Dead Poets Society

Dead Poets Society

Scene where Knox Overstreet is on the telephone to Kris.

Knox Overstreet played a fair part in the film Dead Poets Society. One particular scene that Knox was in was the phone conversation with the girl he loves, Kris.

The scene starts with Knox at the telephone. The camera closes in on his face and his fingers dialling the telephone. The camera stays on his face as the phone rings and awaits a pick up. When Kris picks up the phone, Konx's facial expression changes from one of ambition to one of much nervousness. The camera swings to show Knox's hand as he promptly hangs up the phone. Next, the camera swings around from Knox to his friends. This medium close-up shows the disappointment on all their faces and that expression makes Knox ring once more.

This time, the camera angles are the same and Knox goes through with the phone call all the way.

While he is talking, the camera is focused on his face and hand holding the phone to his ear. When Knox hears the news that he has been invited to go to a party with the girl of his dreams, his face lights up and he cant help but smile. Still with the same angle, the camera swings around to show the faces of his friends as he tells them his news. Their facial expressions as showed by the camera are delightful and happy ones. This makes Knox even more happy.

The scene ends with a close up of Knox hanging up the phone and then a high level shot of him running up the stairs.

Scene where Mr Keating tell the class to come up and stand on the desk.

To start this scene camera view as seen through Mr Keating's eyes shows the whole class sitting quietly. He tells the class to come up and stand on the desk and he does it himself. A high angle shot show Mr Keating standing on the desk and looking around. We then see a low angle view of the whole class. This shot shows that the class is reluctant to go up as it is not normal procedure.

You can tell that they are all used to a strict almost boring class and that is why they are slow to try out Mr Keatings new methods.

As each student goes up we see a high angle shot of them and then a shot of Mr Keatings face as he tells the boys to think differentl...

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...d to Mr Keating about him telling his father. Neil would rather lie to a teacher than tell his father. That is sad and in my opinion that is the saddest thing apart from his death.

When Mr Perry enters the theatre during the play and Neil sees him, that change in the facial expression shows us that Neil is scared, but determined to complete the play.

After the play when Neil is taken home, low angled camera shots give the impression of Neil being lesser of a person than his father. He seems to be small, weak and powerless against his father. He is unable to stand up against his father and when he eventually tries he is left speechless and his facial expression "helpless", it was as if he had given up altogether and after watching the movie we know he has given up.

The end of Neil's sad life begins with Neil carrying out an almost

"spiritual" ceremony and we see him treasuring the crown of thorns he wore in the play.

To me, the director made Neil powerless against his father and that is why I have sympathy for him.