Last fall, my second year of college English was based on the movies instead of classic literature. The textbook dealt with cinematic elements (lighting, sound, camera position, etc) as the tools filmmakers use to tell their story beyond mere dialog. The assignments involved watching clips of film, determining what the filmmaker was saying by his use of those elements, then writing full-bodied essays based on our assessments.
One of the film clips we saw was from Dead Poet's Society. The clip is about seven or eight minutes long. It comes near the beginning of the film, when there is a flock of birds shown, and goes to the point where the class of boys stands in front of the trophy case. What follows is the essay I wrote for that clip.
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Time Flies - Seize the Day
Time flies. As the warmth of summer yields to the cold of winter, human beings are on an inescapable path to the grave. Since that is so then we must make the most of the time we have been given. This is one of the central themes of Dead Poets Society, a film directed by Peter Weir and starring Robin Williams as English teacher John Keating who uses unconventional methods to teach his students a love of poetry and a zest for life at the prestigious and ultra conservative Helton Academy, "the best prep school in America." With dialog, camera shots and sound Dead Poets Society reminds us of the brevity of life and the need to make the most of the short time we have.
First, it's with dialog that the clip makes its point clear. Keating leads the group in a brief discussion of a poem. The meaning of the words, "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may/Old time is still a-flying/And this same flower that smiles today/Tomorrow will be dying" are unambiguous. As a stand-in for the more dim-witted of us, however, one of the students offers the view that the poet was "in a hurry." Having a total lack of consciousness for the presence of death in their midst, the students reveal that they have missed the point. Perhaps we have, too. Correcting him, Keating drives home the movie's central theme: "We are food for worms, Lads. Because, believe it or not, each one of us in this room is one day going to stop breathing, turn cold and die." The thrust of the poet's words are as plain and unyielding as death itself. Finally, as the clip ends, he solemnly repeats for emphasis, "Carpe... carpe... carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary." Time is passing. There is not a single day to waste. Underscoring this dialog is the visual images captured by the artful use of camera shots.
The beginning of the clip uses a subtle view of a clock to symbolize the passage of time as it tolls the end of another day. Displaying a clock to denote the passage of time is cliché, yet here the director uses a shot from a low angle, forcing us to acknowledge Time's mastery over us. We look up to it. We can't accomplish anything without it. Seen from a ground-level perspective, we feel our smallness, our insignificance in comparison. The impressive size and weight of the clock tower demonstrates that Time itself is our master, constantly impacting our every move.
Later, a high shot further minimizes the individual importance of the students as it records the group as they quietly file into a foyer, almost encircling the disturbing placement of a closed casket that occupies the most significant part of the frame--"dead" center. Incredibly, this tangible symbol of the grave and Death itself, so obviously out of place, might as well be non-existent. They are scarcely aware of either's presence, being too young and vibrant to give death or the coffin a moment's reflection, betraying their disregard for death's reality. Why think about death? Their attention is fixed on Mr. Keating and today's schooling that is as hand. Yet we cannot help but notice the coffin as it dominates the center of the foyer. It's as if Death is a character on the screen, present and accounted for, speaking lines of dialog. If not before then surely now we are forced to consider one of the movie's major themes--the transience of life and the ever-present, unrelenting call of the grave.
The scene moves to its powerful climax. Keating directs the group to a trophy case that proudly displays emblems of past athletic achievement and glory and photos of former students of a bygone era. The boys in the picture do indeed eerily resemble the living, and we can be sure that Keating's words of the hopes and dreams they once entertained is also true. But as the living boys have something in common with the dead, the dead also have something the living will also unavoidably share one day--the quiet inactivity of the grave. The camera superimposes their reflection with the items inside the glass, visually uniting the two groups. They are one and the same. Seconds later, this metaphysical merge is reinforced by a haunting camera angle from within the trophy case, with its contents overlaid against the image of the boys outside it. In a tight close-up, the boys, facing the camera and us, lean in. They cock their ears as they strain to hear us. From inside the trophy case, we are dead, too, sharing the space of the boys in the photo, and the living boys get close so as to hear our legacy, the same as that of the boys, spoken by Keating: be busy about living.
Lastly, it is with sound that the film makes its point unmistakable. The clip opens with the "Gong... Gong... Gong..." of a steeple clock. Time is passing. The end of another day has come. It's the fall of the year, and a chill can almost be felt in the austere autumn scene as another year is coming to a close. The screen fills with the flapping of countless wings as a tremendous flock of birds take flight. They call to each other as they gather to migrate south for the winter. The sounds of the innumerable birds gradually builds, filling the screen with their honking sounds. It is a time of change.
As the calls of the birds fade out, unintelligible conversations fade in. We see a countless group of students moving down a spiral staircase, "flocking," as it were, like birds. Their collective, rhythmic conversations, commingling as they move from one class to the next, perfectly mimics the calls of the birds seen at the beginning of the clip. The blending of the two similar sounds--the cawking flock of birds with the din of the students as they move--suggests that as the birds are in a physical transition the metaphysical journey of the anonymous group of noisy students is about to take place. Change is in the air.
As the clip ends the lack of sound is used to poignant affect--a sound unto itself. Keating speaks in a low, raspy voice, the kind of voice one might expect to hear emanating from the grave. His voice is the only sound we hear. His words are the legacy the former students might offer if they could: "One day you'll be dead, too. Use your time wisely." The last ten seconds of the scene is "deathly" quiet. The oxymoronic sound of silence is deafening. We are forced to think about the words for what seems to be, like death, an excruciatingly long period of time. The silence is heavy and begins to overwhelm as the scene closes. The metaphoric silence transports us to the stillness of death itself.
This clip serves as an effective thesis for Dead Poets Society and as a worthy moral by which to live. Dialog, camera shots and sound are skillfully blended to remind us that life is far from permanent, and even if we fortunately escape untimely, accidental death, the inexorable passing of time will eventually bring all of us to our end. Couching this maxim in the context of a school setting is very effective, for it's when we are youngsters at school that life is at its cheapest and we take life as for granted as the clean air we breathe and the clear water we drink. We are seduced with the belief that life is endless. This movie clip reminds us otherwise.