Editing Dead Poets Society (section)

===Critical response===
{{Unbalanced|section|date=March 2025}}
On [[review aggregator]] [[Rotten Tomatoes]], ''Dead Poets Society'' holds an approval rating of 85%, based on 65 reviews, with an average score of 7.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Affecting performances from the young cast and a genuinely inspirational turn from Robin Williams grant Peter Weir's prep school drama top honors".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dead_poets_society|title=Dead Poets Society Movie Reviews, Pictures |access-date=September 16, 2024|website=[[Rotten Tomatoes]]|archive-date=April 12, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412085753/https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dead_poets_society|url-status=live}}</ref> On [[Metacritic]], the film received a score of 79, based on 15 reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.metacritic.com/movie/dead-poets-society|title=Dead Poets Society reviews |access-date=January 25, 2010|website=[[Metacritic]]|archive-date=April 28, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140428025200/http://www.metacritic.com/movie/dead-poets-society|url-status=live}}</ref> Audiences polled by [[CinemaScore]] gave the film a rare "A+" grade on a scale of A+ to F.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/why-cinemascore-matters-box-office-225563|title=Why CinemaScore Matters for Box Office|website=The Hollywood Reporter|date=August 19, 2011|language=en|access-date=March 2, 2020|archive-date=April 26, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140426043610/http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/why-cinemascore-matters-box-office-225563|url-status=live}}</ref>

''[[The Washington Post]]''{{'}}s reviewer called it "solid, smart entertainment", and praised Robin Williams for giving a "nicely restrained acting performance".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/deadpoetssocietypghowe_a0b21e.htm|title='Dead Poets Society'|last=Howe|first=Desson|date=June 9, 1989|access-date=October 17, 2010|newspaper=The Washington Post|archive-date=October 10, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081010121428/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/deadpoetssocietypghowe_a0b21e.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Vincent Canby]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' also praised Williams' "exceptionally fine performance", while writing that "''Dead Poets Society''... is far less about Keating than about a handful of impressionable boys".<ref name="canby" />

[[Pauline Kael]] was unconvinced about the film and its "middlebrow highmindedness", but praised Williams. "Robin Williams' performance is more graceful than anything he's done before [–] he's totally, concentratedly there – [he] reads his lines stunningly, and when he mimics various actors reciting [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]] there's no undue clowning in it; he's a gifted teacher demonstrating his skills."<ref>Pauline Kael, Movie Love, pp. 153–157, reprinted from review that appeared in ''[[The New Yorker]]'', June 26, 1989</ref> [[Roger Ebert]]'s review for the ''[[Chicago Sun-Times]]'' gave the film two stars out of four. He criticized Williams for spoiling an otherwise creditable dramatic performance by occasionally veering into his onstage comedian's persona, and lamented that for a film set in the 1950s, there was no mention of the [[Beat Generation]] writers popular among college students of the era. Additionally, Ebert described the film as an often poorly constructed "collection of pious platitudes.... The movie pays lip service to qualities and values that, on the evidence of the screenplay itself, it is cheerfully willing to abandon."<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/dead-poets-society-1989 | title=Dead Poets Society | last=Ebert | first=Roger | date=June 9, 1989 | access-date=July 28, 2020 | archive-date=July 16, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200716062934/https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/dead-poets-society-1989 | url-status=live }}</ref>

On their Oscar-nomination edition of ''[[At the Movies (1986 TV program)|Siskel & Ebert]]'', both [[Gene Siskel]] (who also gave the film a mixed review) and Ebert disagreed with Williams' Oscar nomination. Ebert said that he would have swapped Williams with either [[Matt Dillon]] for ''[[Drugstore Cowboy]]'' or [[John Cusack]] for ''[[Say Anything...|Say Anything]]''.<ref>{{cite episode|title=Oscar Nomination Surprises for 1990 |series=[[At the Movies (1986 TV program)|Siskel & Ebert]] |season=4 |number=22 |date=February 17, 1990 |network=Buena Vista Television |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n76p4ZZxHRg |access-date=February 24, 2023}}</ref> On their ''If We Picked the Winners'' special in March 1990, Ebert chose the film's Best Picture nomination as the worst nomination of the year, believing that it took a slot that could have gone to [[Spike Lee]]'s ''[[Do the Right Thing]]''.<ref>{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INXYmuAoZQE |title=Siskel & Ebert: If We Picked The Winners |date=March 24, 1990 |access-date=February 24, 2023}}</ref> Film historian [[Leonard Maltin]] wrote: "Well made, extremely well acted, but also dramatically obvious and melodramatically one-sided. Nevertheless, Tom Schulman's screenplay won an Oscar."<ref name="Maltin 2008 p. 328">{{cite book |last=Maltin |first=Leonard |title=Leonard Maltin's 2009 Movie Guide |publisher=Plume/Penguin |publication-place=New York |year=2008 |isbn=9780452289789 |oclc=183268110 |page=328 |url={{Google books |id=6EgPDierNGUC |page=328 |plainurl=yes}}}}</ref>

[[John Simon (critic)|John Simon]], writing for ''[[National Review]]'', said that ''Dead Poets Society'' was the most dishonest film that he had seen in some time.<ref>{{cite book |title=John Simon on Film: Criticism 1982–2001|last1=Simon|first1=John |publisher=Applause Books |year=2005 |page=225}}</ref> [[Richard Schickel]] reviewed the film for [[Time (magazine)|''Time'']], commenting: "Williams, who has comparatively little screen time, has come to act, not to cut comic riffs, and he does so with forceful, ultimately compelling, simplicity."<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Schickel |first=Richard |date=1989-06-05 |title=Cinema: A Bothered School Spirit |url=https://time.com/archive/6702701/cinema-a-bothered-school-spirit/ |access-date=2024-09-30 |magazine=TIME |language=en}}</ref> [[Kevin Dettmar]] wrote in ''[[The Atlantic]]'': "The beloved film's portrayal of studying literature is both misleading and deeply seductive." He commented further on how literature was taught in the film (by Robin Williams's character John Keating), describing it as "the literary equivalent of [[fandom]]," and "anti-intellectual."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dettmar |first=Kevin |date=2014-02-19 |title='Dead Poets Society' Is a Terrible Defense of the Humanities |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/02/-em-dead-poets-society-em-is-a-terrible-defense-of-the-humanities/283853/ |access-date=2024-10-01 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}}</ref>