, Mr. Keating takes them outside and while playing the ball teaches them the true meaning of poetry.
Mr. Keating’s teaching is “unorthodox” because he doesn’t follow the traditional patterns of education. It is new , fun and is found by the students interesting and entertaining.
WHAT IS A GOOD TEACHER?
First of all we should define each word separately, good and teacher.
Good means “Being positive or desirable in nature” whereas the word teacher designates a person in charge of other’s education. Literally the sentence “good teacher” talks about a person who makes learning for others easier and pleasant.
But there are many senses for those words, being a good teacher is managing to awake the internal curiosity that every single human being’s got inside about a certain topic or theme. A good teacher knows how to make knowledge stomachs hungry about eating wisdom, in order to, afterwards, feed them with the ideas demanded.
A good teacher knows perfectly how to make classes pleasant, enjoyable and fun without losing the didactic purpose which brought him there.
But above all, a good teacher must say every morning: “Hellouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu Girlssssssss”
CARPE DIEM
Carpe Diem means “seize the day”, live as it was your last day. It means acting without thinking because life is short.
Carpe Diem comes from Latin and it is a literary topic.
In the movie we can find examples ilustrating how the Carpe Diem affects the lives and behavior on the boys when Neil Perry tries to achieve his dream of becoming an actor, when Knox Overstreet fight for win Chris’ love and when the boys continue with the dead poets society although they have to break the rules.
