Dead Poets Society

“O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;”

Those words of Walt Whitman uttered by Robin Williams in Dead Poets society have I’m sure been uttered millions of times today around the globe as we remember the rich and generous talent that was Robin Williams who so sadly took his life today.

I’ve loved much of what he brought to the screen since laughing as a teenager at Mork and Mindy. Repeatedly viewing Mrs Doubtfire without and then with our own children. So much so that the film and Mrs Doubtfire feel like members of the family, like “she” was for at time our Nanny.

For me whilst Good Will Hunting was his Oscar movie and showed something of the depth and skill of his acting it is Dead Poets society that always springs to mind when I think about what my favorite movie might be.

I was thinking about my first viewing, and I’m pretty sure it was when away with some male friends for a lads weekend. We put it on for late night viewing – it quieted us.

I remember intentionally waiting until my kids were individually of an age to “get it” and watched it with each of them. First time with my eldest, probably aged 12 or 13, we ate pizza and she watched it through and said nothing – then 2 days later “Dad the film the other night, it was really good wasn’t it” – result! Not just a story but a performance and tale that reaches your soul. She often will read a book or watch a movie now that touches her in a similar way and immediately messages me with “you’d love …..Dad”, I always remember that dawning in her that art is more than a pretty or entertaining image that her first viewing of this movie illuminated.

I’ve just read Whitman’s Poem again and it’s heartbreakingly beautiful (listen to me, with Sylvia Plath on my poetry shelf photo and Leonard Cohen on my current play list), and it surprised me how different it sounded to me 40 years on from reading it at school and 20 years on from reading after watching Dead Poets Society. Even art that we are familiar with can transform as we do.

So sad that anyone could feel the urge to take their own life, but so grateful for the joy he brought to the lives of so many with what he brought onto the screen and into our hearts.

That the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.
That the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.

Carpe Diem – Seize the Day

Nanoo Nanoo