Carpe Diem

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

25 Years! It's been 25 years since Dead Poets Society was released in theaters. Actually, I'm a little overdue with this post. Dead Poets Society made its official theatrical debut on 9 June 1989. I was just about to finish my junior year in high school when I went to see this movie. This is the movie that made me fall in love with New England (even though it was filmed in Delaware. Is Delaware even considered part of New England?). I already loved prep school literature having read A Separate Peace in my sophomore year. I wanted Mr. Keating to teach at my high school. I wanted to be inspired like that. Those boys got an adventure in their English class and I craved that adventure into words too. I will always remember the film's tag line:
                       He was their inspiration. He made their lives extraordinary.

I still watch DPS almost every year and I still find it very poignant even though, now that I'm 25 years older, I see some minor flaws in its theme and it's unnecessarily tragic and yet, Dead Poets Society still ranks in my top ten favorite movies. I am, however, still very disappointed to this day that DPS wasn't based on an actual novel. I was given a novelization of the screenplay as a consolation, but that only made me more disappointed that there was no novel to go read to experience the whole story all over again.

                               Well, it's time to seize the day and watch it again!

O, Captain! My Captain!