Dead Poet Society

770 Words4 Pages
Theme: Rebellion the film “Dead Poets Society” produced in 1989 by film director Peter Weir, tells the story of an English teacher at a highly conservative and autocratic boys' school, who inspires and persuades his students away from conforming to the traditions through his unique teaching styles. Throughout the duration of the film, Mr. Keating leads the students he teaches in a new direction of personal excellency. This process includes with new ways of learning techniques, teaching the students to be their own person and influencing the Dead Poet Society on the group of students, which eventually leads the students to rebellion against the school tradition. Peter Weir uses a number of film techniques to develop this theme of rebellion in the film. When the audience first see the school grounds during the opening section of the film, we are confronted with the sturdy stone structures of its buildings, high interior walls and ceilings, shown in high angle camera shots, which emphasises the power and the authority of the school. Mr Keating rebels against the school traditions through his unique teaching methods, such as the scene in his first day of class where he tells the students to rip the pages out from textbooks, close up shots of the ripping are shown in this scene which indicates the students initial rebellious action against the schools traditions. Mr Keating believed that the students should develop their own responses to poetry through teaching in dynamic and inspirational ways such as asking the students to kick soccer balls while shouting poetry. Stark angle shots effectively capture the sense of dynamism in the scene where Keating leads his students to stand on the desk to take a different perspective, high angle shots give a powerful vision to the viewer to consider repositioning and gaining different perspectives. Mr Keating teaches the
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