Ralph Novak, "Dead Poets Society"
in: People Weekly, vol. 31, 23/1989, p. 17
In dieser kurzen Rezension wird der Film "verrissen". Der Anfangssatz mag als Beispiel für den Ton dienen. "Given that this film espouses freethinking, features a noble, good-hearted teacher and focuses on an admirable bunch of teenagers, you’d think only a mean dog of a reviewer could dislike it."
Given that this film espouses freethinking, features a noble, good-hearted
teacher and focuses on an admirable bunch of teenagers, you'd think only
a mean dog of a reviewer could dislike it.
Woof.
Williams plays the teacher, who, in 1959, has just joined the faculty
of the ivyheavy, painfully stuffy Vermont boys prep school where he was
once a student. Williams is, as usual, ingratiating. Like his deejay rap
in Good Morning, Vietnam, his classroom shtik is funny - his version of
John Wayne doing a line from Macbeth is pretty foolproof, after all.
The young actors who play the school's students are almost uniformly impressive,
especially Robert Sean Leonard as the aspiring actor whose father insists
that his son be a doctor; Ethan Hawke, the shy younger brother of one
of the school's star students; and Josh Charles, an introverted boy trying
to pursue his crush on a cheerleader at a nearby coed school. They're
all undercut, though, by silly situations, starting with the instant obsession
for poetry they develop after Williams's first class.
Doing in Williams and his young colleagues are scriptwriter Tom Schulman,
a newcomer, and director Peter (Witness) Weir. By making everything a
setup, Schulman and Weir destroy their film's argument - that an open
mind, freely applied to the world, is the goal of education.
Williams is really doing jokes, not a character; since he has few scenes
outside the classroom, it's hard to evaluate his deeds, so his words seem
hollow. Meanwhile, everyone who opposes the freedom Williams represents
is a straw man stuffed with platitudes and self-righteously knocked down.
That goes for the school's rigid headmaster, Leonard's grim father, a
sanctimonious student (played nicely by Dylan Kussman) and even the jock
boyfriend of the girl Charles lusts after.
The movie ends like a cartoon jalopy braking and falling apart. Leonard
becomes consumed with the theater; this is a 16- or 17-year-old, remember,
saying, "Acting is everything to me." There is a horrible death
(with slow-motion reaction scene) that seems to imply that freethinking
is dangerous after all. Then things abruptly twist back, thanks to more
buffoonish behavior by an authority figure.
Schulman and Weir seem to have had in mind a substantial movie. They ended
up making Goodbye, Mr. Chips Meets Revenge of the Nerds.
Reprinted from the June 12, 1989 issue (No. 23) of PEOPLE Weekly Magazine
by special permission;
© 1989, Time Inc.
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