First Time Watching DEAD POETS SOCIETY (1989) β Movie Reaction | An Emotional Deep Dive
Added 2025-09-05 15:35:12 +0000 UTCHey everyone! π Just a heads-up β I had to do some editing with blurs and audio tweaks to avoid copyright, so thanks for sticking with me! I hope youβre enjoying it. π
The full extended cut of my Dead Poets Society reaction (nearly 3 hours!) is available exclusively for Club Tropicana members on Patreon.
Donβt forget my Reflect With Me series, also exclusive for Comrade and Club Tropicana Patreons, where we dive even deeper into the movie. You can also grab the Reflect With Me journals at Kimβs Place β choose Light or Dark. Bonus: Comrade and Club Tropicana Patreon members get the Light journal for free! ποΈβ¨
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/kimellendale
Journals: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/atkimsplace
π¬ Question for you: Which character from Dead Poets Society stayed with you the most, and why? Iβd love to hear your thoughts!
Comments
I deepdive more into everything in the upcoming reflect with me. I think youβll like that too. I agree about Todd. It was incredibly impressive and admirable that he was the one to speak up for Me. Keating. I was really touched by that.
Kimberly Ellendale
2025-09-06 11:54:12 +0000 UTCI'm so glad you stood upon your desk and reacted to this movie you wanted to watch instead of just going with the flow. This is a good video too to try to start your own movie club. It's a very different direction from most channels, you're right, but to reference Knox Overstreet, the point is that you're doing it. I hope it works out for you. Todd Anderson is my character. The sneaky protagonist of the movie. Neal fails at the pass. He decides not to live when it gets difficult. He could have tried to wait it out; he could have run away and tried to live his life on his own terms. The other Dead Poets (minus Cameron, who was only ever conforming, in his case to his friend group) internalized the "carpe diem" message much better. It was also easier for everyone but Charlie (Nuwanda), who was the only one to outright refuse to sign the paper blaming Keating for Neal's death and subsequently be expelled right from the jump. Knox persevered and verbalized his feelings and wooed his woman; Pitts and Meeks were nerdy innovators seeking their party no matter the disapproval. Neal tried to seize the day and live life on his own terms. His monsters just seemed too big at the end, and he gave up. Todd, however, has CRIPPLING social anxiety. He stammers, he is terrified of public speaking, he is diving more deeply into what Keating is saying than anybody else (writing in his notebook what Keating said on day one, multiple drafts of his original poetry where he has thought deeply about his subject), but he would rather stay on the sidelines than feel less-than on the public stage (and implicitly, he feels less-than all the time already; his brother was all that, and his parents don't even think about him). He overcomes what amounts to an actual phobia to not only speak aloud but to lead others in civic protest, even though it will cost him his place at the school. Todd at the end of the movie is performing an act of heroism, all the more heroic because heroism does not come naturally to him. It always does to people like Nuwanda, who revel in the glory and the controversy and wear their pain like badges of honor. Nuwanda is Achilles at Troy, who took up his weapons joyfully even knowing he would die, so long as he died in glory. Todd might be Odysseus or Hector, someone who never even wanted to fight in the first place but when pushed to it became amazing. I LOVE Todd. This is one of my favorite movies of all time. Not only that, it is one of the movies that I think is so in tune with who I am as a person that knowing it is one of my favorite movies can help someone understand me. I loved your analysis. Thank you for watching.
Hallie Raymond
2025-09-05 23:11:53 +0000 UTC
