DEAD POETS SOCIETY…
Wait, wut!?
Yes you heard me right. Dead Freakin’ Poets Society.
Now normally you wouldn’t see George running around with his hair on fire worrying about the cancellation by the Left of a movie that encourages critical thinking and the beauty of poetry, which features a beloved American actor who committed suicide, and which celebrates the idea of thoughtful resistance against the scourge of rich white professors and their rigid ideas about private school education as a launching pad for lucrative careers and nothing more. But I saw something in the news this week that forced me to rethink my position.
Walt Whitman… WALT FREAKIN’ WHITMAN… Uncle Walt… the silent hero of the film, is being cancelled. No more “I sound my barbaric yawp over the rooftops of the world” for you, peasant… you must find some poet of color to celebrate instead.
We’ll also have to lose one of the greatest movie moments of all time… when Professor Keating (Robin Williams) pulls his stage-shy student (Ethan Hawke) in front of the class, directs him to stare at a photo of Walt, and compose an original poem based on what he sees (the sweaty-toothed madman!). I won’t spoil the ending in case you haven’t seen it (and if you haven’t… what’s wrong with you!?), but what follows is one of the most inspirational and emotional depictions of the power of creative expression to destroy rigid orthodoxy that has ever appeared on film.
In fact, much of the story revolves around the ideas and the words of Walt Whitman, whom Keating obviously adores… can the movie even exist without “O Captain! My Captain!“? Probably not. Somehow Ethan Hawke shouting “O Kendi! My Kendi!” as he climbs up on his desk just doesn’t pack the same oomph.
When you combine the film’s exultation of Whitman, Shakespeare, Thoreau, Frost and other imperfect White writers along with its reverence for critical thinking and general mistrust of top-down authority, you can eaily imagine a world where Jeff Bezos, either on his own or on orders from whomever is running the pudding-brained Censor In Chief, decides that it’s time to hit the nuke button on his desk and remove DEAD POETS SOCIETY from circulation.
As always, I implore you to buy these great films on DVD (hard copies can’t be deleted) while you still can. Someday I fear we’ll be passing them around in dark alleyways like the Dissidents of Prague.
#Resist… and Carpe Diem!
NOTE: This is actually the second time we’ve discussed DEAD POETS here at The Congress. You can read George’s original DPS post here. It’s quite good… if I do say so myself.