If you're a fan of Dead Poets Society (or RSL)...

[sassyjumper]

Yesterday I read a blog post about Skyfall (the BF wants to see it), and stumbled across another called "In Defense of Dead Poets Society." It's mainly about RSL and his character Neil Perry. ETA: There are mammoth spoilers, if you haven't seen the film

Comments

[rslhilson]

I remember reading this from a rec on tumblr not too long ago and really liked it. Glad you posted it here! (I'm actually writing a paper on DPS so I have to re-watch it next weekend. Purely for academic purposes, of course).

[sassyjumper]

Oh, you are? Sweet. I wish I'd thought to write about DPS when I was in college ;) Of course, the ending traumatized me so much when I saw it in high school English class, I probably wouldn't have wanted to revisit it :o

I was surprised the writer of this felt so confident that Neil was gay. It's been years since I've seen DPS, but I don't remember having that impression when I saw it. It's entirely possible, though.

[rslhilson]

I first saw DPS at the height of my Hilson fandom when I was looking for everything RSL and constantly had my slash goggles on, so it was easy for me to get on board the Neil/Todd ship. But I agree, it'd be hard for me to say with such confidence that he was actually a gay character beyond any fandom fantasies (though the possibility is indeed open).

[srsly_yes]

Chiming in to say I never picked up on Neil being gay, and the last time I saw it was about a year ago. Stanley Tucci, Ian Holm, and Mickey Rooney had played Puck in film adaptations of Midsummer's Night Dream and no one raised an eyebrow.

However it's hard to be certain. I heard Peter Weir was open to changing scenes. I'm not sure if he or the actors had that agenda in mind or not. Also, back in the 80s and early 90s because of the AIDS epidemic, openly gay characters were getting pushed back into the closet again. For instance, in Dying Young, 1991, the main character had cancer but the critics pointed out it was a euphemism for AIDS. There were several films like this at the time where you needed to squint to get the subtext.

[menolly_au]

Maybe it was that Neil's father *thought* he was gay when he saw that scene, rather than Neil was being played gay? I can see someone like whatever-his-name-was assuming that guy dressed up in tights and acting must be gay and then freaks out and sends him to military school. I didn't think that when I saw the movie though, but then I was far more interested in Todd anyway (sorry, RSL :)

God, the end of that movie was devastating....

[sassyjumper]

Yeah, it makes sense that for a dad like that (especially of that era), having a son be interested in the arts at all could set off the "oh no, gay!" response.

Through most of the film, I was way more interested in Todd, too! When I saw this (in high school), I was more Todd-like than Neil-like, for sure. But toward the end, Neil grabbed more of my attention -- to me, no one does "almost-crying" like RSL ;)

[discofunction]

Wow thats really interesting! DPS is one of my most favourite films of all time and I have watched it many times but it has never occured to me that Neil is gay! But i think the writer makes a good point and it's certainly a plausible. I always felt that his dad was so against the theatre thing because they weren't a rich family and he desperately worked hard to get Neil the best education and wanted him to work towards a "proper" job. I always felt the Neil's suicide was shocking though-in that there wasn't any indication of it, but put that down to Neil's character-he was either very up or very down and I think he just couldn't see past the idea of being stuck at military school

[sassyjumper]

That whole movie was beautifully shot, I think. But yes, the snow falling/todd breakdown scene was really lovely.

I think one of the criticisms of this movie is that Neil's suicide comes out of nowhere, and the filmmakers used it as a cheap emotional stunt. I don't feel that way. Suicide can come out of (seemingly) nowhere, especially teenagers who think a bad situation will never end. Unfortunately, I've known a couple people who committed suicide, to the shock of everyone. There was no one who later said, "Oh yeah, there were signs."

[discofunction]

Yes the film does get critised for that and I absolutely agree, suicide is more often a shock. I was once watching a documentary about emergency services and somebody said the people who claim to be or appear suicidle, it's usually just a cry for help whereas the people who do actually commit suicide just do it without anyone really knowing they were feeling that way.

[discofunction]

There's a new article with RSL (it has been posted on RSL daily) that made me think of this thread!!! I thought I would share the quote here:

"In 1989, Leonard made a big splash in the film "Dead Poet’s Society" as Neil Perry, a young man who wanted nothing more than to act, much to the horror of his staunch father. His performance as the teenaged prep school student, who was schooled by Robin Williams, was filled with pathos that was definitely relatable to a gay audience-especially the relationship between his character and Ethan Hawke’s Todd Anderson.

"I’ve always seen the validity in it [the gay subtext], but it’s complicated subject matter," he said. "It’s a bigger subject; it’s a boy who falls in love with something impossible to attain. You can watch it and have it affect you, as we all have our struggles. I’m sure if Tom Schulman and Peter Weir wanted it to be a movie about homosexuality, they would have done a great job with it," Leonard stated. "To me it’s all the same, it’s just love."

[sassyjumper]

Aww, I like what he says here. Love has many, many forms, indeed.

Thanks for sharing :)