No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.

I finally watched a cult classic I always expected to love, Dead Poets Society.

I have been seeing screencaps and gifs of the movie floating around for years, so I (thought I) knew what I was in for. A straightforward and simple movie romanticizing the idea of beauty, love and romance, in some ways, an embodiment of some of my core beliefs. Boy, oh boy was I wrong (positive).

A passionate life is a life worth living. Passion is what perhaps has made us capable of doing the extraordinary things we’ve been able to that no other species has. I strongly believe we’re far more capable of doing extraordinary things than we envision ourselves and it’s all because of our passion for said things.

The movie also has a strong emphasis on individuality, and condemns conformity, which is arguably an evolutionary instinct. We’ve evolved at such rapid pace precisely because of our herd mentality, it takes a village to raise a child. The movie posits that as nothing more than conditioning. We’re not born to just be a cog in the machine that is mankind, or perhaps we are. But if we’re passionate about something, if we’re able to find beauty in our ‘suffering’, we’d make art.

Brief spoiler alert, but I definitely did not know how dark the movie eventually ends up. It’s certainly harrowing, but I do find some joy in knowing Neil did get to live his passion before the step he took, ever so briefly. It’s certainly a sad ending, Keating is wrongly blamed for Neil’s death, fired and the system moves on, sticking to its routine… except, the kids rebel. They acknowledge Keating, recognize the impact he’d had on them and I personally hope, vow to live passionate lives.

This is what we all live for, passion, beauty, love.

You can feel the passion and love that has gone into making Dead Poets Society, which is certainly a thing of beauty.

The three things the movie portrays, through its subplots are: beauty (poetry and the revived dead poets’ society; leading to more passionate, rebellious lives of the kids), love (Overstreet’s obsession with Chris) and passion (Neil’s acting). Something to write more deeply about, someday.

The most intriguing part of it all to me, something that I don’t fully resonate with, is perhaps poetry being at the core. Perhaps it’s just an indication of the times, or how language has evolved, but I certainly don’t appreciate poetry too much. I’ve perhaps not even tried to. Perhaps, this is my fiction prose passion speaking. I should try reading some more poetry.