Every once in a while, a movie comes along that makes you think. Sometimes they make you think about what kind of food you want to eat that night. But sometimes, they make you think about life. About the choices that you’ve made and the ones that you could’ve made. Who you have helped and those you haven’t. What you’ve said and what you could’ve said. You find yourself asking, “How have I affected others around me?” Movies like these are difficult to come by, and extremely difficult to get right. But, when they do, they are magnificent.

Around the beginning of seventh grade, two friends and I got together and formed a movie club. We compiled a list of over 500 movies we needed to watch before high school ended, although we eventually weeded it down to around 350. As we were creating this list, I was taking suggestions from my parents and other relatives. Surprisingly, one movie I had never heard of kept popping up, Dead Poets Society. I thought it was a movie about people discovering poetry by dead poets. And although it is somewhat like that, there is really so much more. I was reminded of it again when I watched the movie Aladdin with my sister. I was laughing out loud at Robin Williams’ hilarious performance as the Genie. I got to thinking, “What else was this guy in?” And there it was, Dead Poets Society. So of course, I had to watch it, and boy am I glad I did.

A misbehaving student named John Keating established the Dead Poets Society while  

he attended the strict, traditional prep school, the Wellington Academy. He begins teaching english there in 1956. In his first class, he shows his pupils that his class will be like no other, telling them to rip out the introduction of their poetry textbook. He tells them that the people who wrote their textbooks are “Sending forth armies of academics, going forward measuring poetry. No. We’ll have none of that here…Now, in my class you will learn to think for yourselves again. You will learn to savor words and language. No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.” His teaching inspires the students to follow their dreams and ambitions, but to also re-form the Dead Poets Society. A group of the boys get together in the woods outside of the school at night and read poetry together. Although it seems stupid at first, they soon learn of the power of poetry and it, along with Mr. Keating, leads them all to follow their own paths and dreams. For some of the students, the paths are not the ones their parents and teachers have planned for them. All of the boys are able to follow their dreams, all of them except one.

I must warn the audience that the final scenes are incredibly sad and shocking, so watch out for them. They are still amazing and some of the best I’ve ever seen, and definitely some of the most emotional. I don’t want to spoil it for the audience, but I feel I must say this; This movie is the definition of bittersweet and makes you want to cry in rage, joy, and at the sheer emotion of the final scene. After watching it I now know why after almost 20 years, my parents still remember it. The movie is like a poem, it is a perfect balance of emotion, insight, heartbreak, pain, joy, and meaning. It is truly beautiful.

Poetry is not something that should be measured and analyzed scientifically, but it should be measured and analyzed emotionally. This statement on poetry echoes in the theme of the movie itself: that life shouldn’t be measured and analyzed in numbers and statistics, but rather in your quality of life; how much you got out of it in excitement, in enjoyment, and in love. Your choices affect all those around you, and in turn affect the whole world. How will you choose to spend your life? In the words of Mr. Keating, “Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.”