Heh

Feb 20, 2014 06:05

For anyone who's interested, there's an article in The Atlantic about how bad Dead Poets Society is (I disagree) ... What amused me is that the author says he hates DPS for the same reasons his wife hates House, M.D. (not RSL - but the writer does pan his acting on House. The bastard.) Leave a comment

Comments 12

menolly_au February 20 2014, 11:32:07 UTC
Wow - he really didn't like the movie did he :)

I didn't care about the poetry. Todd's journey in that film was the thing that spoke to me.

I think though, that anyone who is in a profession would probably find films/tv about it frustrating. Yes, it must be really hard to watch House if you are actually a doctor because of all the things they got wrong/dramatic license. Same for cops and lawyers I would imagine.

But I will take my love of inspirational teaching movies to my grave with me :) so there :)

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sassyjumper February 20 2014, 16:05:31 UTC
Todd's journey in that film was the thing that spoke to me.

Me, too. I saw DPS in the 90s, when my high school English teacher showed it to us, so yeah I was seeing it from a teenage girl perspective (OMG, cute boys! Reading poetry! *swoon*). But even then, it was obvious to me the film was not about scholarly poetry analysis. I mean, duh.

I LOVE inspirational teacher movies -- I don't care how hokey they are. :)

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discofunction February 20 2014, 16:26:56 UTC
I love inspirational teacher movies too! And he didn't inspire them through his knowledge of poetry-he inspired them to be individuals and to well...seize the day!! I love Mr Keating, he's just like my dad! Lol

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yarroway February 20 2014, 12:02:04 UTC
Any professional will find media depictions of their field lacking, at best. Cry me a river.

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sassyjumper February 20 2014, 16:07:15 UTC
EXACTLY. It's really a dumb essay, TBH. I mainly posted it b/c it references DPS and House :)

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discofunction February 20 2014, 16:23:54 UTC
Meh... This is a really stupid essay! I mean if he's as important and knowledgable as he likes to think he is, hasn't he got anything better to write about! DPS isn't about poetry. It's about the characters individual stories.

As for his wife being annoyed with House...you have to expect artistic license in TV shows/movies. If it completely represented real life- there would be no drama or excitement each week! It's entertainment- it never claimed to show you what working in medicine is really like!

Again...meh!

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sassyjumper February 20 2014, 20:22:30 UTC
Meh, indeed. The thing about the Atlantic website is, there are some really interesting articles, but also a lot of self-indulgent, "here's why I don't like this" essays.

There were a few instances on House where I actually got pissed off at how bad the medicine was, but only in cases where it was important to the story/characters -- like insane chronic-pain management, and giving a main character a very curable cancer that is somehow untreatable after a round of couch chemo. Y'know, stuff like that :)

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blackmare February 21 2014, 03:57:42 UTC
There were many, many writing decisions in House that annoyed me, but RSL's acting was never anything but an attraction.

And with that said, I'm gonna skip the annoying article by annoying guy. :-D

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barefootpuddles February 21 2014, 04:33:24 UTC
Did he really think a movie about literary criticism for high schoolers was gonna sell? Besides, I agree believe that a teacher who manages to light a fire for poetry in teenage boy has done his job. Maybe only a few of those will go one to study poetry on the graduate school level, but at least the rest will enjoy it, and perhaps even not vote for funding cuts to the arts later on in life.

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sassyjumper February 23 2014, 02:11:47 UTC
but at least the rest will enjoy it, and perhaps even not vote for funding cuts to the arts later on in life.

Good point :)

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flywoman February 22 2014, 16:18:41 UTC
I freaking love Ethan Hawke's acting in this movie. Does the author even realize that both boys were playing each other's personalities to a large degree? And I agree with other commenters that one simply can't expect films, or even high school teachers, to do justice to academic scholarship. Even if some of the examples seemed silly, the points Keating tried to make - to engage directly with art and life, to forge your own path - are exactly what the great poets teach us.

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sassyjumper February 23 2014, 02:14:40 UTC
I freaking love Ethan Hawke's acting in this movie.

I did, too. I thought he did a great job portraying painful awkwardness. But this author doesn't seem to be able to judge acting skills ... or grasp the point of movies and TV.

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